Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous Cultural Analysis with Wide Implications
Review: Spiral Dynamics possesses a childish charm that is typically absent in any study of such intellectual depth. At the core, Spiral Dynamics is a heirarchical (holarchical) evolution of values, motivations and drives. These are WIDELY applicable in business, sociology, anthropology, politics, and foreign policy.
The initial theorems were concocted by the late Clare Graves, and his two predecessors Beck and Cowan have not only adapted these profound analyses to a broader (non-academic) audience, but have added a unique flavor of their own.
Now I have friends who have been mildly exposed to Spiral Dynamics, and they're immediately put off by the color scheme, with a puritanical disgust for anything with such an "unintellectual" resemblance. On top of that, the kiddie analogies even make the reader feel quite... well, admittedly juvenile at times. But the beautiful thing is, these are SERIOUS and PROFOUND discoveries with WIDE implications (as been shown by Beck and Cowan's social and cultural work around the planet); these simplistic representations of such dynamic and deep material helps the student understand the points and quickly push to deeper and more pertinent questions. For instance, instead of saying "The membership-driven meme, desiring conformity and sociocentric awareness," it's much easier to say "The Blue Meme."
On top of that, the book leaves an open-end with the mathematical structure of the spiral which has interesting implications as far as patterns of evolution are concerned (in whatever medium they occur).
Enough of the mumbo-jumbo, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent theoretical framework!
Review: The authors of this book have an excellent theoretical framework and though a bit technical, they explain it very well. The theory is extremely valuable and useful but we should also beware of the inherent danger in theories like this. Because of our egotistical nature as readers, we automatically assume we belong to the higher level memes and begin pigeonholing and stereotyping others assuming that others are at lower level memes never noticing that this type of thinking is one of the characteristics of memes at certain levels. A great book that reminds of the fact that we are all participants in this process and not mere observers looking down from above is "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It shows us that it is not only important to understand the process but to facilitate the process by respectfully participating in it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent theoretical framework!
Review: The conceptual approaches used in this book are the best I have come across in my research as a Social Ecologist. I have been researching systems theory for nearly ten years in attempt to understand why we have so much difficulty learning socially (and to a lesser extent individually) from our experience. While some admirable work has and is been done at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury and in a few other places, none have been able to address the dilemmas of human agency (the use of power) as well as this model.It presents us with the next step with dealing with the dilemmas posed so brilliantly to us by Jarod Diamond in "Guns, Germs and Steel" We humans are fast running out of time to address our own weaknesses and this is a welcome conceptual breakthrough. However it is a pity this book is not written with more generosity and humility or written in more accessable language. The ideas are too important to be tied up in a top end hardcover. I hope someone re-presents these concepts in a more broadly intellectually, culturally and commercially accessable format.(To take a "Meme" leaf out of the book) When it all said and done many of the great intellecual writers in Western Literature are notoriously inaccessable in their writing style. I think we must give the authors the credit they deserve for publishing it, for all its flaws. I am embarassed for the reviewers who cannot see beneath its flaws. A long overdue and welcome book.
Rating:
Summary: May be one of the most important books of the millennium
Review: The flaws in this book should not obscure the fact that this may be one of the most important books on human behavior of the millennium-probably even more important than even the authors realize. For this is the first book to link two of the most important concepts in human behavior of our time-the theories of psychologist Clare Graves and the concept of memes. (I have been working with Graves' theories for about 25 years, and had the pleasure to collaborate with him on a consulting project in 1976. Regarding memes, I have been teaching about them for about 5 years.) Graves integrated "bio-psycho-and socio-" in a way that resulted in the identification of clearly distinct levels of existence, with each level having its own psychological and behavioral characteristics. This was a remarkable revolutionary achievement, especially in light of the subsequent work of others that corroborate the characteristics of each level. Beck and Cowan have conveniently provided excellent references for each level. A second revolutionary idea comes from the 1973 work of Richard Dawkins, who while discussing the need that genes have to replicate themselves ("The Selfish Gene"), also posited the existence of another replicator, a unit of cultural transmission, which he dubbed a "meme" after the French word for imitation. After lying dormant for many years (except at Microsoft-see Richard Brodie's "Virus of the Mind") the concept of memes has arrived. And although I have been teaching about memes for five years, even I have underestimated their importance until recently, thanks to Susan Blackmore's book "The Meme Machine." Since Beck and Cowan are the first to write about the linkage of Graves' theories and memes, they are blazing the trail for what may become a major field of study in the future. And now for some nit picking. The authors use colors (Red, Blue, Orange, etc.) to identify the Gravesian levels. I understand why they did so, because I, too, have grappled with the issue of whether to use Graves' original nomenclature or some other scheme. I personally prefer Graves' original nomenclature, and believe colors have more disadvantages than advantages. Somewhat more troublesome is the authors' tendency not to clearly differentiate Dr. Graves' theories from their own extensions of his work. While I have no trouble separating the two, the average reader would have trouble doing so. Nor am I comfortable with calling the various levels "vMEMES," because it implies that each Gravesian level is primarily memes as opposed to a complex combination of a neuro-chemical predisposition and memes that are compatible with it. One major advantage of Graves' theories is that it allows for prediction of second tier characteristics based on the characteristics of corresponding first tier levels. The authors missed the opportunity to project what the "Coral" (Graves' C'P') level would look like. The authors also omitted consideration of where Graves got some of his memes. They don't mention the early influence of Gerald Heard ("The Five Ages of Man") or the work of Harvey, Hunt and Schroder ("Conceptual Systems and Personality Organization"). Aside from these relatively minor criticisms, Beck and Cowan's book is extremely important because it ushers in a new focus on Gravesian levels and memes-a terrific combination for understanding and predicting human behavior. Hopefully their book will stimulate academic research as well as a wide range of practical applications.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is complete but I am missing something
Review: This book has been well described by other reviewers and is a must read. It is also the book Ken Wilber presently uses in his integral philosophy. The memes presented in this book are clear and very useful. Since Wilber believes there is a third tier, and concentrates very much on second tier, it would be useful to get a second edition providing Cowen and Beck's views.
