A new conceptual paper is now published on Zenodo:
Measurement Without Reductionism: Operationalising Coherence in Human Systems
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19427591
This paper addresses a question that sits underneath much of my work:
If coherence matters, how do we observe and work with it without reducing it to something it is not?
In many fields, coherence is either used too loosely to guide real practice, or reduced to narrow metrics that fail to capture lived complexity. This paper takes a different approach. It proposes a framework for operationalising coherence that remains usable without collapsing experience into a single variable.
The core argument is simple:
Coherence is not a single measure. It is a patterned condition that can be observed across multiple domains — physiological, emotional, cognitive, behavioural, relational, and systemic — and must be understood in relation to phase, scale, and context.
The paper introduces a non-reductive methodology based on:
- clear distinction between indicators, proxies, interpretations, and claims
- triangulation across first-person, second-person, and third-person observation
- phase-sensitive interpretation (coherence, decoherence, recoherence)
- attention to temporal pattern rather than static snapshots
It also addresses a growing issue in both research and practice:
That measurement, when misapplied, can distort the very systems it is attempting to understand.
This paper sits within an ongoing sequence of work exploring coherence across different registers:
- Field-Based Psychology: Registers of Inquiry in Consciousness Studies
- Psycho-Thermodynamics: A Functional Model of Load, Rhythm, and Coherence in Human Systems
- The Coherence Cycle: A Cross-Scale Process Model of Stabilisation, Destabilisation, and Reorganisation in Human Systems
These papers are not isolated pieces. They form part of a longer-planned body of work that also underpins a series of books currently being released.
The intention is not to produce abstract theory for its own sake, but to develop a coherent, usable framework for understanding human systems — from individual experience through to relational, organisational, and societal scales.
The full paper is available here:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19427591
