IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES | September 2022
The Taos Institute's mission is to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value, and their application in relational, collaborative and appreciative practices around the world.
The Many Ways to Get Involved!
Brief Encounter with The Taos Institute
"Because I had not seen anybody as a therapist for a year, and hadn’t settled into any new identity, I experienced intimately what I now know as liminal space."
"One of the primary skills needed as we embark on the collaboration, dialogue, and worldmaking required of our challenging present, is knowledge and tolerance of liminal space."
Surfing the Liminal

by Chris Hoff, Family Therapist and Taos Institute Associate

This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy.
- Richard Rohr

What is Liminal space? What role does it play in the migration of identities, communities, and worlds? And what might support us when traversing these spaces?

My role as a family therapist (among other roles) is a second career for me. Prior to the transition to therapy and consulting, I was an entrepreneur. I started and grew a technology staffing company to a large enough size that I was able to sell it and embark on the journey I am currently on. It was in this transition, from entrepreneur to family therapist, that I became fascinated with what is commonly known as liminal space.

Before discovering any social constructionist ideas, I had my own experience of identity migration and destabilization. It happened when I exited my business and started graduate school. In this effort I left one set of meaning for another. The problem was that all my identity at the time was wrapped up in the entrepreneur identity and life.

In the graduate school I attended we didn’t do any actual therapy, until we were a year into the program. This created all sorts of problems for me because I had left one identity (Chris the entrepreneur) for another (Chris the family therapist). But because I had not seen anybody as a therapist for a year, and hadn’t settled into any new identity, I experienced intimately what I now know as liminal space.

I have come to believe that my role as a family therapist is largely walking with folks as they navigate liminal space, either voluntarily or by imposition. I also believe that one of the primary skills needed as we embark on the collaboration, dialogue, and worldmaking required of our challenging present, is knowledge and tolerance of liminal space. In this effort I have become quite interested in speculative structures to help in the embracing of the uncertainty required in these efforts.
I understand some social constructionist thinkers might be leery of any relational structures, but I believe speculative structures, like future scenarios, provide a needed methodology or map for the collective adventure of traversing liminal space. They are a mode of storytelling to help us deal with the uncertainty that is part and parcel of liminal space. They are ripe for collaboration as they are an actor’s craft rather than a director’s craft. They make space for failure. The narrative is created together rather than prescribed. And finally, it provides a space to work out possible predictions of experiences. Which would help in the effort of continuing forward in this hard work, rather than turning back to more familiar territory.

I eventually settled into my new identity of family therapist and have had an amazing experience along the way. This all was made possible because I entered and moved through liminal space, with a lot of help. 

Taos 2022 Gathering
From the local to the global, how can social constructionist ideas and practices help us create and bring forward new ways of going on together?

Are you working in innovative ways in a local context and want to connect with others who are doing similar work to learn and share together?

Come join or present at The Taos Institute 2022 Gathering so we can open dialogue on how these local practices might be amplified for global good.


You are invited to contribute
to this conference, a week-long series of global, virtual events!

Host a presentation, a dialogic space, a roundtable, a social hour - the choice is yours. Or you may prefer to contribute with a poster, paper, video, or even organize a local "watch party". You are welcome to participate in any way that works for you. Visit our website for details on how to host an event.

Sample sessions include
Possibilities for Collaborative-Dialogic Practices in a Polarized World
Research as an Adventurous Journey
Community Design – Performing Social Innovation

What would you like to share?
The Taos Institute 2022 Gathering
November 12-18, 2022
If you are not interested in hosting and prefer to peruse the many events and topics as a participant during the week, please visit our registration page. New: sliding scale available.
Dialogue with the Authors
A free webinar


with Harlene Anderson & Diane Gehart (Editors)

October 18, 2022
12:00 pm EST
Have you ever wondered how to successfully communicate with someone who sees the world from an entirely different angle than you do? Often the chasm seems impossible to navigate, even with the best of intentions. Whether you work in a boardroom, schoolroom, therapy room, or community organization, Collaborative-Dialogic Practice offers a humanizing approach to facilitating dialogues that make a difference in our fast-changing, diverse, and ever-shrinking world.

Join Harlene and Diane for an interactive webinar on October 18, 2022. More details and registration available here.
Relational Research Network Events

Miércoles, 21 de septiembre de 2022
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Durante esta reunión estaremos reconectándonos, reflexionando y explorando ideas para crear investigación relacional que construya futuros posibles. Al participar de este encuentro, podremos generar conexiones y formas para apoyarnos unos/as a otros/as en nuestros trabajos de investigación. Si te interesa participar de esta sesión pautada para el miércoles, 21 de septiembre de 2022, 12pm-1:30pm EST, oprima este enlace para completar el formulario y registrarse.

