Transforming the Institutional Logic of the Centre through Indigenous Wisdom

We posit that the system for development intensifying globally is generated from what we are calling the Logic of the Centre, a set of values and interests expressed and imposed through market mechanisms underpinned by system-preserving instrumental ethics. We seek to contribute to the growing exposure of embedded contradictions and paradoxes internal to the Logic of the Centre that are more likely to come under examination when aspects of its taken-for-granted attractiveness are challenged in some way. We recognise that exposure of contradictions, conflicts and paradoxes in a system does not automatically bring systemic transformation. We persist in such exposure, however, as a starting point to move from observation to analysis and to support and amplify action. In support of this transformational scholarly mobilisation we draw on the work of Seo and Creed (2002) who invite exposure of contradictions and paradoxes as a form of praxis. We juxtapose the Logic of the Centre with contrasting ideas drawn from Indigenous ways of being in order to find conversations through which we may transform our relationships with each other, with Earth and with all her creatures. We offer an adaptation of a governance metaphor that might allow for integrity in the co-ordination of diverse values in our cohabitation on and with Earth.