The research behind our work
Academic research. Field observation. Ongoing inquiry.
Winter in Southeast Idaho. Allison Group collection
The Allison Group grew out of larger-than-expected—and initially confusing—success.
In her emerging technology work at Citibank and Avis, Mary Ann Allison saw customers adopt new forms of digital communication much faster and more enthusiastically than expected. The spread of online gaming and rapid adoption of early smartphones showed this was not unique. Mary Ann became curious about a larger question:
What are we doing to ourselves? What happens to human society when the ways we communicate change?
That question led her to New York University, a PhD in Media Ecology, and a continuing program of research into social change.
Seeing patterns across time
Mary Ann’s doctoral research drew on Media Ecology, Complexity Science, Sociology, Evolutionary Theory, and history to examine changes in how human societies organize, communicate, decide, learn, establish status, understand truth, and address problems.
The historical record of the Agriculture and Manufacturing eras provided the foundation for a model that projected 128 characteristics of the emerging Information era. This work became her award-winning doctoral dissertation and the foundation for Emerging Social Dynamics, the model behind Social Pattern Literacy.
The introductory selection in this chart pairs each era’s primary occupation (and the name we give to the era) with one characteristic: group structure.
These forms coexist. Earlier forms remain useful, and the appropriate structure depends on the situation. Research into the emerging eras continues; examples of Generation-era structures and processes are just starting to appear.
Emerging Social Dynamics — Mary Ann Allison, the Allison Group
| Era name (our primary occupation) | Characteristic group structure |
|---|---|
 Agriculture | Village |
 Manufacturing | Bureaucracy |
 Information | Network |
 Re-creation | Alliance of intention |
 Generation | Ecosystem |
© 2026 Mary Ann Allison, the Allison Group. Emerging Social Dynamics. All rights reserved.
The model makes predictions about social patterns and characteristics—the forms social life may take as conditions change. Those predictions can help us see which structures and processes fit a situation. For example, in a world of 8 billion interconnected people and AI-accelerated communication, an alliance of intention can be more effective than a single bureaucracy at coordinating responses to rapidly changing problems. It enables people and groups, including bureaucracies, to work toward a shared purpose and adapt together while retaining their independence.
The research continues
For more than two decades, Mary Ann has compared the model with developments in organizations and communities through observation, place-based research, and conversations with people working inside rapidly changing conditions.
The Re-creation era combines remaking what exists—from cloning living things to developing new materials—with substantial time devoted to play, leisure, and entertainment. Its name is a pun and does double duty: re-creating the world and taking time to play.
The Re-creation era group structure, an alliance of intention, is showing up in many places: people and groups with different structures and capacities joining around a shared purpose. Mary Ann sees characteristics of this form in settings ranging from regenerative agriculture in the American Midwest and the Nature Record across the United States to higher education in Ukraine.
In 2024, Mary Ann traveled to Ukraine as part of her place-based research. There she observed forms anticipated by the model, including alliances of intention. Ukraine is one of several places in which these patterns are appearing; the intensity of change makes emerging forms especially visible.
These later rounds of research continue through field observation, documentation, and independent expert review.
“By studying a society on the verge of existential challenges, such as Ukraine, she obtains interesting practical applications. I consider this an important area of research.”
Want to learn how to use the patterns in the Re-creation era? Ask Mary Ann
What is emerging next
Mary Ann is now looking at the evidence of an even newer era, the Generation era.
The work involves first forecasting the pattern specifics and then observing, documenting, comparing, and testing whether the characteristics suggested by the model are appearing in the world—and refining the model in response.
Wider ways of learning: poetry, somatics, and more
This page emphasizes our academic and field research. Understanding the changing world also calls on practical experience, somatic learning and intuition, appreciative inquiry and learning from others, grounding in place, and art—especially poetry.
Poetry is part of how Mary Ann pays attention to beauty, place, and relationships that we may sense before we can fully explain them.
Explore our six ways of learningSocial Pattern Literacy in Action
The Allison Group offers programs of supported action research for clients who want to investigate a consequential question and put what they learn to work.
With Allison Group support, clients learn social pattern literacy and use it to examine their situation and their environment, recognize relevant social patterns, try responses, observe what happens, and adapt. The inquiry develops through action and reflection in the circumstances people actually face.
Alongside these client programs, Mary Ann continues the Allison Group’s own research into emerging social patterns.
Explore Social Pattern Literacy in ActionBegin with a question.
Bring a question, challenge, opportunity, or decision you are facing. The first conversation is 45 minutes, with no charge.