The fundamental idea of Holoarchies - as contrasted with Hierarchies - is that they can best be diagrammed as overlapping and intertwined helixes rather than a series of disconnected, linearly arranged pyramids. They are furthermore inherently chaordic (blending characteristics of chaos and order) and dynamic. Hierarchies, on the other hand, due to actions of their tops (elites, in human socio-economic relationships) aim for rigidity and stasis, respectively, of form and function.
In the diagram below, there are a number of differently sized concentric circle "entities". Each represents a particular holon and the concentric circles its parts.
Contrast this with ossified hierarchies:
Intertwined Processes of Self-Actualization and Self-Contextualization
The first is inward-directed, the second outward-directed
"Harnessing" the power of diffused energy of the Fair Planet Polity
Individual actions can harmonize and resonate with like actions through coherence. They become self-contextualizing.
Here we concerns ourselves with the possible goals of the process of Being-Becoming, at any level. Such a process is primarily a movement toward wholeness. In terms of the Flow-Structure model of understanding of this phenomenon, the progression is that from mostly Flow, to mostly Structure. Another way to express it is to say that Flow is mostly about Becoming. Structure is mostly about Being. In here, "stucture" is defined as the point at which any process becomes morphologically and behaviorally "set". All action undertaken can be "mapped" somewhere on the Holon Continuum Diagram.
Multivalent, "whole-in-the-part" thinking allows us to better understand the full continuum of life's holons.
One good way to understand holoarchies is to contrast them (for illustrative purposes only) with hierarchies. Confusion is likely to arise about the essential differences between the two, because, in our ordinary daily discourse, we tend to use hierarchical descriptions indiscriminately.
