Synergistics & the Mind-Lab

Welcome to Synergistics – the art and science of building synergy by collective intelligence, for sustainability, prosperity and resilience, in turbulent times.

And welcome to the Mind-Lab – a space for experimentation on collective intelligence – a.k.a. ‘Laboratory of Collective Intelligence’ or Collaboratorium . 

Our aim is the mapping and design of new systems of human collaboration – in cities, economies, ecologies, technologies, and whole societies – in order to live together on one small planet. This calls for a new operating system, one of emerging collective intelligence  – not only evolution but co-evolution…  The source text is a ‘handbook for the 21st century’ – ‘Deeper City and the pathways from smart to wise’  (see some reviews).  On this site you will find 4 main menus (see the overviews below) –

• Mind-Lab  – an experimental zone for learning & thinking on collective intelligence.
• Themes – 4 main programs including ‘cities, ecologies and technologies’, with a Foresight 3.0 program on the overlap.
• Projects – recent and current projects which explore & test the collective intelligence potential
• Toolkits – a set of practical methods, tools, examples and guidance:

Also you are invited to join the Mind-Lab community for updates & invitations

News & events

2025

• Urban Futures Forum, 9th July 2025. This program explores the dynamic cycle of change, the likely nexus of catastrophe, and the potential ‘connexus’ of transformation… here we look at the case of  ‘Urban Shrinkage in China’ with guest speaker Prof. Kai Zhou, University of Hunan. 
• Urban Resilience Forum,10th July 2025: with accelerating ‘urban whiplash’ of extreme heat/fire / storm/flood, and tipping points of ‘new world disorder’ … here we map a bigger picture of system level resilience, and extend the 2015 ‘City Resilience Framework’ with mapping of examples in progress. 
• Co-futuring with FO-CHAI (Foresight with ‘Collective Human Artificial Intelligence’) – 24th July online – this is a follow up to the Foresight 3.0 workshop in May – with demonstrations and discussion of 4 working platforms, showing the prospects and possible perils of outsourcing foresight… 
• Foresight 3.0 interactive workshop & keynote at the Future4Europe  Vienna May15-16 – Future-Oriented Collective Intelligence (‘FOCI’) for complex interconnected challenges & opportunities
• the Foresight 3.0 special issue published Feb 2025  with 11 excellent papers, will also be launched in Vienna
• Keynote & book launch – Eco-opolis – space&place at the International Round Table »The guardian of the space??« April 24-26th, Fortress of Culture Šibenik, Croatia,
• Durham Energy Council 15 & 29th July – the unborn descendants meet the ancester who saw it all…. details to follow
• PURL (peri-urban-rural-linkages) – interactive workshop at the IFURL in Songyang China Oct-Nov 2025 – with launch of the full PURL Compendium – details on Peri-wise program
• Peri-urban Global Initiative – workshop / conference on Global South peri-urban challenges & opportunities – at IIT Madras
• 2025 PROSPECT – a ‘Loop-onomix’ collaborative mapping at https://kumu.io/Joeravetz/loop-onomix-test#untitled-map – also visualized here as a game where the winners are survivors who find ways to co-operate

2024

• As a modest contribution to Asia-Pacific futures – the Deeper City book is now available in Vietnamese at Thanh-pho-sau-hon …. (Chinese version is in discussion..)

Future-wise / city-wise themes:

• Citi-verse Pathways – platform / toolkit for collective urban intelligence:– interactive training workshop at the World Urban Forum, Cairo, Nov 6th 0900-1200 EEST: based on the emerging Citi-verse platforms and pathways toolkit

• Foresight 3.0 east-west program: with the Chinese Academy of Science & Technology (CASTED):   Sept 25th 1pm ‘STI intelligence’ seminar at MIOIR:  Sept 25th 4pm ‘Urban Futures east-west forum’ at MUI: Sept 27th 130 @ London – ‘Foresight 3.0’ with Government Office of Science & SAMI consulting: details & registration on Foresight-3.0 CASTED

• Foresight 3.0 capacity building workshop with senior managers from Bouyges, Sept 23-24th.
• ‘Doom loops, eco-wars & the frontiers of systems methods’.  interactive workshop based on the Eco-wars 3.0  program – Sept 11th at the Operational Research Society annual conference
• ‘Collective economic intelligence’ workshop 31st July, London: session at the UCL Summer School on Economics for Sustainability: Climate Change and Social Inequalities – https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/summer-school/modules/economics-for-sustainability
• Envision-MCR:  advice to the next government: 20th June:  Manchester Urban Institute LAB meeting (Local Advisory Board) – exploring challenges from net-zero and housing, to mental health and extremism – for research-policy priorities and forward agendas – Envision MCR

Eco-wise theme:

• ‘Beyond & between – the global compendium of Peri-Urban-Rural Linkages’ – Nov 5^th 1630-1730 EEST, Urban Library room B: global launch of the report to UN Habitat, as the final output of the Peri-cene project, based on the partner cities, from Surabaya to Santiago
• Net-zero city challenge – writing / capacity building workshop, Barcelona: 28-29th October:  with Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and Urban Resilience Research Network: (details shortly)
• Food systems mapping workshop, 30th October: presentation for Public Health Wales, based on the systems approach to environmental policy project for Natural Resources Wales.
• Resilience Forum: 26th June. 1300 (hybrid) –  with Prof. Jorge Inzulza of the University of Chile. With an interactive process of mapping ‘collective resilience intelligence’, we aim to generate future collaborations.  Details – Synergistics | Resilience 3.0
• Circular Economy Ukraine & the ‘collective circular intelligence’:  workshop with the UN Industrial Development Organization, April 17^th 2024 at the World Circular Economy Forum – https://wcef2024.com/ – presenting our Foresight report on Circular Economy Ukraine . 

