Transforming nature-society relations

through innovations in research praxis.

A co-evolutionary systems approach

Ray Ison

Professor of Systems, Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group (ASTiP) &

STiP Postgraduate Programme ,

The Open University, UK

Seminaire d’animation scientifique interdisciplinaire portee par l’antenne montpellieraine de NSS-Dialogues

Agropolis International 12 Juin, 15h00-17h30

Concluding statement in my chapter

• Systems thinking in practice (STiP) which attends to perspectives, multiple partial views, assumptions, framings, traps…and much more…still has much to contribute –

• I hope NSS, through this book, and its continuing activity can facilitate communications across the cultural and epistemological divides that characterize so much research praxis and which constrains reflexive innovation and transformation.

Why?

There is a real prospect of a dead, Dead Sea !!!

The Jordan River and the Dead Sea - the

cradle of Abrahamic-based civilisations

There are claims made that all Abrahamic religions are destroyers?

Global systemic processes or cycles

• Water cycle• Carbon cycle• Nitrogen cycle• Phosphorous cycle

Living in a photo-shopped world!

Global systemic processes or cycles

• Water cycle• Carbon cycle• Nitrogen cycle• Phosphorous cycle• Oxygen?

Systemic inquiring; modelling;

researching; evaluating; designing;

consulting; appreciating; learning

(re) framing

Systemic

governance

through

“social learning”

Inventing new practices and institutions to transform

towards systemic governance (or governing)?

…by which means quality, co-evolutionary futures, emerge?

How do systems scholars and others appreciate the systems domain? Where

do we draw boundaries? How institutionalised? What future trajectory?

Systemic

(epistemologies)

Systematic

(ontologies)

Ison, R.L. (2010) Systems Practice: How to Act in a

Climate-Change World. Springer, London and The

Open University.

(2017) Systems Practice: How to Act. In

situations of uncertainty and complexity in a climate-

change world. 2nd Edition Springer, London and The

Open University.

Clarifying some terminology: cyber-systemic

The late Garry Boyd, Professor of Education (educational

technology) at Concordia University Montreal, Canada

See: http://www.col.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=136

The lineage

and brand

conundrum!

What about

cyber-

systemics?

‘Framing’ situations is a choice we have…and one we always make

• “All thinking and talking involves ‘‘framing.’’ And since frames come in systems, a single word typically activates not only its defining frame, but also much of the system its defining frame is in” (Lakoff 2010 pp.71-72)

• Framing applies also to:– ‘the Anthropocene’ – governance/governing– practice/practicing – doing science, doing ‘systems’

• Framing choices create initial starting conditions that become conserved as lineages (pathway dependencies) and as institutions (norms, ‘rules of the human game’)

Being open to what ‘the Anthropocene’ as a ‘framing choice’

reveals and conceals• Malm, A. & Hornborg, A. (2014) The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative, The

Anthropocene Review

• “We need to question the use of the species category in the Anthropocene narrative …because it is analytically flawed (i.e., only some, not all, humans have contributed) …and it is inimical to action”

• Too often intra-species inequalities are ignored• Other terms proposed: e.g. the econocene; capitalocene• Metaphor theory/practice can help – what does a framing

choice reveal or conceal? What are its theoretical entailments?

What do these issues have in common?

• Climate change • Obesity • Indigenous disadvantage • Land degradation• River catchment

managing• Transitioning towards

water sensitive cities

They exemplify consistent systemic failure of public policy: on-going framing failure

Framing failure….institutionalising failure, praxis failure…

Making framing choices that are ethically responsible ..by acting to increase our possibilities

Ison, R.L., Collins, K.B. & Wallis, P. (2014) Institutionalising social learning: Towards systemic and adaptive governance, Environmental Science & Policy 53 (B), 105–117.

When framing and reframing we need to follow Heinz von Foerster’s ethical imperative: ‘act always so as to increase the

number of choices’

Governance diamonds

are not forever!

The systemic failure of governance by

governments!Journalist Tingle

re., the Australian

Federal

Government

observes: “a

growing loss of

institutional

memory about

how things have

come about, and,

more importantly

perhaps, why they

did. Without

memory, there is

no context or

continuity for the

making of new

decisions.”

“For 500 years, the

West’s ability to

reinvent the state

has enabled it to

lead the world.

Today, ..the West

is weighed down

by dysfunctional

governments,

bloated budgets

and self-indulgent

publics; it risks

losing its edge to

more autocratic

Asian states.”

The systemic failure of governance by UK

government!…the

present

system as a

whole is

itself what

stands in the

way of

successful

government

…

a critique of

‘deliverology’,

target setting,

‘back office’

systemic

malfunction.

Seddon offers a

systemic

alternative based

on responding to

context-derived

design for

purpose

Reinventing a systemic

governance diamond fit for circumstance?

Towards systemic governance?

Towards systemic governance?

