EP 80: Doing Wholes is Better Than Pieces - Ruben Nelson

Ruben Nelson is based in Calgary, Canada. He says that he has built his Canadian futures community over fifty years. He believes that modernity is now spectacularly failing us, it could even eliminate humanity, and yet he believes that a paradigmatic change is both necessary and possible. He epitomises Hope that lies on the other side of despair. Truthfulness, Authenticity, Honesty, Courage and Data are all wrapped up in the first noticing of change and then supporting the changes that are needed.

For over forty years, Ruben Nelson has offered futures-oriented strategic advice to Cabinet Ministers, Board Members and senior executives in every sector of Canadian society. He challenges those with whom he works not only to raise their game, but to learn to see, embrace and cooperate with the long transformation we are engaged with.  His vision of an emerging Co-creative civilization offers a basis for the hope that lies the other side of despair.

Ruben has written extensively on a wide range of topics, including civilizational paradigm change, and strategic foresight 2.0 as the new cognitive work of leadership. Ruben is a graduate of Queen’s University and Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Canada. He has also taught at Queen’s University and the University of Calgary. Ruben Is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Business Academy.

Interviewed by: Peter Hayward

More about Ruben

• Linkedin: Ruben Nelson

• Biography

Ruben Nelson on You Tube

• Living with a Post-Despair Hope

• Some Reflections on a Missing Question

•   Exploring Civilizational Overshoot

• Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us?

Some of Ruben Nelson’s writing

• The Illusions of Urban Man (2nd Edition, 1980)

• ‘Knowledge Economy’ Just What Does it Mean? (2001)

• The Interplay of Technology, Consciousness and Culture:  Implications for Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (2004)

• Implications for our Practice of FTA if the 20th Century Revolution in Ontology and Epistemology (2006)

• Whither Democracy? Reflections on the Prospects of Democracy in the 21st Century (2006)

• Extending foresight: The case for and nature of Foresight 2.0 (2010)

• Surprises Ahead: What Will Be Special About the 21st Century? Why Do We Now Need Boundary-Crossing Research? (2010)

• New Maps for New Times:  A Fresh Look at Persons and Communities (2011)

• Adelaide’s Lament: Exploring Our Inability to make Reliable Sense of Our Situation (2012)

• Civilizational Paradigm Change:  The Modern Industrial Case (2014)

Some of Ruben Nelson’s Favorite Books

• The Self as Agent, John Macmurray. Faber and Faber, London, 1957.

• Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek, Thorlief Boman. Westminster Press, Philadelphia

• Persons in Relation, John Macmurray. Faber and Faber, London, 1961.

• The Social Construction of Reality:  A Treatise on the Sociology of Knowledge, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann.  Doubleday, New York, 1966.

• Human Understanding: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts, Stephen Toulmin. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1972.

• The Secular Scripture:  A Study of the Structure of Romance, Northrop Frye.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1976