Integral frameworks are being used to guide sustainable development communication strategies worldwide. The framework has been applied to Appropriate Communication with a focus on sustainability. Integral approaches have been applied by senior leaders in UNICEF and in the HIV/AIDS group at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Civil society organizations (CSOs) and business consultants on six continents apply it to support organizational and societal transformation toward sustainability.
In essence, the Integral framework seeks to weave together the many threads of human knowledge in an inclusive way. It attends to objective and subjective, and individual and collective, ways of knowing. At the same time, it is sensitive to the development of people and cultures over time and the impact this has on the way individuals and groups perceive the world. This comprehensive, developmentally-aware approach can aid communication by ensuring that messages do not marginalize particular groups and are designed to resonate with the concerns, values, and interests that emerge at different stages of development.
In this brief summary, we provide an overview of the integral quadrants as they can be used in sustainability projects. The quadrants highlight four universal perspectives that should be taken into account when designing sustainability initiatives.
An Integral framework for sustainability communication
Over the course of more than 20 books, some of which have been translated into more than 30 languages, Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute have developed a map of reality that integrates the different ways of knowing that humans have discovered or developed throughout human history. He seeks to include objective and subjective knowledge, individual and collective knowledge, scientific and spiritual knowledge and Eastern and Western knowledge within a coherent framework that finds room for the valuable contributions of all. Numerous theorists and practitioners around the world are applying the Integral framework to diverse areas of practice, from medicine and law, to business and organizational leadership, to politics and sustainability. An Integral Institute and Integral University have been established to coordinate this work.
An all-quadrant approach to sustainability communication
Integral theory contends that reality is composed of holons, or wholes that are parts of other wholes. All holons, from atoms to molecules to humans, have both an objective exterior expression (e.g., body) and some form of subjective interior experience (e.g., feelings). At the same time, all holons are both whole individuals and members of a collective. These twin distinctions between the exterior and interior, and the individual and collective, give rise to four native perspectives, or four universal ways of knowing, represented by the quadrants in the below illustration.
Behavioral quadrant (Upper Right): an exterior perspective on individual holons, revealing the structure and actions of organisms (e.g. humans)
Systems quadrant (Lower Right): an exterior perspective on collective holons, revealing the shared structures and actions of groups and systems (e.g. technological, economic, institutional and ecological systems)
Psychological quadrant (Upper Left): the interior perspective of individual holons, which is the realm of individual mindsets, the self, consciousness, personal experiences, and values
Cultural quadrant (Lower Left): the interior perspective of collective holons, which is the realm of shared values and visions, culture, worldview, and discourse.
The quadrants are not arbitrary theoretical constructs; they are categories or perspectives that emerged from detailed study of hundreds of ways of generating and organizing knowledge. Further, and this is particularly important for communication design, the quadrants are embedded in language as first-, second- and third-person perspectives: “I” for the psychological quadrant, “we/you” for the cultural quadrant, “it/him/her” for the behavioral quadrant and “its/them” for the systemic quadrant.
Integral theory contends that all quadrants should be considered in any comprehensive approach. Otherwise, our explanations are partial and actions based on those explanations are likely to deliver unintended results or marginalize particular perspectives. Consequently, an Integral approach to sustainability communication would, as much as is practically possible, seek to consider and include each of the quadrants in the design and delivery of sustainability messages. The sections below outline some of the key considerations from the perspective of each quadrant.
Behavioral Influences
A behavioral perspective reminds communicators to accurately represent scientific facts (Leonard, 2004). As the transition to sustainability often threatens established interests, factual errors in communication will be rapidly identified and exposed, to the detriment of the message.
A behavioral perspective also encourages communicators to focus on the actions they seek to encourage through the communicative act. Our current society is not sustainable, and is not on a trajectory towards sustainability. Consequently, sustainability is only possible through the combined actions of numerous individuals. Every communication about sustainability should seek to encourage a particular type of action or behavior that will hasten the transition to sustainability. These intended actions should be within the power of the audience. All too often, sustainability communicators emphasize environmental and social threats, without providing positive actions the audience can take to respond to these threats.
Finally, a behavioral perspective encourages the communicator to consider how verbal and visual behaviors can support effective communication. This draws attention to the mannerisms, body language, and attentiveness of verbal communicators, and the design and layout of visual communications. Attention to the ways that individuals actually view, read, or use communication materials is critical.
Systemic Influences
A systemic perspective reminds the communicator to attend to the demographic characteristics of the audience – for example, their age and gender, language, access to technology (particularly for web- based communication), media use, socioeconomic profile, and educational attainment. Messages that do not take into account these demographic factors, for example by translating materials for different language groups, can easily miss their target audience.
In addition, systems theory provides a particularly rich source of content for sustainability communicators. From this perspective, sustainability problems are understood and presented as the result of a complex interplay between technological, ecological, economic, and social systems. Good sustainability communicators will usually have an intuitive grasp of systems theory, which they can draw on to explain problems, design solutions, and anticipate barriers to the implementation of those solutions.
Psychological Influences
A psychological perspective reminds the communicator that individuals hold different values, adhere to a different sense of self and identity, and vary in their interests, experiences, and mindsets.
Consequently, a message that appeals to one individual will leave another unmoved. Communicators that recognize this subjective variation typically attempt to segment the audience in some way and to design separate messages to appeal to these different segments. However, approaches to audience segmentation tend to be eclectic and poorly coordinated with each other, resulting in a rash of conflicting messages that leave the audience confused.
Integral theory draws on developmental psychology to provide a more coherent basis for audience segmentation. In essence, Integral theory argues that human psychological development moves through distinct, recognizable stages, at which mindsets, values, interests, and ways of relating to the worlds are markedly different. We will return to these stages, and their implications for communication, later. Here, it is sufficient to note that sustainability communicators need to understand the psychographics of their audience and design multiple messages to appeal to varying values and interests.
Cultural Influences
As people move through the stages of their own individual development they find points of commonality and mutual understanding that manifest as distinct cultural structures, expressed linguistically through discourse. A discourse is a shared way of apprehending the world, characterized by particular language, assumptions, metaphors, and worldviews (Dryzek, 1997). Sustainability communicators can use an understanding of the characteristic elements of an identified discourse to design messages to appeal to that discourse. The Integral framework provides a credible, consistent basis for identifying discourses, linked to the developmental stages discussed in the next section. This consistency is critical to help globally coordinate the effort required to achieve mainstream commitment to sustainability.
A cultural perspective also reminds us that communication is most likely to be effective if the communicator can enter the cultural space of their audience and reach some degree of mutual understanding. This task can be assisted by becoming familiar with the symbols, metaphors, and narratives of the cultural group. A very effective approach is to engage respected members of the cultural group to deliver sustainability messages, as these leaders will already be immersed in the language of the group.
This brief summary of using the quadrants in sustainability communications has been excerpted from a paper entitled, “Use of the Integral Framework to Design Developmentally-Appropriate Sustainability Communications” published in 2006 by Barrett C. Brown and Chris Riedy.
About Barrett Brown