This inquiry grew from a question that came up through our work in narrative and culture change: what if some of the stories we come across feel more intuitive because of deeper cultural assumptions about what is normal or desirable? Following that question has widened our attention to how worldviews are continually produced through our relationships, institutions, environments, technologies, rituals, symbols and everyday practices.
‘Deep dispositions’ is a provisional term we’ve been using during this inquiry to point towards the deeper, largely unconscious assumptions about who we (as humanity) are, our relationships with each other and with the rest of life. These messy, emergent patterns are continually being formed and reinforced through our ongoing interactions with the world, including our relationships, the stories and ideas we’re exposed to, our encounters with institutions, material environments, everyday practices and embodied experiences. We’ve sometimes found it helpful to think of them as something like cultural habits.