Perspectiva

Who we are

On Perspectiva

‘Perspectives on Systems, Souls and Societies’ (known as Perspectiva) officially came into being at the end of 2016, co-founded by Scottish Philosopher and Chess Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson, and Swedish Entrepreneur and Social Theorist Tomas Bjorkman. Based on their own professional experiences at the Royal Society of Arts in London and The Club of Rome respectively (See Spiritualise and The World we Create) the co-founders saw an opportunity to offer intellectual insight and network initiative to better connect collective action challenges to the nature, meaning and purpose of life as a whole.

Perspectiva’s purpose is to inspire and inform cultural, intellectual and civil society leaders to develop a fuller appreciation of reality than we find in most legacy institutions; more precisely an appreciation that our world contains three different kinds of world – broadly the objective external world (systems) the inner subjective world (souls) and the shared inter-subjective and inter-objective world (society). Moreover, our historical judgment is that this is ‘a time between worlds’ when we are living in the protracted and dangerous process of modernity coming to end. Theoretically, that means we need to conceive of a viable future that is not just one new world but three in relationship, operating as one. In practice it means humanity-writ-large faces the task of navigating catastrophic ecological risks, chronic economic instability and potential political dystopia while at the same time, attempting to imagine, fight for, and create a new kind of world based on different philosophical premises, sensibilities and institutions.

Perspectiva is based in London but operates mostly online and some of our activity is international. Our main activities include essay and book publishing (Perspectiva Press) an annual festival (The Realisation Festival) social and spiritual innovation (eg The Antidebate) and convening a metamodern field of praxis (Emerge). We are about to produce a range of courses and an event series and other even more ambitious fans are afoot.

Our work begins from the conviction that the sense of incipient ecological and political collapse that many are now experiencing cannot be ‘solved’ with politics or the media as we know it, nor even with new policy. Our problems are seismic (beyond borders and individual actors) axial (a turning point in history) and kairotic (awash with meaning and time-sensitivity). The processes we are contending with now arise from a shift in geological time, technology often serving private rather than public interest, capitalism running out of frontiers, multiple forms of democratic jeopardy and, above all, a kind of spiritual delusion and amnesia. The human species is not acting as it knows who it is, or what it is living for.

We are in the business of pragmatic intellectual leadership that is worthy of the challenges of our times. And yet this is a paradoxical challenge, because the intellectual function of making sense is regularly defeated by the news cycle and by the inability of truth to influence power. We therefore see ourselves as aspiring expert generalists who are wholeheartedly out of our depth. Our staff, associates, supporters and networks are some combination of scholars, artists, activists and spiritual seekers who are concerned by the state and direction of the world and interested in how different kinds of reality (complex systems, inner life, social discourse) might inform each other better, in a way that helps us overcome our immunity to change, and begin to imagine and create different kinds of world within the one we are already part of. The short way of putting this is that we are working on an urgent one hundred project to improve the relationship between systems, souls and societies in theory and practice.

Perspectiva has evolved into a collective of applied philosophers and expert generalists. We are not a think-tank because we aim to influence culture change at scale rather than government policy, and we value the intellect, we recognise that mere thinking has limitations. We seek to become a new organisational form combining some of the best work of a great university (e.g. Harvard) an effective campaigning organisation (e.g. Friends of the Earth) and a respected spiritual retreat centre (e.g. Findhorn). Some say we are a ‘a soul tank’, while others hate that expression! We are also climate activists in disguise, in the sense that we are working on the spiritual roots of the political basis of the ecological crisis.

 2. Job security and progression in the context of our financial strategy
Perspectiva is a registered charity (CIO) in England and Wales, which means we are run for the public benefit on a non-profit basis with all revenue earned being invested back into the charity. To fulfil our charitable purposes, continue operating well, and to attract and retain excellent people to work with and for us, we need to continually seek out and generate revenue to pay for our running costs and project costs. Over the last five years we have successfully raised funds from ten philanthropic organisations and our main supporters are The Fetzer Institute and The JJ Trust. We also have a modest but growing income stream from direct donations, our book sales, public events, and we will soon be offering online courses, and potentially some consultancy. Around 95% of our funding currently comes from philanthropy, but to improve resilience and independence, over the next 3-5 years we aim to move towards a hybrid funding model where this figure is closer to 50%. We need everyone applying to join us in 2022 to know that the organisation is about to become more entrepreneurial, and to want to be part of this transition.

The financial viability of Perspectiva is ultimately the responsibility the Executive Director and we are recruiting because the organisation is currently in good financial health. However, all applicants are expected to be fully aware of the financial context they would be joining, because as members of staff they would be expected to contribute to raising funds directly or indirectly depending on their job description. The point worth sharing now is that even if fundraising as such may not be the plot of your job, it is a critical part of the setting of the organisation, and you will be an important character on that stage. The context does not mean “you have to earn your own salary” as such, but you should not apply to join Perspectiva without a keen awareness that your job security and progression is directly related to the organisation’s business model, and you will have some shared responsibility for making it work. 

Depending on your skills and interests, your responsibility might entail writing funding applications, but it is more likely to mean some combination of course and community development, enabling direct funding online, administrative support for courses or applications, improving the organisation’s profile and impact through social media, reputation development and partnership building, creating or curating revenue-generating or fundable project ideas, etc.