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The Proteus Initiative

approaching an ecology of consciousness

We work with all aspects of social change – consulting, facilitating, writing, teaching. We strive to bring together a sensibility for, understanding of, and practice towards the relationship between ecological wholeness and social coherence and healing. Enabling people to stretch their processes of inner and outer development to greater edges and depths; this is the foundation for socially responsive and life-supporting practices.

This innovative approach to Reflective Social Practice can be taken further by undertaking a postgraduate training up to and including Masters level, to learn more about this please contact us.

2024 contains various initiatives, both online and in-person, and we hope you may join us for at least one of them.

On-line:
Enabling Life - An international online programme touching on the threads of a Delicate Activism, through a Reflective Social practice. For more information and to view the brochure, please CLICK HERE. This programme has already begun, however, it is possible to join the waitlist for the next cohort, if you wish to enquire please CONTACT US.

In Person:
We are planning various programmes and initiatives for 2024, to ensure you are notified when booking opens, please subscribe to our newsletter HERE or Contact us HERE

A GOETHEAN KNOWING
September 2024
A GOETHEAN KNOWING
VIEW PDF

Books and other publications

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Fugitive

by Allan Kaplan

Emerging from a unique Goethean approach to human experience—developed over a lifetime, applied here to life during the first three years of the Covid era, from a mountain in South Africa— Fugitive is both a poetic record and a contemplative, scientific roadmap.

In striving to make himself a vessel for sensing the dynamics of our time—the struggle for meaning, the will toward freedom, the experience of powerlessness and surrender, and the urge to defend and secure the capacity for human thinking and discernment—Kaplan allows the profound questions of our time to arise and be explored in thought that is free of the compulsion to arrive at fixed conclusions.

In pondering the elements of nature and the laws governing them, we find the active forces of life and health; we glimpse wisdom at work and, often, beauty. One might be reminded: we, too, are a part of nature, and this wisdom of nature, encountered competently, may serve as a guide in facing the tasks of recognizing, embodying, and preserving the essence of our humanity in these darkening times.

Here is a little book—an example in practice—to help strengthen our humanity.

“Following Goethe, I do not seek explanation, and I do not write about anything that is separate from me. My own development through these years, and the developments threading these three years themselves, are one. I try...to portray the character of the emergent social predicament that we are all participant in, and responsible for.”
If you wish to obtain a copy of this book, please contact us at .

 

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A Delicate Activism - A Radical Approach to Change

by Allan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff | Published 2014 by The Proteus Initiative

This short book explores a way, a practice, we’re calling ‘a delicate activism’, a path that demands a thorough reappraisal of the role we actually play in social change. A delicate activism is truly radical in that it is aware of itself, and understands that its way of seeing is the change it wants to see.

Read an excerpt from the book >>
Our ecology is so fragile, and our social fabric so fraught, that every step we take towards enhancing life risks knotting the skein. Already our footprints are everywhere, but we simply seem to trample our own best intentions underfoot. There is something we may be missing – because many attempts at working with change snag on their own assumptions. How can we approach the world differently?

This short book explores a way, a practice, we’re calling ‘a delicate activism’, a path that demands a thorough reappraisal of the role we actually play in social change.  It seems that an activism that emphasises action to the diminution of reflection, that rewards outer effect and ignores inner awareness, that focuses on the other but occludes the self, that extols results (almost as commodities) without sufficient regard for the process of getting there, cannot succeed in following the actual complexities of social change. Ironically, it renders us onlookers rather than participants, and actually retards change.  A delicate activism is truly radical in that it is aware of itself, and understands that its way of seeing is the change it wants to see.  This heralds a seismic shift towards a more social and ecological form of activism, towards a future that supports life.
This book is currently available as a PDF or softcover hardcopy. For further enquiries or to order a copy in the format of your choice, please contact us at .

 

learning school

The Learning School: a Psycho-Social Approach

Buy Here Sue Davidoff, Sandy Lazarus, Nadeen Moolla
ISBN: 9781485102410
Published by Juta

The Learning School is a stimulating and essential handbook for principals, teachers, district support practitioners and others interested in the holistic development of schools, particularly within a developing context such as South Africa.

Read more >>
Developing effective schools which provide relevant, meaning-filled, quality education in South Africa today is a daunting task. Since apartheid was dismantled, the educational environment of many schools is still rife with the structural inequalities and challenges that form part of the apartheid legacy. And in the current South African educational system, enabling policy frameworks only go so far in creating a meaningful school environment.

