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Holomovement Principle Applied

to Home Economics

Sue L. T. McGregor PhD ProfessorDocent in Home EconomicsUniversity of Helsinki, 2012

Home economics was born at the apex of Cartesian-Newtonian thinking

This thinking has held sway for over 300 years and deeply influenced the trajectory of the evolution of the home economics profession (founded 113 years ago, between 1899-1909 in Lake Placid, NY)

Features of Cartesian-Newtonian thinking: Everything is compartmentalized and fragmented,

isolated and separate from each other (lead to separate, siloed disciplines, specializations, technical expertise and separate subjects)

A linear problem/solution and cause/effect interpretation of reality prevails

Dualism presumes that two realities cannot talk to each other, cannot act upon each other and that one is superior to the other (e.g., nature-human, matter-spirit, science-religion, facts-values)

Analysis (a focus on the parts) is preferred to synthesis (a focus on synergy and integration),

Objectivity (external) prevails over subjectivity (internal)

Patriarchy is privileged. Males are seen to use reason and logic (the preferred qualities of citizens) while women are reflected as soft, secondary, intuitive and attuned with nature

Major Fallouts Excessive focus on materialism,

consumerism, money and market values in society (competition, scarcity, wealth, profit, individualism)

Shift away from home, the family and community, except for their roles as consumers and producers in the market

Home economics became overly specialized and too fragmented into separate areas of subject-focused expertise, with no common philosophy

A Missed Opportunity

In the 1920s, just 20 short years after the founding of home economics, the sciences experienced a profound shift from Cartesian-Newtonian thinking to quantum thinking. However, members of the home economics profession did not embrace the new sciences, resulting in a century-long dependence on the old sciences and to our current state of: excessive, damaging fragmentation and micro-specializations, isolation from each other, many different names for the profession, and disconnectedness from the complexity of the times.

Although not intentional, and unless we change, we continue to: perpetuate a fragmented view of

the world (despite that it is profoundly complex),

rely too much on technical expertise, bemoan that no one understands or

respects us, grasp for any name aside from home

economics (as if it is a bad thing) and continue to lose legitimacy and

currency in the eyes of the public and private sectors.

A New Future for Home Economics

The last 100 years will not have been wasted if we learn from them and move forward… drawing insights from quantum thinking, chaos theory and living systems theory – the new sciences.

The Holomovement Principle

This idea combines the words holo and movement, which stem from the Greek words for wholeness (undividedness) and movement (holoteles, for entirely, complete in all respects).

Holomovement Principle and Home Economics

Instead of seeing the profession as comprising bits and parts from many individual areas of expertise and specializations, with different names and sub-disciplines, and no unifying philosophy, we can conceive of it as an undivided whole, in perpetual, dynamic flux. We can see our profession as a collection of different aspects of one whole and unbroken movement–

a professional holomovement!

Use five new science concepts to develop this idea:

Implicate and explicate order

The ensemblePerpetual dynamismLocality and nonlocalityComplexity-

consciousness

Implicate and Explicate Order Everything has its own universe. Each

facet of something (for example an issue) contains the total order of that “issue’s” universe, including the past, present and future. Everything folds into everything else. There are two kinds of order in this universe - the implicate and the explicate order

Implicate is from the Latin implicare meaning “to fold inward.” The implicate order is implicit, underlying the whole of something and is invisible, yet fundamental, to the understanding the entire thing.

Explicate is from the Latin explicare, meaning “to unfold.” When parts of something manifest themselves so that others can actually see them, they are seeing the explicit order.

Lessons for Home Ec The implicate (inner) order of the home economics

universe is the philosophy and the explicate order appears when home economists practice and take action, drawing energy from the philosophical core

Each home economist is an extension of the fundamental essence of home economics (the implicate)

All home economists are part of a larger whole, which is part of them

Each home economist contains the information possessed by the whole; the whole comprises information from all home economists

Individual home economists flow in and out of the whole as they practice (explicate), drawing on the core energy source of the profession – its philosophy (implicate)

.

Two Metaphors

Metaphors con’t When the slinky is

inert, it just sits on a desk or in your hand. If it is set in motion, the coils separate (i.e., we get a glimpse of the core section of the whole); yet, the exposed core is always connected to the whole, and the entire slinky is in motion until it comes to rest (and even then, there is still energy in the core awaiting release).

The viscous fluid is always in movement, with new things bubbling up and then falling back into the whole again (co-created in evolving relationships). The whole is embedded in all of the parts; each part contains the whole. Everything is interconnected. There is dynamic movement and wholeness – a holomovement

Another metaphor - photographs

Normal Photograph

If a piece is ripped off of a regular, pixel photograph, the picture is now incomplete because each section of the film it came from stored only information about that part of the picture (presumes separateness and fragmentation).

