The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's Way toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature
Henri Bortoft
Lindisfarne Press - 1996 -
An excellent in depth exploration of different ways of perceiving science, nature and humankind.
The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems
Fritjof Capra
Doubleday - 1996
An accessible introduction to essential principles of ecology and living systems, with an aim to illuminating their implications for how we design sustainable communities.
Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology
K. Eric Drexler
Anchor Books, Doubleday 1986 -
A very good introduction to the technology which lies ahead. If read with the thought in mind of what this will mean to social, institutional and economic change, it will stretch the mind.
The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling
James Hillman
Random House, Inc. - 1996 -
A penetrating exploration of the wholeness of mind, body, spirit and soul, as opposed to the Newtonian/Cartesian concept that they are separate entities and that the self is separate from the world.
Out of Control: The Rise of Neo Biological Civilization
Kevin Kelly
Addison-Wesley Publishing - 1994.
An interesting compendium of where such thinking about self-organizing systems and the technologies for creating them are leading in a variety of fields
A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us
Sidney Liebes, Elisabet Sahtouris and Brian Swimme
John Wiley & Sons - 1998 -
A beautifully illustrated presentation on the evolution of life on earth, highlighting the complexity and creativity of living systems and the growing impact of humanity on the web of life.
Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect
David W. Orr
Island Press - 1994
An educator and environmentalist explores the deep connections between education, ecology, agriculture, ethics and the politics of place.
Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem
Michael Rothschild
Henry Holt & Co. - 1990 -
A lengthy but well-written book with an ecological perspective on economics, which contains some of the themes of Chaordic organization.
Bunsha: Improving Your Business Through Division
Kuniyasu Sakai and Hiroshi Sakiyama.
Intercultural Group Inc. (ICG pocket business book not easily available.)
Small book by noted Japanese businessman about a successful, radically different way of structuring ownership and management. Explodes some myths about how Japanese manufacturing works.
Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace
Ricardo Semler
Warner Books - 1993 -
The story by a Brazilian industrialist who took decentralized institutional concepts far beyond most U.S. corporations with extraordinary results. Semler also had an article in Harvard Business Review: "Why My Ex-employers Still Work For Me."
The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations
Peter Senge and others - 1999
Leaders in the field of organizational learning share lessons learned from their experience. A useful collection of perspectives that goes beyond theory to see how well ideas can actually be practiced in contemporary business and organizational settings.
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
M. Mitchel Waldrup
Simon & Schuster - 1992 -
A good summary of the scientific work now emerging, with rather more emphasis on the Santa Fe Institute and personalities therein.
Leadership and the New Science
Margaret Wheatley
Berrett-Koehler - 1992 -
A fundamental overview of some of the core concepts and fields pertinent to chaordic organization. A good foundation for understanding complexity theory.
A Simpler Way
Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers
Berrett-Koehler - 1996-
Provocative observations about the fundamental processes of self-organization and the application of living systems theory to the organization of human activity, by two leading organizational theorists.
