ICON is the successor of the research group "Process, Person, and Society: from Conflict to Interagency", which has run from October 2005 to October 2008. "Process, Person, and Society" (PPS) was a local division of the SophiaEurope Program, an international, cross-disciplinary discussion and research forum involving 80 researchers in the humanities, theology, and the sciences from 9 European countries.
Many of the current goals of ICON are in direct continuation of the research agenda of PPS: to explore the value of process-oriented descriptions of agentive domains for a general classification of constructive and antagonistic interactions, in order to enhance our understanding of community, personhood and ethical judgment.