Holograph photograph

Holographic image

If the image is moved or disturbed, it becomes distorted and fuzzy but regains it clarity when the part moved flows back into the whole

Holographic con’t If I pass my hand

through this holographic image, the image would lose resolution and become fuzzy but remain intact, because each part contains the image of the whole, just in lower resolution (less detail)

Lesson for Home Ec When professional practice manifests itself

so that others can actually see it, others are seeing the visible, explicate order (home economists in action). This outward action is informed by the invisible implicit order, the fundamental, philosophical foundation for the profession that underpins external manifestations of practice.

This hidden foundation is an unbroken and undivided whole, the core of the profession. A core is the tough, central part of something that contains the seeds for renewal and growth; a core is the depths of something, the most important part of a whole.

The Implicate Core – The Home Economics Holomovement

HIDDEN, STABALIZING,

NURTURING CORE

Ensemble An ensemble is a group of complementary

parts that contribute to a single effect. When the contents of the holomovement

lift up to become something that can be seen, we then perceive an ensemble of parts, which continues to relate to the invisible whole.

when the contents of the holomovement lift up to become something that can be seen, we then perceive an ensemble of parts, which continues to relate to the invisible whole.

Ensemble

Each home economist’s professional image is a shadow of the whole – not separate but connected. All of the shadows together make the whole.

Ensemble con’t Picture a spinning

airplane prop, comprising three blades. When spinning, it gives the appearance of a solid, separate disk. This separateness is an illusion caused by a rapid sequence of unfoldings. What we see at any point in time is actually a totality of the ensemble of parts, all present together in a continual process of unfolding and folding. These parts intermingle and interpenetrate each other, creating a whole

Lesson for Home Ec We cannot expect every practitioner to

behave in the same way all the time (explicate), but we can expect them to adhere to and draw energy from the same invisible core (implicate), the foundation of everything. In our profession, this invisible foundation comprises paradigms, principles, philosophies, values, beliefs, meanings and assumptions that shape practice. Their manifestation is dependent upon the context and the resultant impact upon the context is dependent upon which aspects of the implicate order (philosophical core) informed explicit practice.

Perpetual Dynamism The whole and all its parts

are constantly in process, in a state of emerging and becoming.

Every portion of the flow contains the entire flow (remember the lava lamp), and it never stops moving and evolving

As we all work to create this whole, our individual efforts appear as ripples on the surface of the whole. Through the ripple effect, small drops can make a HUGE difference

Lesson for Home Ec

As we live each day as home economists, we should never lose sight of the whole (the underlying orderliness) or the need to continually strive to be creative as we perpetually create this whole, together. Each of us can make a difference. We need never feel alone again!

Locality and nonlocality

Locality – quantum term for separated and fragmented

Nonlocality – quantum term for interconnected

Lesson for Home Ec If we bring a fragmented (local) approach to

our practice (bits and pieces), without appreciating that they we are all connected through a core philosophy (nonlocal), we get practice that does not percolate up from the life energy of the profession; instead, our philosophically-ungrounded practice drains energy from the profession. We have all gone our separate ways, leading to a profession that is not vibrant and not sustainable. Its energy core is being drained at a rapid pace, and is not being replenished. It has become too local when what we need is nonlocal because we gain energy through interconnections (lost in isolation).

Complexity-Consciousness

Increasingly complex consciousness (awareness of existence) emerges from the formation of simple connections (local) that lead to more and more complex and numerous connections (nonlocal).

As things become more complex, individual elements in the whole tend to behave in new ways (due to increased consciousness – awareness); they are both an actor and a by-product of the complexity

Lesson for Home Ec Home economics has a

consciousness (an awareness of its existence)

Each home economist displays an unfolding of the entire profession’s consciousness; each one of us is connected to the profession’s consciousness. We all arise from its energy core

Each thought that an individual home economist has percolates up from the deep recesses of the profession’s consciousness, and those thoughts in turn help shape the larger consciousness

Home Economics - An Unbroken Wholeness A water metaphor helps. Imagine

eddies (spinning pools of water)in a river. At first, they appear to be separate eddies. But, soon it becomes hard to tell where the whirlpools end, and the stream begins. While maintaining separate identities, each home economist would be drawing strength from the life energy core underlying the whole. We are part of the undivided whole that is in perpetual, dynamic flux. The whole thing is moving as ONE moving towards complexity and connectedness