This book explains how taxonomy can be used to describe and connect social actors in an integral way. Integral communication refers to a specific way of open information exchange which uses all qualities and preferences of subjects in conversation and allows anonymous feedback exchange, which enhances trust, learning and development. The role of integral communication is to promote perceptiveness, collaboration, personal development, and organizational learning among all the actors involved. In this book, the authors propose a new original way of digital communication that uses tags and their metadata to describe qualities and preferences of a particular node in the network. Although most social networks, sharing platforms and e-government frameworks are already applying taxonomies and social tagging to define user identity, none of them is focused on tags exclusively, while within an integral communication framework they represent the basic element of user definition and networking. In addition, other social platforms rarely allow anonymous feedback exchange, and they are usually not focused on the personal development of their end-users. Aside from helping actors present their attributes and preferences, integral communication promotes teamwork, sustainability, trust, organisational learning, and personalized communication with AI machines. After reading this book, readers will learn how to harness the power of integral networking and understand why anonymous feedback is a critical element for learning and development.

Alexander Schieffer and Ronnie Lessem introduce a groundbreaking development framework and process to address the most burning issues that humanity faces. While conventional top-down, outside-in development has reached a cul-de-sac, a new, integral form of development is emerging around the world. Integral Development uniquely articulates this emergent approach, and invites us to fully participate in this process. The integral approach has been researched and framed over decades of in-depth experience in transformative development education and practice all over the world. It uniquely combines four mutually reinforcing perspectives: nature and community; culture and spirituality; science, systems and technology; and enterprise and economics. Conventional development theory and practice has prioritized the latter two perspectives, neglecting the former two. This has caused massive imbalances in today’s world. The four interconnected perspectives allow for a transformative and integrated engagement with core development issues in a way that is locally relevant and globally resonant. Throughout, the practical impact of Integral Development is brought to life through highly innovative cases from around the globe, drawing on the authors` first-hand experience. This makes the book a living demonstration of the power of this pioneering approach. Integral Development shows how individual, organizational and societal developments need to be interconnected to release a society’s full potential. It shifts the responsibility for large-scale development from often-distant experts and organizations to each individual, community, enterprise and institution within the society. It is essential reading - and a call to action - for everyone concerned with the current state of local and global development.