OPUS IN BOSTON: �CURRENT DYNAMICS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY�
A Workshop on Societal Processes
September 23 to 24, 2000.
OPUS is a non-political, voluntary organisation based in the UK. It was set up by the late Sir Charles Goodeve, FRS, in 1975. He believed that if we
were better able to understand processes operating in society and particularly issues of conflict, in industry and outside, then we would be able to take more rational decisions; in the long run we would become more
effective as citizens in managing ourselves and society. Essentially, therefore, OPUS is concerned with increasing the understanding of such processes and with fostering maturity in the individual in his various
roles: as producer and consumer; as employer, employee or self employed; as a member of a family and community; and as a citizen. Its mission is therefore educational in the broadest sense.
Aim of the Workshop
The aim of the workshop is to enable participants as individual citizens to reflect on their own relatedness to society.
This two day workshop will provide opportunities for us to share our currentpreoccupations in relation to the various societal roles we may have.
Collectively we will try to identify current processes in society that impact on us as citizens, and to formulate hypotheses about the underlying dynamics both conscious and unconscious, that maybe predominant at
this time.
Our belief in OPUS is that a group of people meeting together to work in this way allows the unconscious expression of some characteristics of the
wider society: the group, despite being non-random in membership, is thus a microcosm of society. The experience of the workshop is itself therefore relevant to an understanding society beyond individual and
personal preoccupations.
Method
Participants are invited to identify, contribute, and explore their experience in their various social roles, be these in work, unemployed or
retired; as members of religious, political, neighbourhood, voluntary and leisure organisations or as members of families and communities.
Workshop Events
The Large Listening Post: Participants in the workshop work together from their �citizen� roles. They contribute and freely associate to their own
and one another�s experience�; connections can be explored as to their relatedness to one another and to the issues of wider society that may emerge. Such contributions and the experience of working in the Listening
Post itself are the data for the emergence of hypotheses as to what is going on in society at this time.
Small Listening Post
This provides an opportunity to explore relatedness to one another and to society in a smaller setting.
Reflection Groups
Participants form groups according to issues that concern them from the earlier discussion. The purpose of the groups is to reflect on the
material that has emerged in the Listening Post and to generate hypotheses to test with the plenary group.
The Plenary
The Plenary of the total membership will further the work and refine whatever working hypotheses may have emerged from the reflection groups.
For more details, contact Tracy at:
Chaos Management, Ltd.
PO Box 737 Brattleboro
VT 05302 USA
Tel: 1 802 257-5218
Fax: 1 802 257-2729
[email protected].
Tel: 802 257 5218.
Workshop registration
Option 1: Phone Chaos Management Ltd. 1 802 257 5218.
Option 2: Fill out the on-line registration form
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