3)The Nature of the World's Integration

The Nature of the World's Integration and a Tool for the Measurement of Sustainability in Systems

Copyright © 2016 Marina P. Bonser, Ph.D.

The integration of the world is the core process of a new period in the evolution of civilization. The quality of integration in a system defines the quality of sustainability in a systems' development. Levels of integration match levels in the Global Thinking Scale which is used for the measurement of the complexity of thinking, a degree of integration of thinking methods into a system, the one united "thinking toolkit" which is Global Systems Thinking. This scale can be also used for measuring the integration of a system as well as for measuring its sustainability.

The 21^st century started the new era of multilevel and multi speed world's integration. Different parts of human life and culture around the globe which were developing separately and were not connected before are becoming parts of different systems across cultures and technologies. Globalization is followed by the world's integration which leads towards sustainable development. Different groups and organizations connected into worldwide networks, multicultural populations of many countries, multidisciplinary research and educational programs, integration of manmade environments into natural environments, etc. are examples of world's integration. The reflections of upcoming integration can be found in different aspects of culture and spirituality around the world as well as in different philosophical concepts of evolution developed during the whole history of human civilization. German Hesse's book "Glass Bead Game", astrological "Aquarian Age", and "Philosophy of Cosmicism" represented by many philosophers in the 19th century are the best well known examples.

Integration is not just a mixture of different things put together. Integration means that every component is harmoniously blended into a system, so the system has a harmonic structure where all parts of it compliment each other and help each other and the whole system to evolve. Without such a structure a system cannot function as a whole united organism. Occasional disharmonies and issues still can occur in well integrated system but they don't matter in its overall functioning. A recipe for a good soup makes successful integration of all its ingredients. A planted tree integrated into a new environment successfully if it survives does well enough, and won't destroy other parts of the surrounding ecosystem. A successful surgery of transplanting an organ into a human body can be called integration only up to a certain point because even if a patient is still alive and transplanted organ functions well, the patient still cannot sustain the whole functioning of his/her organism without taking anti-rejection medication for the rest of his/her life. A transplanted organ is not integrated into his/her body on deeper tissue levels like the natural one. So the quality of integration of parts into a whole system can be verified by a degree of success in the functioning of a system as a whole. If one part of the system is not functioning well it affects the quality of functioning of other parts of the system and decreases its effectiveness. The successful functioning of a system in the long run, internal and external, within its sub-systems, which means parts of this system and their connections, and super-systems which means surrounding systems and its connections, determines if the development of this system is sustainable. So the result of the proper integration is Sustainable Development, the development of a system which doesn't destroy its surroundings and sources of life.

Integration can be defined as a process of harmoniously blending of certain components into a system, where those components become interrelated with all other components of the system, they complement each other, and assembled system is able to successfully function as a whole.

The era of integration in the world is a new period in the development of human civilization driven by industry and technology. Science progress changed the living environment of mankind, and other aspects of life circulation followed. In my articles: "Science in Processes of World's Integration"(2016) and "Periods in the Development of Education System" (2003) shown how changes in the development of science (and education as a “mirror" of science) came with the development of industry which changed human life. Science, as well as education as its natural extension, was holistic before the industrial period. All scientific knowledge could be placed in one educational program. The growing amount of knowledge made it impossible for science to be holistic any more, and it began to branch out, along with the industrial period of humanity's development into separate sciences like math, physics, chemistry, biology, and later into separate fields within those sciences. The postindustrial informational period started to develop connections, bridges between those branches, and science began to become holistic again, but at a new level, integrated from different fields. It is still not possible to fit all scientific knowledge into one educational program but it is possible to build a map of those connections with potential access to any particular knowledge within any field. Integration in science and in education caused integration in technology and engineering, and integration in other aspects of the potential enhancement of human life follow.

The development of science as well as of any other fields and aspects of civilization and culture can be illustrated by the following picture:

• 1. Science is a whole discipline;

  2. Science is branching out into different sciences; each particular branch is branching out into more specific fields;

  3. Growing system of connections within one science, between different sciences, between science and other ways of the exploration of the world with a potential to fill all gaps in relations of knowledge until science become the whole discipline again, with multi structured relations between all knowledge.

So, integration adds another dimension to the process of development of a certain aspect of human culture or technology via bridging different knowledge between different fields or combining methods and activities in society/community functioning. The development of different networks is a part of the process of integration.

The quality of integration or a degree of integration can be measured by the degree of fulfillment with connections between different parts of the system. Degrees of integration are described in my article: "Worldwide Transdisciplinary Research Laboratory" (2005, translated from Russian in 2016; it can be found in PDF format below) for the levels of integrated approaches in research:

1. Multidisciplinary (MR):

The theoretical basis of research contains theoretical concepts from different disciplines (and maybe some connections between them). The research outcome is based on outcomes from different research fields (and maybe on some connections between them).

2. Interdisciplinary (IR):

The theoretical basis of research contains interrelations of theoretical concepts. The research outcome is based on the development of the interrelations of disciplines involved in research.

3. Transdisciplinary (TR):

The methodological basis of research contains methodological principles from different disciplines (and maybe some of their interrelations). The research outcome is based on theoretical concepts from different disciplines.

4. Metadisciplinary (mR):

The methodological basis of research contains interrelations of methodological principles from different disciplines (which makes any metadisciplinary research philosophical). The research outcome is based on the interrelations of theoretical concepts from different disciplines.

The next level of integration didn't consider any disciplines directly. This type of research could better benefit from communication with experts in philosophical views of different types than with experts in different disciplines.

5. Metaphilosophical research ( mPR ):

The methodological basis of research contains interrelations of methodological bases from different meta disciplinary research works. The research outcome is based on the interrelations of theoretical concepts from different meta disciplinary research works.

These are levels of the integration of research fields. The degree of integration increases from 1 to 5. Each level can be enriched with concepts as quantity units: first to some units, then groups of units, then a spectrum of units to the full level potential which takes research onto the next level of integration; a quantity accumulation turns into a new quality. The dynamics of levels enrichment and transitions to the next levels here are the same as for the Scale for Global Thinking.

So the Global Thinking Scale describes levels of integration of different types of anything within a global system, not just thinking. As the quality of integration indicates the quality of Sustainable Development, The Global Thinking Scale also can be used for measuring degrees of integration and degrees of sustainability in development, and so it can be also called Sustainability Scale. Now we have a measuring tool for sustainable development of any system within the environmental, socioeconomic, and personal psychological contexts at any level from local to global. The scale and the guidelines for using it are described in the section "The Measurement and Development of Global Thinking" in this website. The guidelines for the measurement of sustainability of a system of any type can be developed upon request.

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