Mapping an Ecology of Integrative Approaches to Addressing the MetaCrisis

Brandon Nørgaard, Nicholas Hedlund, PhD, Claudia Meglin

We live in a world marked by a multitude of deep and overlapping global crises. Since 2015, the notion of the metacrisis (Hedlund et al., 2016) seems to have caught on within the so-called ‘liminal web’ scene and adjacent communities of integrative thought and practice, resonating with the zeitgeist as a more adequate way of understanding our crisis-ridden world. The metacrisis refers to the deep and complexly interrelated global crises—eco-social, ethical, epistemic (sensemaking), existential (meaning-making)—and their underlying network of root causes (Hedlund, 2021). This paper explores the variety of integrative approaches to understanding and responding to the metacrisis notion across integrative/liminal circles, emphasizing the relative epistemic adequacy of these approaches vis-à-vis modern and postmodern approaches. The paper deploys a metatheoretical methodology to provisionally identify the underlying architectonic lens of each integrative approach to the metacrisis by visually mapping an ecology of such approaches. Although modern and postmodern approaches tend to inadequately conceptualize the complexity of the metacrisis due to underlying cognitive-epistemic constraints, communities across various levels of development and cultural code have formulated valid, if partial, approaches to addressing this phenomenon. While these relatively simplistic approaches are considered, in this paper we primarily focus on the mapping an ecology of various integrative approaches to the metacrisis, highlighting the ways in which these more complex approaches are uniquely positioned to help address the metacrisis and embolden the possibilities of actualizing a trajectory of hope towards a protopian society. We argue that understanding these diverse approaches as an ecology holds great potential for their cross-pollination, theoretical development, synthesis, and collaboration—in praxis— amongst the various schools of thought and (micro-)cultural scenes. We conclude by arguing that any semblance of an anything approaching an adequate integrative response to the metacrisis—which is to say, a meta-systemic paradigm shift across all sectors of the sociosphere—would only come through an enhanced mutual understanding, cross-pollination, and strategic coordination among communities of integrative thought and practice, including that of metamodernism, integral theory, and game B. 

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