2023

City-wise theme

• Local Transport Summit 2023 – national conference October 2023:  graphic facilitation / visualization report 
• Global Peri-urban’ Special Issue – we launch the Call on August 4^th – hybrid event at the Indonesia planning conference – icpeu.teknik.ub.ac.id/ – see the Frontiers page https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/57879/land-use-management-in-peri-urban-areas.   Further details & registration on Peri-urban launch

Future-wise theme

• Foresight 3.0 Indonesia August 4-10th 2023: this aims to contribute to the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas). Locations are in Malang, Yogyakarta & Jakarta, with the Nalar Institute (https://nalarinstitute.com/) and Centre for Innovation Policy & Governance (https://cipg.or.id/en/).
•  Foresight 3.0 Special Issue Launch – 13th April 2023.  Exploring the theme of ‘collective foresight intelligence’ this issue is nearly complete – launch expected in July 2024. See  foresight-3-0-special-issue/

 Climate-wise theme:

• Eco-wars-3.0  – exploring the interface of climate tipping points & societal tipping points: Sept 29^th 2023, 1600 BST:  open meeting pre-COP 28 for synthesis & ‘summary for policy-makers’.
• ‘How to survive the 21^st century’ – workshop 21^st July 2023, Manchester: for the China-UK project on International Resilient Cities, we bring new methods of risk / resilience analysis, to look beyond the city limits at whole urban / peri / regional systems. The enquiry continues with a follow-on workshop in Changsha 21^st Details – joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk

Welcome to the book

The book is about the Symbio-polis – shorthand for the co-evolution, not only of material cities but the civilization which produces them – of which there are many deeper layers in the deeper city…. 

So the book aimed high – to visualize challenges and forward pathways, in text, system mapping, and visualizations – here are various materials –

• Deeper City quick tour  – overview of ideas, stories, methods and tools

• Deeper City – Reviews – from 12 leading thinkers

• Deeper cities wider views  – Joe Ravetz in conversation with Effie Amanatidou  – for the backstory and forward look

• Deeper City – Ch1 – prologue – bigger ideas, wider visions, FAQs and how to use the book…
• Example keynote: CHAI – ‘Collective Human-Artifical Intelligence’ – for the International Smart City Forum at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference Shanghai – WAIC-Joe-Ravetz.mp4   (with dual language script WAIC-Joe-Ravetz-Chinese-English)

A wider set of resources are shared with the visual thinking ‘sand-pit’ of Urban-3.0 –  further samples from  The Book:    the Mind Games and Political Games with visual storylines : background on the  Synergistics ideas & methods: deeper and wider insights and experiments in Visual Thinking.)

Welcome to the Collaboratorium

In this Collaboratorium / Mind-Lab  we aim to explore the frontiers and principles of ‘collective intelligence’, its methods and tools, and practical applications.  We aim to demonstrate the pathways forward, with analysis, examples, guidance, methods & tools.

Following a first phase of experimentation (2020-22), a forward plan is now forming with 4 main strands:

1. Projects & case studies: experiments & applications, new & ongoing: some have open invitations to participate
2. Community & dialogue: debates and symposia, ‘lab tours’, online comment;
3. Research & publication: compile special issues and a multi-author ‘CI-Book’ (‘collective intelligence book of online knowledge’);
4. Policy & practice: disseminate results, methods & tools, with ‘white papers’ & practical guides.

This is planned as a multi-year program, exploring a range of topics in 4 key themes and their intersections:

• City-wise theme: ‘Peri-urban-wise’ & ‘MCR-wise’
• Smart-wise theme: ‘CHAI-wise’ & ‘Local-wise’
• Eco-wise theme : ‘Climate-wise’ & ‘Bio-wise’.
• ‘Foresight 3.0’ is at the intersection of these clusters, with studies on collective intelligence, futures methods & applications: (also, ‘Pandemonics-3.0’ was a key focus 2020-22). 

Forward thinkers and interested co-authors are invited to join these workshops as they come up on the links. 

For comments or queries, contact joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk

Virtual hub

Through the pandemic, the Collaboratorium provided a unique 3D virtual hub / meeting place / coffee bar / water garden and lookout point – (designed by the Visioning Lab/ on a platform courtesy of Mozilla Hubs).

With an inspiring set of spaces, based on ‘earth / air / fire / water’ cosmology, this was perfect for virtual coffee /informal networking after intensive meetings…. We are now launching with FrameIO a next generation virtual space – details shortly…

New projects & initiatives

• Foresight 3.0 Ukraine circular economy – working with UNIDO on the longer term prospects for Ukraine as a innovative and sustainable circular economy
• International resilient cities  – China-UK project: exploring new methods of risk / resilience analysis, to look beyond the city limits at whole urban / peri-urban linkage systems.
• Eco-wars-3.0 – This unique and very topical project explores the interactions of climate tipping points with human tipping points. Each side is hyper-complex, volatile & vulnerable – with the synergistic approach, we invite participants for co-production of a ‘collective climatic intelligence’ .
• Ground zone / Liveable city toolkit:  The Ground Zone project is an Innovation Lab collaboration between the Manchester Urban Institute, and architects / designers Callison RTKL. 
• Local-wise – (Urban participatory research & knowledge loops) – exploring new forms of urban knowledge in Living Lab context, and how they are co-produced between research, policy, business and civil society.