MISSION
The Bateson Idea Group is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the purpose of furthering the transdisciplinary exploration of the ideas of Gregory Bateson, who lived from 1904 to 1980.
Bateson’s work transcends traditional academic categories, encompassing extensive publication, teaching, and collaboration in many fields: evolution, anthropology, semiotics, communication theory, cybernetics, psychotherapy, animal behavior, epistemology, and general social science.
The Bateson Idea Group (BIG) is responsible for the management and curation of the archives of Gregory Bateson’s work, of which there are two: at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Library of Congress.
On behalf of the Gregory Bateson Estate, BIG handles permissions and intellectual property issues dealing with published and unpublished works and photographs held at these archives, and administers its rights with respect to publication and translation of Gregory Bateson’s work. BIG encourages scholarly access for those interested in working in these archives. Please see the FAQs page for more details.
The Directors of the Bateson Idea Group are longstanding scholars of Bateson’s ideas and epistemology. BIG also has the goals of developing, operating, and supporting ongoing educational, research, and scholarly projects that utilize, preserve, and otherwise grapple with the works and ideas of Gregory Bateson.
BIG's charitable and educational mission includes the encouragement of the kinds of projects that extend, develop, and apply Gregory Bateson's ways of thinking.