September 21, 2022
1:00 - 2:30 pm EST (New York time)

The Relational Research Network invites you to attend this session where we will meet and greet each other. In this meeting, we will create a space for discussion to support each other in performing Relational Research. We will do an activity where everyone is asked to share an item from your work space that supports you or energizes you in your work (picture, book, item from your travels, musical instrument, photo, art, etc.) and share this item on zoom with the others including how this object or idea sustains you. Also in the small groups we invite people to share their experience with relational research, including comments on any of the videos we have presented on the Relational Research Video Series YouTube channel.

To register to attend this Relational Research Network event, click here.
Friends of Taos Events
A free webinar sponsored by the Learning for Wellbeing Foundation, the Taos Institute and the University of Wales, and with the meaningful support of LLLP -Lifelong Learning Platform.


October 13, 2022
8:30 - 10:00 am EST (New York time)

In this free webinar, we together with students and teachers, we will explore an energizing array of evaluative practices that nourish the potentials of relating while providing rich resources for continued learning. We invite deliberation on the practical possibilities of transforming education for the well-being of all.

Educational thinkers, practitioners and policymakers are encouraged to attend as we discuss the challenges of the current assessment paradigm, and to explore the potentials of an innovative orientation to education, one that places the process of relating at the center of learning and well-being. Details and registration available here.
The International Certificate in Collaborative-Dialogic Practices Network presents

Next conversation:
Sheila McNamee, Sylvia London and Irma (Ñeca) Rodríguez
Grupo Campos Elíseos (Mexico)

November 19, 2022
ICCP, HGI and The Taos Institute are pleased to announce this series of free online workshops, where leading voices in Social Constructionism and Collaborative-Dialogic ideas will engage in conversation with practitioners and scholars from different parts of the world. We will explore the principles and the applications of these practices in a variety of contexts and with different populations. The workshops will be in English with simultaneous translation. Details and registration are available here.
The East Side Institute Presents

A 9-month intensive online program

October 2022 - June 2023
With deepening social, environmental and political crises worldwide, many who want to make a difference in the world are finding that they need new tools to make social change, to grow, and to develop their communities. The East Side Institute’s International Class is a 9-month virtual immersion in creative and cultural approaches to human development, learning and social change. The course introduces and examines social therapeutics, a philosophically informed, practically oriented method in which human beings develop themselves while building the ensemble, group and community. Details and registration available here.

Resources of the Month
Podcast


Scherto Gill, Ph.D.

Shifting from traditional measurement-based assessment in schools to educational evaluation of the entire school ecosystem can enhance learning processes, students’ engagement and vitality of relationships in primary and secondary classrooms. It flows into the evaluation of teaching and the school as a whole. Featuring collaborative learning, dialogic pedagogy, and flexible curricula, educational evaluation that comes from a relational perspective truly speaks to the demands of a rapidly changing world.
Article


Celiane Camargo-Borges

How can I write a research proposal without knowing what my community wants/needs? How can I be neutral if I have some ideas and hopes for my investigation? How can I be objective if every question I formulate for my research has some assumptions coming from my expertise, and the experience and the theory I embrace? How can my findings be replicated if each group has its own history and culture? These are questions addressed by the author in a chapter published in The Handbook of Arts-Based Research.
Reading Corner

ISSUE 12 Available Now!

This free journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices.

FREE downloadable books in 12 different languages. Like all of the Taos Institute Publications, WorldShare Books represent significant contributions relevant to social constructionist theory and practice. With over 30 books in English and many more from around the world, you will enjoy reading about education, spirituality, organizational life, community building, group dynamics, leadership and more.

By focusing on the positive aspects of aging and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research brings useful insights into the realm of practice, creates hope and empowers action among older people. By moving beyond practices of repair and prevention, to emphasize growth-enhancing activities, practitioners also contribute more effectively to the societal reconstruction of aging. For 20 years, late Taos Institute co-founder Mary Gergen, Ph.D. has inspired and driven the publication of this free newsletter - also translated in 9 languages!

Access hundreds of articles and papers on topics such as:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Collaborative Practices
  • Dialogic Practices
  • Creativity and Change
  • Narrative Practices
  • Relational Research
  • Relational Learning
  • Qualitative Research
  • and so much more!
Support the Institute

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In loving memory of Taos Institute co-founder and board member Mary Gergen, Ph.D.. Mary was an innovator in feminist theory, social constructionism, and qualitative methods. She was an inspiration and mentor to thousands of people around the world. She deeply cared about making the world a better place and her contributions will be felt for generations. Read more