Review the 7 Arenas of Association
All associations constructed using the various specified in the PH'5Q-expansion require work-in-role if they are to be thrive. Each Arena involves combining two adjacent methods for creating reality, as shown in the diagram.
The seven arenas for associating are:
Each is now explained very briefly below.
Q1: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in the Family Household
A creates a distinctive psychosocial reality that sustains and shapes its members lives. The group is sustained by using language in and ways, which fosters knowing in the form of a practical understanding of each other.
The shared reality requiring work and knowing revolves around the emotional interactions and mental states of the household members as they seek a stable refuge within everyday life to enable personal survival. Not surprisingly, the family is viewed as the foundation of society.
Membership is by an emotional choice for adults, and also for children once they are capable of thinking for themselves. Actions need to be taken as part of being responsive to needs of others and those of the group as a whole. Continuing membership is a function of responsibility because all members are subject to a performance pressure in this regard. Irresponsibility leads to a failure of responsiveness and threatens a collapse or break-up of the family-household.
Preliminary notes are provided here.
Q2: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in a Formal Organisation
An is created by a group wanting to achieve things in a particular physico-social environment. It depends on using language as well as .
Sharing reality involves sharing concepts essential for the mission, structure, resourcing and working of the enterprise. These conventional concepts in turn depend on information used and collected by operations. Much information is informally collected and only shared locally. Knowing is about mastery of this information in terms of given conventional concepts and in relation to a person’s particular role in the organisation.
Membership is by appointment to a specific role and dependent on skilled performance in role, which in turn is a function of an adequate mastery of role-specific knowledge amongst other things. Incompetence leads to exclusion or dismissal. Certainty about the relevant reality is the group pressure on organisations: so “not knowing” and "risk-taking" could also be cause for dismissal. Performance overall depends on accountability relations, which means that failures in accountability threaten breakdown of the organisation.
Detailed analysis is provided here.
Q3: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in an Academic Discipline
are set up to develop and control a corpus of knowledge in a vaguely defined area of existence, physical or psychosocial. Each discipline is founded in jargon-like language and integrates within society via language.
The shared reality here is the knowledge of concepts, methods, and topics within the discipline. Where concepts or methods are weak and disputed, the discipline struggles to get recognition.
Membership is by qualification following systematic study and then making active contributions via teaching and/or research. This membership is subsequently maintained via peer assessment which determines the credibility of contributions. The public holding of knowledge that is not acceptable (the group pressure) is a form of heresy. Heretical views lead to a member being ignored by the discipline and ultimately excluded from its structures of funding, appointment and publication—perhaps unfairly. The more serious reason for exclusion is deceit in the form of dishonest and fraudulent publications.
Preliminary notes are provided here.
Q4: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in a Societal Institution
are recognizable but ill-defined structures in society that exist to serve communal needs. Their structure and evolution is shaped by the intense differentiation and specialization entailed in servicing needs and preferences.
Values, beliefs and diversity form the reality that must be shared and known. Examples include the media, the financial system, the welfare system, the legal system. These institutions are grounded in language which enables articulation of the relevant social values that provide a license for component social bodies to function within society. The institution is directed and sustained by language which embodies awareness and is based on relevant cultural beliefs and experiences.
Membership is most obvious in those working in an institution, but all citizens are part of all societal institutions though engagement varies over time and in accord with needs. Institutions are sustained so long as they respond to the pressure for well-being. Consent becomes the binding force of any institution. If institutional values are flouted, there is a disruption to the system. Disruption occurs when institutions are actively destabilized, sabotaged or undermined by extremists or by governments run by authoritarian leaders.
Detailed analysis is provided here.
Q5: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in a Philosophy School
This summarizes material developed in this section.
are social groups created around a doctrine, ideology or teaching deemed to be valuable, even essential for humanity. The fundamentals of the teaching, being expressed in language, are experienced as both self-evident and illuminating. The doctrine gets its strength and enduring power by bringing language to bear with consistent careful use of evocative names, even formulae, to ensure precision.
The doctrine is the shared reality for the members of the School who engage under an inner pressure for understanding. They see the value of the teaching to the point of being unable to function or think other than in its terms.
Membership is a commitment, and the group pressure is for deep understanding, not simple conformity. So the adherent’s consciousness becomes unequivocally altered leading to an orthodoxy that binds all members. Members appear to outsiders to “believe in” the teaching, but the insider just experiences an awareness like “clear vision”. Insiders describe outsiders as being blind, or suffering “wrong thinking” or “false consciousness”. The abandonment of orthodox beliefs in favour of some alternative is viewed as heresy (or apostasy in religions) and usually leads to defection or forcible extrusion or excommunication.
Detailed analysis commences here.
Q6: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in a Spiritual Tradition
are about getting to know a sacred or divine realm apart from the everyday mundane world. Contact with this realm is possible and members may experience or even merge with it. Explaining the path requires use of mythic-L'7 language to create powerful archetypal images which are brought into daily life via special (sacred) names created with logical-L'6 language.
The shared reality which leads to knowing within a spiritual tradition is about a direct and largely ineffable experience of the divine.
Membership is based on an inner sense of the divine leading to a search for a tradition whose practices and beliefs are congenial. Attunement to a particular spiritual path leads to connection, which is the binding force for the group. There is a pressure for autonomy within all traditions, because each individual must exercise a constant self-discipline so necessary if spiritual practices are to produce the desired results. Unsuitable or improper ideas or practices are desecration and viewed as polluting the purity of the group.
Preliminary notes are provided here.
Q7: Knowing/Knowledge of Shared Reality
in an Artistic Event
are founded in images created via language so as to have power, and then realized in the world via language so as to exist for others.
The shared reality is something created de novo without prior existence and without any requirement to be developed other than as those involved determine. So the group comes into existence around an imaginative project, and mostly or completely disperses following its completion. Participation in an artistic event may be paid or unpaid. If there are a sequence of related events, ongoing participation may be helpful, but that is not expected or guaranteed.
Membership is based on direct and indirect participation in the event. While events need to be financed, money alone does not buy quality. There is an internal group pressure for selflessness in the service of art. So a willing dedication is the binding force and without it, the event fails and the group disintegrates. The basis for exclusion here is incompatibility.
Preliminary notes are provided here.
Cumulation
Both the binding forces and bases for exclusion cumulate as the Arenas are ascended. So at the one extreme, a only requires responsiveness and suffers from irresponsibility. The association can persist, albeit not ideally, despite problems like deceit, disruption, heresy etc. While at the other extreme, an requires all of dedication, connection, orthodoxy, consent, credibility, accountability and responsiveness. Similarly, the excludes participants (or fails to cohere) due to incompatibility, desecration, defection, disruption, deceit, incompetence or irresponsibility.
Not only do these 7 Arenas address different realities, each level within an Arena has a slightly different perception and construal of reality in accord with the use of language. This phenomenon was examined in detail with regard to work in organisations-Q2, but it surely applies to all Arenas.
Originally posted: 15-Jul-2022. Last updated: 20-Mar-2023.