The Pattern Underground is a working title for an organizational initiative focused on transdisciplinary and transcontextual research, theoretical development, and exploration of ubiquitous functional and/or meaningful patterns. These types of patterns have been referred to as metapatterns - a termed coined by Gregory Bateson (in Mind and Nature) and further popularized by Tyler Volk (in Metapatterns: Across Space, Time, and Mind). However, a number of other scholars and authors have explored such patterns from varying perspectives, such as the following:

• Mary Catherine Bateson — (1994). Peripheral visions: Learning along the way. New York: Harper Collins.


• Fernand Braudel(Reynolds, S. [Trans.]). (1979). The structures of everyday life: The limits of the possible. New York: Harper & Row.


• Mark Buchanan — (2002). Nexus: Small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.


• James Burke — most of his work


• L. Andrew Coward — (1990). Pattern thinking. New York: Praeger.


• R. Buckminster Fuller — (1982). Synergetics: Explorations in the geometry of thinking. New York: Macmillan.


• Douglas Hofstadter — most of his work


• John Holland — (1995). Hidden order: How adaptation builds complexity. Cambridge, MA: Helix/Perseus Books.


• George Lakoff & Mark Johnson — work with metaphors, etc.


• Steven Johnson — (2001). Emergence: The connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software. New York: Touchstone/Simon and Schuster.


• Jay Kappraff — (1991). Connections: The geometric bridge between art and science. New York: McGraw-Hill.


• Scott Kelso & David Engstrøm — (2006). The complementary nature. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.


• Peter Stevens — (1974). Patterns in nature. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press Book/Little Brown and Company.


• D'Arcy Thompson — (1961) On Growth and Form


• Ken Wilbur — most of his work

Our early planning has delineated several organizational characteristics and dimensions we wish to develop. These characteristics and dimensions are outline below.

• Transdisciplinary membership — with people from the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, education, architecture, computing and engineering, and others


• Rigor and creativity emphasis


• Focus on developing pattern thinking and the development of a science of metapatterns

• A relatively small group of interested people supporting a focused organization.


• An online peer-reviewed journal.


• A website for:


• sharing works–in–progress,


• sharing creative products,


• discussing issues and other points of interest,


• promoting pattern thinking and a science of metapatterns


• A periodic (annual?) conference