This updated edition of The Learning School offers educators insights, guidelines and a holistic perspective on how to engage with the development of a school, using a psycho-social approach. It emphasises the importance of teachers having a sense of purpose and belonging in education; that teaching and learning can make a difference; and the crucial role teaching and learning can play as a healing force in society. It stresses that real and lasting change in schools can only happen through the passion and commitment of educators over a sustained period of time.

The book also offers:
A framework for understanding your school in a holistic way.
Organisation development strategies for addressing particular problems.
Practical workshop exercises and activities.
A case study of a South African school.

 

Al-book-one

The Development Practitioners Handbook

Buy Here by Allan Kaplan
ISBN: 9780745310213
Published by Pluto Press

"It will be treasured for the deft interweaving of theoretical concepts with honest, sometimes painful commentary on personal practice."
- Gavin Andersson, Director of Development Resources Centre

 

Al-book-two

Development Practitioners and Social Process - Artists of the Invisible

Buy Here by Allan Kaplan
ISBN: 9780745310183
Published by Pluto Press

This book explores the practice of organisation development and group change in a way that will appeal to anyone involved in working towards social transformation. Drawing on extensive experience gained through many years of process consultancy within the development sector - mainly in Africa and Europe - as well as on the work of Goethe and Jung, Allan Kaplan presents a radically new approach to the understanding of organisations and communities and to the practice of social development

Read more >>
Challenging the tendency to reduce development to a technical operation that attempts to control, Kaplan's approach embraces the full complexity of the process of social transformation. He describes the terrain of social change whilst simultaneously providing exercises through which practitioners can enrich their abilities to respond to the mix of chaos and order which characterise social development. Exploring this delicate balance, Kaplan inspires a sense of responsibility and possibility for the discipline, and reveals how development groups can intervene in social situations in a manner that is both humane and effective.

 

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Artista De Lo Invisible

by Allan Kaplan | Published 2015 by The Proteus Initiative

Buy Here "Leerte me ha dado un enorme placer, y estoy muy contento no solo por tu dedicaciÛn a la pedagogÌa de la percepciÛn intuitiva, sino tambiÈn por el arte en asistir el cambio social" - Claudio Naranjo (Psiquiatra y educador chileno). "Leer este libro es como volver a encontrarse una y otra vez con ese amigo que nos acompaÒa en nuestras incertidumbres pero que al mismo tiempo nos invita a ir por m·s y nuevos desafÌos. Con "Artistas de lo invisible" a mano, para leer y releer, resignificar su propuesta ante cada experiencia a travÈs de sus ejercicios, nuestra tarea como facilitadores de procesos de cambio seguir· siendo (siempre) incierta.

 

Artistas do invisível: O processo social e o profissional de desenvolvimento

Artistas do invisível: O processo social e o profissional de desenvolvimento

by Allan Kaplan
ISBN: 8575960431
Published by Editora Peirópolis

Buy Here
Paper Version Buy Here
Kindle Version Em 'Artistas do Invisível', Allan Kaplan apresenta uma abordagem radicalmente nova para a compreensão das organizações e comunidades e para a prática de desenvolvimento social. Confrontando a tendência de se reduzir o desenvolvimento social a uma operação técnica controlável, a abordagem de Kaplan acolhe toda a complexidade do processo de transformação social. Neste livro, o autor escreve baseado em sua vasta experiência adquirida ao longo de anos de consultoria em processos de desenvolvimento - principalmente na África e na Europa -, assim como em seus estudos das obras de Goethe e Jung. Assim, Kaplan nos oferece um ponto de vista diferenciado, com uma abordagem atraente e original da prática do desenvolvimento organizacional e das mudanças de grupo.

Have a look...

  • The Proteus Initiative around the globe in 2019
Turning to our Roots
22 - 26 May 2019, Towerland

Turning to our Roots

An exploration through nature constellations and dance into our connection with land and ancestry. READ FULL INVITATION HERE
.
August 2019 sees the return of A WRITER'S BLOCK to The Towerland Wilderness

 cottage1
                                     
 READ FULL BROCHURE HERE.

The Proteus Initiative in Chile in 2019 
The Proteus Initiative offers a new long term programme, starting in Chile in March 2019.
A Delicate Activism - Building a reflective social practice, read full programme details HERE.


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Contact Us

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Contact Us

The Proteus Intiative

5 Rose Way

Constantia 
7806

South Africa

Administration:

Ainsley Taylor
Directors:

Allan Kaplan & Sue Davidoff


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