When have you experienced a “generative social field"?

We collaborated with the MIT Systems Awareness Lab in 2024 on a small pilot study conducted in the Fall of 2024.

We collaborated with the MIT Systems Awareness Lab in 2024 on a small pilot study conducted in the Fall of 2024, and asked 26 participants from across the MIT community to describe a time when they experienced a “generative social field.” According to the formal theory, a generative social field is an environment where new ideas, practices, and relationships are created and spread. It's not a static group or organization, but a dynamic, ever-changing space.

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But, how might an average MIT community member come to understand and relate to this term? In addition to teaching about this field of research, we engaged participants in analyzing their own stories–with and without AI-suggested tags.

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The Questions We Asked

Think back to a time you experienced a generative social field.
When did this event happen?
As you are re-evoking this experience, think about the physical space you were in. What do you see?
What sounds do you hear around you?
As you revisit this memory, what do you feel? Where in your body do you feel that?
Being in that moment, anything else you notice in the periphery or peoples’body language?
How would you describe the quality of the relationships between you and the people with you in that memory?

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The Answers We Received

When supported in in-depth reflection, participants noticed details that do not normally come up in stories: nature, silence, ambient noises, laughter, and light.
There are some prerequisites to attaining a generative social field: spaces where mutual care and a sense of the collective can outweigh otherwise difficult power dynamics and self-consciousness
Some experiences were grand (e.g., sky diving, creating art, or making discoveries), but the mundane were just as touching (e.g., a doctor’s visit, a late-night school project, or waiting for the shared shower to open up).

Our Partners

Lana Cook, Associate Director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab
Mette Miriam Boell, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Systems Awareness
Peter Senge, Co-founder, Elder Advisor of the Center for Systems Awareness

Lana Cook, Associate Director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab

JS Needed

“Yeah, I really appreciate your willingness to… show up in this space and really be there and present with the participants. So that wasn't just a team of, like, technologists who are coming in with, like, a shiny tool. It was more about, like, oh, how do we really hold this community space in a way that people can share and be heard?”

Next Steps

Using the qualitative analysis begun by conversation participants and bridging these insights with those from scholars in the generative social fields literature, we hope to deepen our collective understanding of this term as well as how to teach about it.

Get Involved

Check out our opportunities, fill out the interest form to pitch your own project, or email realtalk@mit.edu with questions! We would love to hear from you.