The Social Labs Revolution

PREFACE /NOTES FROM A PRACTICING HEART

INTRODUCTION / WHAT ARE SOCIAL LABORATORIES?
What does it mean to be winning?
Playing in the World Cup
The scale-free laboratory
A cascade of social labs

CHAPTER 1 /THE PERFECT STORM OF COMPLEXITY
The perfect challenge
What is a complex social challenge?
The futile optimism of optimization
Yemen as a natural experiment
Too big to fail, too big to jail

CHAPTER 2 / THE STRATEGIC VACUUM
Business as usual
The expert-planning paradigm
Flying autopilot in the perfect storm
A lack of genuine strategic intent

CHAPTER 3 / THE SUSTAINABLE FOOD LAB: FROM FARM-TO-FORK
The Bhavishya Alliance
The race to the bottom
The multiple and conflicting logics of food
What is sustainable?
Systemic spread betting

CHAPTER 4 / THE BHAVISHYA LAB: THE SILENT EMERGENCY
The moon shot
Movement requires friction
Fail early, fail often
Business as usual and its radical refusals

CHAPTER 5 /THE NEW ECOLOGIES OF CAPITAL
Emerging forms of capital and preventing collapse
The dumbest idea in the world
More rainforests, fewer plantations

CHAPTER 6 / THE RISE OF THE AGILISTAS
The practical wisdom of social labs
Starting with current realities
Events rupture dispositions
The right stuff

CHAPTER 7/ STEPS TOWARD A THEORY OF SYSTEMIC ACTION
1st requirement: Constitute a diverse team
2nd requirement: Design an iterative process
3rd requirement: Actively create systemic spaces

CHAPTER 8 / STARTING A SOCIAL LAB: 7 HOW-TOS
Strategic versus tactical thinking
#1 Clarify intention
#2 Broadcast an invitation
#3 Work your networks
#4 Recruit willing people
#5 Set direction
#6 Design in stacks
#7 Find cadence

CONCLUSION / NEXT-GENERATION SOCIAL LABORATORIES
Averting the zombie apocalypse
State collapse: A stabilization strategy
Climate change: A mitigation strategy
Community resilience: An adaptation strategy
The battle of the parts versus the whole