Systems Sensing and Systemic Constellation for Organizational Transformation

This paper examines how a systems sensing—or felt-sense—approach and orientation to inquiry and systemic constellation practice might help social change organizations cultivate capacities to better navigate complexity, both in their outer-facing work and internal dynamics as teams and as individuals. We present a pilot study of systemic constellation practice, sharing the experience of participants during and after the practice, as well as our own reflexive process. Currently an undertheorized and underutilized approach within systems thinking work, systems sensing and systemic constellation, can reveal less visible but nevertheless foundational dynamics at play in an organizational body, and can help create more awareness through widening ways of knowing in the organizational playground. We explore how the facilitated collective sense-making process of systemic constellation engages subtle ways of knowing specifically energetic, relational, and embodied knowing, building on what Heron and Reason (2008) have called an “extended epistemology.” As we suggest, these more subtle ways of knowing warrant further study, particularly as they may contribute to action research methods and foster a more participatory culture of transformation at both an organizational and societal level.

“Breonna Taylor Could Have Been Me”: Bearing Witness to Faith in Black (Feminist) Futurity at the Speed Art Museum’s Promise, Witness, Remembrance Exhibit

This article explores the Speed Art Museum’s exhibit, Promise, Witness, Remembrance, as a site of meaning-making in the wake of the state-sponsored killing of Breonna Taylor. The article focuses on how the curators engaged the felt sense of vulnerability to premature death among Black viewers identified with Taylor in ways that held in tension a crisis of faith in, and an insistence upon, Black futurity.

“I Am Like a Lost Child”: L2 Writers' Linguistic Metaphors as a Window Into Their Writer Identity

The past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning literature on L2 writers' identities, especially their discoursal identities. In contrast, little attention is paid to the writers' felt sense of self when they write in an L2, which is an integral dimension of their autobiographical self. In this article, we provide empirical evidence of the nature of this aspect of L2 writer identity. To illustrate, we analyzed linguistic metaphors elicited from three groups of L2 writers (N = 83), majoring respectively in Thai, Japanese, and English in a Chinese university. Descriptive analysis shows that, due to challenges in content, language, organization, and cultural differences, a majority of L2 writers, especial Thai and Japanese L2 writers, experience a diminishing sense of self when they write in L2. In contrast, some L2 writers, especially English L2 writers, find writing in an L2 liberating, revealing the impact of their individual learning trajectories and pedagogical practices on L2 writers' felt sense of self. Findings suggest that L2 writers' identity work is both complex and dynamic. L2 writing teachers can utilize the metaphor questionnaire as a tool to facilitate their learner needs analysis and to raise L2 writers' metacognition.

A new perspective and assessment measure for common dissociative experiences: ‘Felt Sense of Anomaly’

Background Dissociative experiences occur across a range of mental health disorders. However, the term ‘dissociation’ has long been argued to lack conceptual clarity and may describe several distinct phenomena. We therefore aimed to conceptualise and empirically establish a discrete subset of dissociative experiences and develop a corresponding assessment measure. Methods First, a systematic review of existing measures was carried out to identify themes across dissociative experiences. A theme of ‘Felt Sense of Anomaly’ (FSA) emerged. Second, assessment items were generated based on this construct and a measure developed using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses of 8861 responses to an online self-report survey. Finally, the resulting measure was validated via CFA with data from 1031 patients with psychosis. Results ‘Felt sense of anomaly’ (FSA) was identified as common to many dissociative experiences, affecting several domains (e.g. body) and taking different forms (‘types’; e.g. unfamiliarity). Items for a novel measure were therefore systematically generated using a conceptual framework whereby each item represented a type-by-domain interaction (e.g. ‘my body feels unfamiliar’). Factor analysis of online responses found that FSA-dissociation manifested in seven ways: anomalous experiences of the self, body, and emotion, and altered senses of familiarity, connection, agency, and reality (Χ2 (553) = 4989.435, p<0.001, CFI = 0.929, TLI = 0.924, RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.047). Additionally, a single-factor ‘global FSA’ scale was produced (Χ2 (9) = 312.350, p<0.001, CFI = 0.970, TLI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.107, SRMR = 0.021). Model fit was adequate in the clinical (psychosis) group (Χ2 (553) = 1623.641, p<0.001, CFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.043, SRMR = 0.043). The scale had good convergent validity with a widely used dissociation scale (DES-II) (non-clinical: r = 0.802), excellent internal reliability (non-clinical: Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98; clinical: Cronbach’s alpha = 0.97), and excellent test-retest reliability (non-clinical: ICC = 0.92). Further, in non-clinical respondents scoring highly on a PTSD measure, CFA confirmed adequate model fit (Χ2 (553) = 4758.673, CFI = 0.913, TLI = 0.906, RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.054). Conclusions The Černis Felt Sense of Anomaly (ČEFSA) scale is a novel measure of a subset of dissociative experiences that share a core feature of FSA. It is psychometrically robust in both non-clinical and psychosis groups.