Toward an Integrative Theory of Higher Education: Connecting Lines of Inquiry from Morin’s Complex Thought, Bhaskar’s Critical Realism, and Wilber’s Integral Theory Gary P. Hampson and Matthew Rich-Tolsma To attempt to provide an adequate reading of the interrelationships between Edgar Morin’s Complex Thought (CT), Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism (CR), and Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (IT) feels like something of a daunting task. To attempt to then draw out implications for higher education adds a further dimension of challenge. To do all of this in the short space of an article seems a mission impossible. And yet – from what perspective is such an impossibility imagined? It would presumably include the perceived necessity of sufficient detail and precision; indeed, academic writing and the analytical mind is predicated on this requirement. But if allowance is made for layered expression (perhaps analogous to layered ontology and layered epistemology), then it might be that we could move from the necessity of the binary of either-precision-or-vagueness toward the allowance of a more nuanced articulation of being clear (at one level of expression) about when certain types or degrees of vagueness might be appropriate (at another level). This paper is exploratory, initiatory, indicatory: preparatory work (to be coupled with other preparations) toward an integrative theory of higher education. A little fuzzy logic therefore feels apt in trying to form a short singular narrative pointing to the panorama of horizons offered by these three meta- approaches. 1 We should surely owe our allegiance here to the scholarship of integration (Boyer, 1990) and its prospective interest in meshing, metaphor, and meaning. A certain degree of clustering will therefore be enacted, one which minimizes contestabilities between the three meta-approaches in favour of highlighting similarities. The paper first outlines the three meta-approaches – both in themselves and with respect to (higher) education. 2 This is then followed by a more in-depth indication of their interconnections. A particular limitation is that whilst much of Morin’s work is in French and Spanish, the paper is bounded by Anglophone research. This limitation is ameliorated both by English-language versions of Morin’s key works such as Method (1992) and Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future (1999) as well as by useful English-language overviews of Morin such as those given by Montuori (2004, 2008). Morin’s Complex Thought Morin was born in Paris in 1921, making him more than two decades older that the founders of the other two meta-approaches, and the only one whose work has been directly influenced by the Second World War (Morin, 1946; Montuori, 2008). Morin, a sociologist by training, was originally an active member of the French Communist Party, but was subsequently expelled in 1951. At the time of his retirement, Morin was Emeritus Director of the National Center of Scientific Research and co-founder and Director of the prestigious Edgar Morin Centre of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, both in Paris. He is presently involved in the creation of the Multiversidad Mundo Real Edgar Morin 3 in Mexico. His writing has a “continental” flavour, in some ways reminiscent of his contemporary French philosophers such as Derrida (Montuori, 2004): it tends to be somewhat poetic, playful, humble and self-reflexive. He also has an ongoing propensity to collaborate creatively with artists – something rather rare in the social sciences (Montuori, 2004). His work uniquely integrates such discourses as complex systems science, poststructuralism and neo-Marxism