Systems for sustainability workshop
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Sustainability: a systems/complexity approach Dr. Andrea Berardi Lecturer in Environmental Information Systems Communication and Systems Department The Open University
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These are the slides which I used is a 3 day workshop which I gave to university students in Brazil. Any feedback, and additional material that I could use (text, pictures, cartoons or videos), very gratefully received.
Transcript of Systems for sustainability workshop
Sustainability: a systems/complexity
approach
Dr. Andrea BerardiLecturer in Environmental Information Systems
Communication and Systems DepartmentThe Open University
Unibanco Tecnológico – comerical W/Brasil, 2000.
Ivan Illich (1973) “Tools for Conviviality”
“Elite professional groups . . . have come to exert a 'radical monopoly' on such basic human activities as health, agriculture, home-building, and learning, …. The result of much economic development is very often not human flourishing but 'modernized poverty,' dependency, and an out-of-control system in which the humans become worn-down mechanical parts. “
Albert Einstein:
“We can't solve
problems by using
the same kind of
thinking we used
when we created
them.”
The dominant worldview: reductionism
• Things can be understood by reducing them to their constituent components – by studying “the parts”, you will understand “the whole”.
Reductionist implications:
• detaching emotion from rationality;• detaching humanity from nature;• citizens unable to see the “bigger
picture”;• citizens unable to see the “greater
purpose”;• “learned helplessness”.
“India: Pollution Fine Sought Against Coca-Cola”
What is a “System”?
A system emerges from… “interdependent components which regularly interact and form a unified whole”.
Um sistema consiste em… “componentes interdependentes que interagem regularmente e formam um todo unificado”.
Systems have ‘emergent properties’
• “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
System structure, processes and purpose
What connects/flows across system components?
• Energy;• Matter;• Information.
What is the difference between energy, matter and
information?
• Energy and matter are “causal inputs” to systems – they directly affect system processes.
• Information is instead a “sensory input” and is used to predict the occurrence of causal inputs or other sensory inputs (sometimes at a later time or another place).
System structure: ‘individualistic’ architecture
System structure: “egalitarian” networks
System structure: “hierarchical networks”
Think of a simple system, and….
•…..map its structure;•….. describe its processes;•….. identify its purpose/emergent properties.
Nested systems
Simple systems
• Predictable;• Mechanical;
"Reductionism produced a
"machine view" of the world, a
view captured in the work of Sir
Isaac Newton. Metaphorically the
world was likened to a sealed
clock, a closed system,
perpetually running on
fundamental laws like "to
everything action there is an
equal and opposite reaction."
Hutchins, Systemic Thinking,
1995
Complicated Systems
Reinforcing feedback
Balancing feedback
Gaia Theory – James Lovelock
Feedback and Control
Action Learning
Cycle
Delays
Complex Systems
Chaotic, irregular, unpredictable behaviour
Butterfly effect: a small perturbation can result in significant impacts.
‘Problems’ are Systems
• ‘Tame’ and ‘Wicked’ problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973);
• ‘Difficulties’ and ‘Messes’ (Ackoff, 1974).
• ‘Simple’, ‘Complicated’ and ‘Complex’ problems (Glouberman & Zimmerman, 2002)
Tackling ‘wicked problems’
Roberts (2000 )identifies the following strategies to cope with wicked problems:
• Authoritative;• Competitive;• Collaborative.
Who should lead on transforming society towards
sustainability? Enterprise
by developing green technologies and
mobilising consumers
Governments by establishing
strong regulation.
No one!Enterprise is only out to
make money, governments are
corrupt, and communities no longer
exist.
Communitiesby creating local self-sustaining lifestyles.
Michael Thompson – Cultural Theory
Individualism Hierarchy
Fatalism Egalitarianism
Robert Costanza – Future Scenarios
Star Trek Big Government
Mad Max Ecotopia
System Cycles
Creative Destruction -- Joseph Schumpeter
Adaptive cycle
Characteristics of systems during different phases of the adaptive cycle
• Renewal phase: new organisational forms; innovation; creativity.
• Growth phase: increasing organisational complexity; diversification.
• Conservation phase: organisational complexity stable; optimisation; specialisation; efficiency; resistance.
• Release phase: breakdown of organisational complexity; survival.
‘Hard’ systems approach
• Expert led, quantitative, rational.
• Great for predicting the state of
simple/complicated systems;
• Positivist epistemology;
‘Soft’ systems approach
• Ideal for working through highly complex problems where there is uncertainty and conflict.
• Better for understanding the less tangible elements of problem situations – things like human motivation and interaction.
• Constructivist epistemology.• Qualitative.• Participatory.
March (1994) argues that we have:
– problems of memory;
– problems of attention;
– problems of comprehension;
– problems of communication;
Problems of memory
How many can you remember?
Problems of memory (experience)
Group 1 Experience
Group 2 Experience
What do you see?
Problems of attention
Problems of communication
Shanon-Weaver Enhanced Communication Model
Problems of comprehension
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Are you analytical or intuitive?
If 1 = 5, 2 = 25, 3 = 325, 4 = 4325, 5 = ?
