Professor
Transformative Leadership
Transformative Inquiry Department
School of Consciousness and Transformation (SCT)
Professor
Transformative Studies
Transformative Inquiry Department
School of Consciousness and Transformation (SCT)
PhD, Saybrook Institute
MA, Monterey Institute of International Studies
BA, University of London
Alfonso Montuori is Professor in the Transformative Inquiry Department at California Institute of Integral Studies. A graduate of the University of London, he is the author of several books and numerous articles on creativity, transdisciplinarity, complexity, the future, social change, management, and education. His work has been translated in Italian, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Alfonso also consults with organizations and individuals on creativity, complexity and leadership development.
Alfonso's books include Evolutionary Competence (Gieben, 1989); From Power to Partnership (co-authored with Isabella Conti, Harper San Francisco, 1993); Creators on Creating (co-edited with Barron & Barron, Putnam, 1997); and Social Creativity, vols. 1-2 (co-edited with Ronald E. Purser, Hampton Press, 1999), and Journeys in Complexity (Routledge, 2015). He is currently working with Gabrielle Donnelly on editing The Routledge International Handbook for Creative Futures. In 2006 Alfonso became a San Francisco Library Laureate.
Alfonso has contributed articles in publications such as Academy of Management Review, Futures, Human Relations, Journal of Management Education, Cybernetics & Human Knowing, and the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
In 2003-2004, Alfonso was Wiepking Distinguished Professor in the Fine Arts department at Miami University in Oxford Ohio, and in 2018 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Sapienza University of Rome. Alfonso has also taught at the College of Notre Dame, the Saybrook Institute, and in 1985-1986 in the Management Department at South-Central University in Changsha, Hunan Province, in the People's Republic of China, where he developed and taught the first courses in management and organization theory.
Alfonsoi is Co-Editor of World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, and on the editorial board of numerous academic journals.
He was the founder and General Editor of Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences at Hampton Press, which published important works by Gregory Bateson, Gianluca Bocchi & Mauro Ceruti, Edgar Morin, Ervin Laszlo, and others.
Alfonso has consulted on leadership development, creativity, and innovation with numerous international corporations, including NetApp, UCB (Belgium) U.S. Forest Service, Procter & Gamble, Training Vision (Singapore), Pacific Bell, Stentor Group (Canada), Climate XChange, Kaiser Permanente, Interstate Insurance, Omnitel-Olivetti (Italy), ENEL (Italy) and others.
Alfonso was born in Holland, and grew up in Lebanon, Greece, and England before coming to the United States in 1983. His father was Italian and his mother Dutch, and Alfonso spoke several languages from an early age. He picked up English, his 4th language, at age 12 when his family moved to London. In London Alfonso worked as an interpreter for Scotland Yard and mainly as a professional musician on saxophone and flute, making numerous recordings with his own band and as a session player, as well as gigging extensively throughout England for several years. Over the years he has performed with or produced artists including Roy Hargrove, Joe Henderson, Joe Louis Walker, Charles Brown, Hugh Harris, and Aztec Camera and collaborates with his wife, the jazz singer Kitty Margolis, playing saxophone in her band and as co-producer of her award-winning recordings.
Books
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (Eds.) (In press). Routledge International Handbook for Creative Futures. New York: Routledge.
Montuori, A. (Ed.) (2015). Journeys in Complexity: Autobiographical Accounts by Leading Systems and Complexity Thinkers. New York: Routledge.
Articles and book chapters
Montuori, A. (2022). Complexity. In V. Glaveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave.
Montuori, A. (2022). Crisis of the future. In V. Glaveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave.
Montuori, A. (2022). Interdependence is the key. Mary Catherine Bateson and the myth of individualism. Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 28 (2021), nos. 3-4, pp.49-67
Montuori, A. (2021). Complexifying the future. In Gembillo, F. (Ed.). Complessità ed etica. Armando Siciliano Editore.
Donnelly, G. & Montuori, A. (2021). Engaging creative tensions in activist and social movement spaces. In Tilley, E. (Ed.). Creative Activism: Research, Pedagogy
and Practice. Cambridge Scholars.
Montuori, A. (2021). Il futuro con Edgar Morin. [The future with Edgar Morin] In Ceruti, M. (Ed.). Cento Edgar Morin. Mimesis.
Montuori, A. & Donnelly, G. (2020). Creativity and the future. Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (pp. 250-257). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.
Montuori, A. (2020). Social Creativity. Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (475-481). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.
Montuori, A. (2020). Diversity. Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (368-376). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.
Montuori, A. (2019). Authoritarianism and creativity. Else Frenkel-Brunswik and The Authoritarian Personality. In V. Glaveanu, (Ed.). Creativity Reader (pp.517-530). New York: Oxford University Press.
Glaveanu, V. P., Hanchett Hanson, M., Baer, J., Barbot, B., Clapp, E. P., Corazza, G. E., Hennessey, B., Kaufman, J. C., Lebuda, I., Lubart, T., Montuori, A., Ness, I. J., Plucker, J., Reiter‐Palmon, R., Sierra, Z., Simonton, D. K., Neves‐Pereira, M. S., & Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Advancing creativity theory and research: A socio‐cultural manifesto. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(3), 741-745.
Montuori, A. (2019). Il ruolo dell'improvvisazione e della narrazione nelle scienze sociali, nell'arte e nella creatività. Narrare i Gruppi, 14, 2, pp.223-244.