Improve transboundary management of the Olifants Catchment

Enhance the resilience of its people and ecosystems

(holistically with people)

Mozambique

South Africa

Water insecurity

• SA 5th largest global coal producer• 90% from Witbank coal fields

• 2nd largest irrigation scheme in SA• R1 billion export market

Sewage (WWTW)

Crocodile deaths

Floodplain estuary

Extreme events

Climate change

Conceptual clarity serves praxis and transformation e.g. social-

ecological (or social-biophysical) systems

Earth

System

1Social-

Ecological

System

2

Social

System

Ecological

System

3

Social

System

Ecological

System

4

Social

System

Ecological

System

5

Ecological

SystemSocial

System

6

8…. ?

9… ?

10…?Biophysical

SystemSocial

System

7

Co-evolutionary dynamicTime

A ‘real life’

experiment

with choice

Number 7

biodiverse areas

conserved

Framing the Olifants catchment as the structural coupling of a

social (S) and biophysical (B) system in a co-evolutionary dynamic

capacity to respond

to climate change

Issues

1. Boundaries in action for

the Olifants ss? Do they

need to be expanded? Is

the right baseline data

available/being used

2. Is there a need for more

investment in demand

pull initiatives to secure

the ongoing structural

coupling via the AWARD

approach?

3. As climate change hits

where are the greatest

vulnerabilities going to

emerge?

4. What can be said about

the current trajectory?

What are the best

trajectory altering levers?

Requires baseline

and emerging

narratives for M&E

+ RL (MERL)

Changing framings and institutions

• “For the first time in New Zealand's history, the country's lawmakers have

granted a river the legal rights of a human. The parliamentary vote

Wednesday, which caps more than 140 years of legal struggles, ensures

the roughly 90-mile Whanganui River will be represented by two guardians

in legal matters that concern the waterway. The legislation marks a

monumental victory for the local Māori people, who view the river as ‘an

indivisible and living whole…’” (http://n.pr/2qi1dbb ).

• Then, a month later: “The Ganges river, considered sacred by more than 1

billion Indians, has become the first non-human entity in India to be

granted the same legal rights as people.” “The judges cited the example of

the Whanganui river, revered by the indigenous Māori people, which was

declared a living entity with full legal rights by the New Zealand Govt.”

Geoff Lawtoon (http://bit.ly/2pKSkXC )

Relating this work to the NSS agenda

Seven transformational challenges to overcome systemic failure in doing what we do.1. widespread lack of epistemic awareness in domains of practice and policy

development;

2. a lack of awareness of the implications of living in language;

3. inappropriate measures of performance for systems of interest (e.g. GDP understood as measure of performance for nation states – see Buchanan, 2013);

4. little awareness of the implications of reification – the creation of ‘things’ such as the environment, resources, systems etc.;

5. lack of congruence between what is espoused and what others experience in individual and group practice;

6. failures to institutionalize systems understandings and practices in manners that create demand pull and sustain institutionalization; and

7. focus on scientism at the expense of design (Metcalf, 2014).

What does success look like……?

• Has to be considered in the context of governance

• As well as the extent of cyber-systemic literacy and

capability – in short supply

• Requires new organisational/institutional forms to

mediate between Vertical and Horizontal

governance, especially feedback processes

– practices that pay urgent attention to framing of

initial starting conditions

– inventing and enacting means to secure the

robust institutionalisation of systemic governance

ENCYCLICAL LETTER, LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY

FATHER, FRANCIS 2015

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

• “More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear

crisis, Pope Saint John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected

war but offered a proposal for peace.

• He addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world”

and indeed “to all men and women of good will”. Now, faced as we are with

global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on

this planet.”

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

• Given the scale of change, it is no longer possible to find a specific,

discrete answer for each part of the problem. It is essential to seek

comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural

systems themselves and with social systems.

• We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the

other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and

environmental.

• ENCYCLICAL LETTER, LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER, FRANCIS 2015

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

• 139. When we speak of the “environment”, what we really mean is a

relationship existing between nature and the society which lives in it.

• Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a

mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus

in constant interaction with it. Recognizing the reasons why a given area is

polluted requires a study of the workings of society, its economy, its

behaviour patterns, and the ways it grasps reality.

• ENCYCLICAL LETTER, LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER, FRANCIS 2015

Systems literacy

Workshop on Framing Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) Competencies

London 10th June 2017

Systems thinking in

practice capability

Systemic sensibilities

(adapted from) Ison, R. and

Shelley, M., (2016). Governing in

the Anthropocene: Contributions

from Systems Thinking in

Practice? Systems Research and

Behavioral Science, 33(5),

pp.589-594.

“What is missing … are the contexts for a systemic sensibility to flourish, to be recovered and/or fostered. Investment in systems literacy [competency]

and then systems thinking in practice capability is missing in education as well as organizational life.” (p.589)

Systems thinking (in

practice) literacy

Framing Competencies

Developing Systems

thinking in practice

capabilities

Systemic sensibilities

Building Capacity

Draft Report from OECD to be released in June 2017.

There is an urgent need to build greater solidarity between cybersystemicpractitioners, researchers and organisations or professional societies.

The conditions for greater investment, and demand pull, for what cybersystemicshas to offer have to be created and sustained.