The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry.

Abstract

Editor’s Introduction: We feel privileged to republish portions of The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry. Originally published by SAGE in 1991, the book’s copyright has reverted to the author, who wished to share our selection of excerpts as a contribution to this special issue’s theme. Torbert’s body of work has always been about fostering “the development of politics and the political,” at each of the scales highlighted in the book’s title, as well as in all of the domains in which he has served. As he wrote in the original preface to the book, the work was 20 years in the making, and now, nearly 20 years after that, we wish for at least some portions of this classic work to be back in circulation. 2 The “power of balance” as conceived by Torbert represents an integral paradigm of principles, theory, and praxis. Deployed, the paradigm is one that can indeed inform and shape the development of self, society, and scientific inquiry. To explicate that fulsome vision, the book’s fifteen chapters develop the themes of three sections: Theory and Strategy, Heart and Practice, and Vision and Method. Here, we have excerpted from several chapters in Theory and Strategy, and from one chapter in Vision and Method. This means, of course, that we present but a small fraction of this integral classic, leaving out all of the rich, in-depth illustrations, including the author's learning practice as he first attempted to enact the principles. Yet, we hope even this abbreviated form of The Power of Balance supports at least two goals: to offer deployable insights and practices for developing politics and the political; and to take root as part of a foundational canon for integral political thought, research, and praxis. How we readers deploy these principles in our own actions will determine the degree to which self, society, and scientific inquiry transform.