Thrivability: A Collaborative Sketch

I’m so excited to announce the launch of Thrivability: A Collaborative Sketch – a new book curated by Jean Russell with a collection of over 60 essays crafting a topography for thriving.  I have the great honor to be included in this collection and take such pride in sharing it with all of you!

There are a few ways to dive in:

• View the book as a slide show: on the website or on slideshare
• View the book on the website: as one page or through the sections on the right
• View the book in PDF: download here (we warn you about the file size though!)

I invite you to check it out and connect with any of those that inspire you or get you thinking when you read it.  To get you started, I’ve included the introduction to the book below from Jean Russell.

Enjoy!

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Thrivability Introduction

Jean Russell, Thrivable.org – Chicago, IL, USA
Thank you for viewing this book. It comes alive in your gaze.  I want to introduce you to thrivability by answering some of the questions you have. I am guessing that they might be questions like – what is thrivability and who are these people contributing to it?

What is thrivability – a working definition
In the dance between the individual and humanity as a whole, there is an aliveness.  In aliveness, there is a yearning for thriving.  All living things strive to move beyond survival to truly flourish.  Even in the development of this very project, the aspiration for thriving was clear — the enthusiasm of a very diverse circle of people focused on  a simple idea: that the goal of evolving our behavior should be to thrive.   And it gives rise….to this book.

Thrivability is our path out of unsustainable practices toward a world where all people have a high quality of life, a voice, and a nurturing earth supporting them.  Using whole systems approach, we evolve our way of being together, of collaborating, so that our collective wisdom and action bring forth a flourishing world and thriving life.

Why these words and phrases?
There is no single recipe or discrete list of requirements for thrivability. However, I created several groups of words and phrases that relate to it in some powerful way.  Perhaps they reframe a perspective or engage in a critical role.  The contributors of this book refined and evolved the title words and phrases. It is an exploration they have joined me in, and I hope you will join us too.

A bit about our contributors
Our contributors are from widely different fields – from social entrepreneurship to philanthropy, from deep tech space to community activism, from neuroscience to labor and economic history, from social network analysis to storytelling. I expect that you, the viewers and participants, are a wide range of people too. Like you, the contributors are from a vast array of places in the world from Stockholm, Brussels, and London to Thailand,  Australia, and Uganda, and include Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, NYC, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston. From noted academics to get-your-hands-dirty entrepreneurs, from scientists to the tree-climber next door, we connect them together to lay out the general topography of a thrivable world.

Together we sketch our view of thrivability.  We may not all agree. However, I think you will find, as I did, that while the field of interest may be different, the core principles, values, and beliefs about thrivability come through consistently, as core words 
re-appear on other pages. Please enjoy this curated collaborative sketch of thrivability. I invite you into the conversation.

What does thrivability mean to you?
What does it mean for those of us who suffer?
Are we thrivable already, only becoming less so?
How do you apply the idea of thrivability in practice – in your life, at your work, in your community?
How is it possible to co-create a thrivable world?

“A good question sparks more questions,” says one humble,  extraordinary, and curious friend of mine. I think he is right.

In grace and with gratitude,
Jean Russell

Thrivable.org strives to equip agents of transformation in order to co-create a thrivable world. We reveal the breadth of domains and their interweaving. We enable thrive agents to know where they are and what they can do and be for collective thrivability.