Construal and the Collective: 14 Nested Alignments: Scaling Construal Across Collective Levels

Introduction: The Problem of Scale

Construal does not operate at a single scale. Every act of meaning belongs not only to an individual or a moment, but to nested strata of collective alignment:

• Interpersonal encounters

• Group narratives and practices

• Institutional structures

• Cultural imaginaries

• Civilisational phase-architectures

This post explores how scaling construal across these levels generates tension, alignment, and reflexive complexity.

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1. Multi-Scalar Meaning-Making

In a relational ontology, each instance of construal is already positioned within broader alignments:

Scale	Example	Nature of Construal
Individual	Personal values, semantic preferences	idiosyncratic, fluid
Interpersonal	Conversation, shared routines	negotiated, rhythmic
Group	Ritual, team coordination	patterned, cohesive
Institutional	Law, policy, education	standardised, recursive
Cultural	Myth, genre, ideology	sedimented, generative
Civilisational	Cosmology, epochal narrative	phase-setting, horizon-defining

Each scale is not simply larger, but differently structured in its phase-relations and construal potentials.

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2. Scalar Disalignment

Scaling construal introduces tensional drift:

• What feels meaningful at one level may misalign at another

• A community's reflexive awareness may exceed that of its institutions

• Institutions may demand stabilities that constrain group-level improvisation

• Cultural scripts may lag behind interpersonal realities

Meaning becomes frictional when scalar alignments are out of phase.

This is not a flaw—it is the terrain of reflexive life.

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3. Entrainment and Tuning

To navigate scalar tension, collectives engage in entrainment:

• Temporal tuning across levels

• Alignment through recursive genre

• Rhythmic re-construal to maintain coherence across nested contexts

Mechanisms of entrainment include:

• Canonical narratives

• Educational systems

• Shared symbolic repertoires

• Ritual synchronisation

However, over-entrainment ossifies potential. Phase-aware societies must balance coherence with openness.

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4. Reflexive Scale-Awareness

When collectives become reflexively aware of scale, new potentials emerge:

• Social formations can phase-shift deliberately across levels

• Institutions can support multi-scalar modulation rather than enforcing uniformity

• Individuals can cultivate scalar literacy: the capacity to hold multiple symbolic horizons in tension without collapse

This awareness is not abstract—it is embodied in genre, ritual, and institutional design.

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5. Symbolic Interphasing

The critical task is not to collapse scales into a single logic, but to mediate their interfacing:

• What meanings can translate across scales without distortion?

• Which meanings must remain incommensurable to preserve their phase-specific function?

• How can symbolic forms hold this tension open?

Genre systems, again, are key. A genre like satire or speculative fiction may speak across scales without demanding alignment.

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Conclusion: Holding Meaning Across Scales

Construal is never scalar-neutral. It stretches, reverberates, and disaligns across nested collectivities. A phase-aware society must:

• Foster entrainment without erasure

• Cultivate institutions that allow re-cutting across levels

• Embody scale-awareness as a lived symbolic capacity

In the next post, we will explore how meta-symbolic genres—such as philosophy, art, and science—function as phase-brokers, enabling societies to renegotiate their scalar alignments in symbolic terms.