Soft systems approaches try to accommodate human
limitations and differences in perspective
‘Complexity Thinking’ approach
• Self organising: encouraging a system which will spontaneously emerge as the actions of autonomous participants come to be interlinked and co-dependend on each other.
• Evolutionary: the system will be able to change its structure and processes as it adapts to maintain its viability within a changing, dynamic context. In other words, the system will be designed to learn from its experiences.
Complexity thinkers:
Kevin Kelly (1995) Out Of Control – The New Biology of Machines:
“As we shape technology, it shapes us. We are connecting everything to everything, and so our entire culture is migrating to a "network culture" and a new network economics.”
Complexity thinkers:
Manuel Castell (2001) The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society:
" the Internet is the technological basis for the organizational form of the Information Age: the network."
Will complex adaptive machines rule the world?
Systemic, Systematic and Evolutionary approaches
Systematic Systemic Evolutionary
Philosophy Mechanistic, reductionist and atomistic
Holistic, relational and ecological
Natural selection, survival of the fittest
Process Authority/Expert led
Participatory, facilitated, consensual
Self-organising
Reasoning Rational, linear, focused, analytic
Intuitive, synthesising, non-linear
Simple rules
Communication
Measure, categorise and reason with written and mathematical symbols
Participatory, beyond language, metaphorical, visual.
Interaction limited to instrumental needs
Problem solving
Remedial solutions Preventative design Creative and innovative
Attitude Objective, perfectionist
Subjective, pragmatic
Instrumental, goal oriented, risk-taking
Systems methodologies and techniques
• ‘Hard’ Systems:– System Dynamics Modelling;– Qualitative System Dynamics (Systems Archetypes); – Viable Systems Model;
• ‘Soft’ Systems:– Soft Systems Methodology;– Critical Systems Heuristics;– Systemic Action Research;– Systemic Grounded Theory and Action.
• ‘Complex’ Systems:– Network Analysis;– Agent-Based Modelling
Common characteristics of systems methodologies and
techniques• Start with an unstructured exploration;• Multi- and inter-disciplinary;• Blend expertise and participation;• Blend of written, numerical and visual
information;• All require the construction of a systems
model;• Interventions through identifying points of
leverage within the system of interest;• Emphasis on social learning;• Iterative
T863 Environmental Decision-Making Framework
Explore the situation• Decide on which rung of the “ladder of
participation” to involve stakeholders (Arnstein, 1969).
Explore the situation
• Unstructured, intuitive, visual exploration often using diagramming techniques such as the ‘rich picture’ and/or ‘spray diagrams’;
Explore the situation
Facilitator(s) and participants need to be explicit about their values, experiences and interests; – What is the nature of your
stakeholding?– What role do you play in the situation?– Are you a beneficiary? Victim?
Formulate systems of interest
• Establish system boundary, components, structure and processes.
• Use diagramming techniques such as systems map; influence diagram; multiple cause diagram; and causal loop diagram.
Identify feasible and desirable changes
• Creative problem solving entails an innovative ability to make connections between wholly unrelated perspectives or ideas.
• Identify points of leverage within the system of interest and at various system scales.
• Change system structures and processes.• Introduce new system(s).• Assess feasibility and negotiate desirable
options.
Take action• The impact of interventions within
complex systems are rarely predictable.
Andrea Berardi
Wangari Maathai
Andrea Berardi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Iteration
• Always collect data/opinions on the impact of actions, including perspective from stakeholders.
• Always start with an unstructured exploration, even if you think you know the system.
• Ideally, bring in new perspectives.• Tendency towards rationalisation –
remember to keep a balance between right and left brain!
How would you implement systemic action learning within your classroom?
• Problem-based learning.• Multi-, inter-, trans-disciplinary lessons.• Learning outside of the class in the “real
world”• Practice what you preach: non-
hierarchical, egalitarian structures and processes.
• Promote relational, visual forms of communication.
• Complex systems never produce simple “right” answers.
Stafford Beer, 1974, Designing Freedom, pp 60-61
• "Every pupil is a high-variety organism, and the process of education essentially constrains variety. In other words, the pupil is capable of generating many responses to the question: what is six multiplied by seven; the educator will seek to attenuate this potential variety to the single answer: forty-two. But if we take a different kind of example, we may find ourselves saying something significantly different. The pupil is capable of generating many responses to the question: how should a national health service be organised? This time, however, we may hope that the educator will not attenuate potential variety to the singular answer: like this. No, we say; education is a word coming from the Latin: e-ducere, "to lead out". It does not mean "to push in". And yet it remains true that in any case the process of education constrains variety. Anyone who thinks over this little paradox for a few minutes can see that, in the second example, the hope is that we can teach the pupil ways of attenuating his own variety. We want to offer him ways of finding answers, not of enforcing our own."
Activity
• Identify a wicked problem in your community which you can work through with your class.
• Explain why it's a wicked problem• Propose a systemic framework for
how you would tackle the problem• Provide a brief worked example
illustrating how you would apply your framework to the problem.
“Leite materno contaminado por agrotóxicos em Lucas do Rio
Verde”
Priority interventions?
