I have found the spiral dynamics value systems model (Beck & Cowan 2005) an interesting heuristic model but I was struggling to find scientific evidence for its validity. [e.g. The Inglehart-Welzel model (Inglehart & Wezel 2010) from traditional to secular/rational societies seems to correlate the blue to orange value system shift in spiral dynamics but no formal connection has been establised.]
Would you know studies which would back the spiral dynamics model?
If not, would you know better models of human value systems and how they evolve?
Hi Nicolas,
There is a book that in my view backs up the spiral dynamics model, but maybe not in a strictly empirical way (if that's what you are looking for) by 'proving' that the model is historically accurate and that evolution 'in fact' happened this way. (The assumption of an 'objective truth' that could be discovered by empirical evidence is itself problematic.) The book is :
Chapman, Kelly (2015). Complexity and Creative Capacity. Rethinking knowledge transfer, adaptive management and wicked environmental problems. New York – London: Routledge.
It shows in general terms that the current global system evolves towards a higher (emergent) level of complexity and that we reach a point in which all previous (more stable, linear) systems are converging into a planetary interconnected complex (non-linear) flow of subsystems, leading to a new, specifically global dynamics.
In terms of system dynamics this may be the same as stating that the first tier systems converge and we enter a phase of 'second tier' dynamics. Chapman describes the process ontology and cocreative epistemology that will allow us to deal with complex challenges (incorporating e.g. 'indigenous knowledge'). The book does not literally refer to system dynamics, but as a reader I found it useful to link both approaches and explore similarities.
@ Kelly Chapman
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