Montuori, A. & Donnelly, G. (2018). Transformative leadership. In J. Neal, Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation. New York: Springer.
Montuori, A. (2018). Creating social creativity: Integrative transdisciplinarity and the epistemology of complexity. In V. Glaveanu & I. Lebuda (Eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity (pp. 743-765). London: Palgrave.
Montuori, A. (2017). The nature of creativity. In E. G. Carayannis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of creativity, invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship (pp. 1347-1354). Springer.
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (2017). Come together…for what? Creativity and leadership in postnormal times. In Z. Sardar (Ed.), The Postnormal Times Reader (pp. 357-378). Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures.
Montuori, A. (2017). Comment. In E. Laszlo, (Ed.), Beyond fear and rage. Digital Press.
Montuori, A. (2017) Evolution, risk and uncertainty. International Social Sciences Journal (Chinese edition), Vol. 34 No. 2 June 2017 - ISSN 1002-4913. Social sciences in China Press - Unesco, pp. 40-56. (In Chinese)
Montuori, A. (2017). Transdisciplinariedad e investigación creativa en la educación transformadora: Investigando el grado de investigación. Perfiles de Ingenieria, EI 3-EI 17. Universidad Ricardo Palma, Peru.
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (2016). The creativity of culture and the culture of creativity research: The promise of Integrative Transdisciplinarity. In V. P. Glăveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Creativity and Culture Research (pp. 743-765). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Taylor, M. J., & Montuori, A. (2015). A new understanding of creativity. In M. J. Taylor (Ed.), Fostering creativity in rehabilitation (pp. 23-46). Nova Science Publishers.
Montuori, A. (2015). La cultura de la transformacion y la transformacion de la cultura: Claudio Naranjo y la evolucion de el potencial humano. In C. Naranjo (Ed.), Actas del simposio. Dimensiones de la Unica Busqueada (pp. 137-160). Barcelona: Ediciones La Llave.
Bocchi, G., Cianci, E., Montuori, A., Trigona, R. & Nicolaus, O. (2014). Educating for Creativity. World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, 70:5-6, 336-369.
Bocchi, G., Cianci, E., Montuori, A., Trigona, R. (2014) History and Conditions for Creativity, World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, 70:5-6, 309-335.
Bocchi, G., Cianci, E., Montuori, A., Trigona, R. (2014). Eureka! The Myths of Creativity, World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, 70:5-6, 276-308.
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (January-March 2014). Come together...for what? Creativity and leadership in postnormal times. East West Affairs, 47-70.
Montuori, A. (2014). Transdisciplinary reflections on Glaveanu's "crisis" of the psychology of creativity. Creativity. Theories-Research-Applications, 1(246-255).
Montuori, A. (2014). Un choc des mentalities: Incertitude, créativité et complexité en temps de crise. (A clash of mentalities. Uncertainty, creativity and complexity in a time of crisis. Communications. 95(2), 179-198.
Montuori, A. & R. Purser (2014). Humanistic psychology in the workplace. In Bugental, J.F.T., Schneider, K., & J. Pierson (Eds.). Handbook of Humanistic Psychology. (pp. 723-734) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Montuori, A. (2013). Leadership trasformativa per il XXI secolo. Riflessioni sul progetto di un curriculum di leadership post-laurea. Narrare I Gruppi. Etnografia dell'interazione quotidiana. 8, 1, 18-37.
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (2013). Creative Inquiry and scholarship: Applications and implications in a doctoral degree. World Futures, 69(11), 1-19.
Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (2013). Creativity at the opening of the 21st century. Creative Nursing: A Journal of Values, Issues, Experience & Collaboration, 19(2), 58-63.
Montuori, A. (2013). The complexity of transdisciplinary literature reviews. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education. 10, 1-2, 45-55.
Montuori, A. (2013). Creativity and the Arab Spring. East West Affairs. 1, 1, 30-47.
Montuori, A. (2013). Complexity and transdisciplinarity: Reflections on theory and practice. World Futures, 69(4-6) 200-230.
Montuori, A. (2011). Creativity in transformative education: An exploration in doctoral education. In M. Alhadeff-Jones & A. Kokkos (Eds.), Transformative Learning in time of crisis: Individual and collective challenges: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Transformative Learning (pp. 204-210). Athens, Greece.
Montuori, A. (2011). Creative Inquiry: Confronting the challenges of scholarship in the 21st century. Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Future Studies. 44, 1, 64-70.
Montuori, A. (2011). Beyond postnormal times: the future of creativity and the creativity of the future. Futures. The Journal of Policy, Planning, and Future Studies. 41, 2, 221-227.
Forewords for Books
Montuori, A. (2022). Foreword. Heath-Carpentier, A. (Ed.) The challenge of complexity. Essays by Edgar Morin. SUNY Press.
Montuori, A. (2018). Foreword. Frizzell, D. Ten developmental themes for mindful leaders. Kindle Direct.
Montuori, A. (2017). Foreword. Martin, V. Transdisciplinarity revealed. What librarians need to know. AB-CLIO.
Montuori, A. (2015). Foreword: Traversi Guerra, L. & Trigona, R. Sulla via creativa. Educandosi-educare. Gli incontri di lunedì in Cascina Alta: testimonianze e sperimentazioni nel mondo del lavoro. [ On the creative path. Educating ourselves and others. The Monday meetings in Cascina Alta: Experiments and testimonies in the world of work.] LIBRI ESTE