Comparative Dynamics: Healthy Collectivities and the Pattern Which Connects

Abstract

In this paper, I introduce the notion of “comparative dynamics” and the importance of connectivity as an essential and vital underlying principle for healthy collectivities. Such a notion resonates with Gregory Bateson’s idea of the “pattern which connects,” suggesting not only the functional importance of connectivity as an aspect of a healthy organization at some given scale, but also connectivity as an important principle, which is the basis for how all living patterns are connected together. This paper ends with some reflections on why and how teachers experience stress and burnout as an absence of connectivity while highlighting its importance in the well-being of teachers in healthy learning organizations.