Wilber also uses this book as the spring board to his Boomeritis book and the green meme. A must book.
Rating:
Summary: Super Book
Review: This book has been well described by other reviewers and is a must read. It is also the book Ken Wilber presently uses in his integral philosophy. The memes presented in this book are clear and very useful. Since Wilber believes there is a third tier, and concentrates very much on second tier, it would be useful to get a second edition providing Cowen and Beck's views.
Wilber also uses this book as the spring board to his Boomeritis book and the green meme. A must book.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable Theory - Difficult Writing
Review: This book is based on the work of Clare W. Graves, a professor of psychology at the Union College (Schenectady, NY) who developed an evolutionary model of values somewhere in the 60ties. I was introduced to this material through the work of Wyatt Woodsmall, who wrote a more accessible introduction to this material as part of the book "Time Line Therapy and the Basis of personality" (published in 1988). If you are interested in studying values and cultures, I recommend buying both books. The two reasons why this book only gets 3 stars are 1) the way it is written and 2) because the authors have written it "as if" they are the *sole* owners of this theory, a kind of thinking that shows they haven't reached the highest level of evolution themselves. The second remark may explain why one cannot distinguish between the original thinking of GRAVES and the extensions of the authors. The first remark explains why this book is hard to "digest": the structure of the book doesn't make it easy to collect all information for each level, nor is it easy to derive from the book how one would apply these principles, say in a therapeutic or business context. Also an index is missing, but that is partly compensated by adding a good resource list at the end of the book. Graves' model is a dynamic model of human consciousness evolution, which includes 7 levels of development, each with particular kinds of thinking and beliefs. At jobEQ we recommend this kind of thinking to find out whether someone you want to hire is "compatible" with your companies culture. Beck and Cowan have been using Graves work on an even larger level: looking at values that are valid across cultures and subcultures in society, for instance helping to resolve conflicts between subcultures in the UK and South-Africa. Patrick E.C. Merlevede -- co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"
Rating:
Summary: Valuable Theory - Difficult Writing
Review: This book is based on the work of Clare W. Graves, a professor of psychology at the Union College (Schenectady, NY) who developed an evolutionary model of values somewhere in the 60ties. I was introduced to this material through the work of Wyatt Woodsmall, who wrote a more accessible introduction to this material as part of the book "Time Line Therapy and the Basis of personality" (published in 1988). If you are interested in studying values and cultures, I recommend buying both books. The two reasons why this book only gets 3 stars are 1) the way it is written and 2) because the authors have written it "as if" they are the *sole* owners of this theory, a kind of thinking that shows they haven't reached the highest level of evolution themselves. The second remark may explain why one cannot distinguish between the original thinking of GRAVES and the extensions of the authors. The first remark explains why this book is hard to "digest": the structure of the book doesn't make it easy to collect all information for each level, nor is it easy to derive from the book how one would apply these principles, say in a therapeutic or business context. Also an index is missing, but that is partly compensated by adding a good resource list at the end of the book. Graves' model is a dynamic model of human consciousness evolution, which includes 7 levels of development, each with particular kinds of thinking and beliefs. At jobEQ we recommend this kind of thinking to find out whether someone you want to hire is "compatible" with your companies culture. Beck and Cowan have been using Graves work on an even larger level: looking at values that are valid across cultures and subcultures in society, for instance helping to resolve conflicts between subcultures in the UK and South-Africa. Patrick E.C. Merlevede -- co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book!
Review: This book provided me with insights about human nature like never before! This explains why people in different memes really can't communicate with each other at a deep level (especially while we are in the first tier memes). It has always been a mystery why people can't understand some things that seem so simple to me. But then again, I am sure that other people feel the same way about me. I feel I understand the yellow meme in my head but emotionally, I'm not really there yet. I've read another terrific book on this type of topic called "The Ever-Transcending Sprit" by Toru Sato that is helping me move in that direction. It looks at this from more of an interpersonal and intergroup perspective and the theory is slightly different but it helps you understand things better from a green-yellow and maybe even turqoise perspective. I guess these books are for people in the green-yellow-turqoise area. Clare Graves and his students are thinkers well beyond our time. I wish that the general public catches up to them a little bit faster than they are doing (for the sake of humanity). But then again, it is a natural process, a natural spiral.
Rating: 
Summary: Is the information in this book useful?
Review: This is not a "fast food" read...It requires some study and practice to apply the information. All I ever want to know is if something works or not. Can the information be used to make life better than we currently share it? If the information can be used to create a new and better reality, then its worthwhile. This CAN be used for this very thing. I'm not going to comment on the content of the book, just some of the "reviews". Who cares if the book is one part Psychology, one part blah, one part blah blah....and on and on.... Take the concepts and APPLY them. Dont "believe" in them, just use them! Try them first, then judge the results. Proof is in the pudding, remember? What matters is what you can do with the stuff, not prove how smart you are by bashing something you havent put to the test. "Well, I dont know if I agree with all of the concepts as presented" "God, what would happen if we broke set, changed for the better and actually created some results?" Our value systems color what we can see, hear and do while we are using them. How do we expand our ability to USE values rather than used by? We've all had our heads in the sand long enough, lets start using things that work and create a world worth bragging about....together.
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