Reflection

This statement was made by David Gruen while commenting on the GFC. “Your views are so tightly held as to be impervious to new information” I think that it has wider implications than the GFC in the subjects that we are exploring.

Expansion is the opposite of this imperviousness. Expansion and new knowledge depend on the ability to be open to the unexpected and previously impossible. New knowledge is formed with tenacity, curiosity, the ability to be tangential and look for new knowledge in unexpected places and draw connections between disparate disciplines. Hopefully all of these things can be helpful in unravelling complexity. Lawrence Cram first mentioned expansion in his introduction

"Engestroem states that the alternative to reactive forms of problem solving is EXPANSION which transcends the given context. He is deeply committed to the proposition that “expansive learning” is the essence of the kind of learning that is required of humans. He concedes that this is an elusive idea, and one which is sometimes seen to lie in the domain of mysticism."

The melee of comment following the famed GFC seems representative of this reactive problem solving. However, expansionary knowledge does still seem a fabled and elusive idea.