Systems Thinking toward institutional innovation and change

Bernard Hubert (Agropolis International)

& Ray Ison (Open Univ., UK & Monash Univ., Australia)

International Conference on Integrated Systems Research

Ibadan – March 3-6, 20015

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Innovation vs Technology transfer

• Innovation is lead by those who are holding stake in a situation to change the situation or their position within this situation …

• It could rely on new technology or on new forms of social(/economic) organization or on new understanding of the context based on new knowledge

• The role of research is by producing this “new”: by simply changing procedures (“controlled design”) either by exploratory approaches (“innovative design”)

• Innovation doesn’t avoid competition among stakeholders if there is any comparative advantage

• In case of public goods it has to be collectively managed : Innovation Platforms, Innovation Systems, etc.

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The researcher as an agent of change

• How to interact better to create knowledge that can engender innovation

• The research process is not separable from decision-making: investigation is central to the design of solutions (choices to be made)

• Social learning is one way to entail a social dynamic which transforms the perspectives and objects of interest as well as the actors themselves in the collective learning process

• …given the inseparability of knowledge and relationships • …a learning system can only be said to exist after its enactment

(i.e. upon reflection) • The challenge is not the individual scientist but the determinants

of the overall paradigm in which they operate

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S1 → S2 → S3 etc

Changes in social relations

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“Traditional” position of research

Politicy actors

Research Intermediary

bodies

Stakeholders Citizens

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Policy actors

Research Intermediary

bodies

Stakeholders Citizens

CRISIS

BREAKING

Policy actors

Research Intermediary

bodies

Stakeholders Citizens

R1

R2 R3

R4

New relationships based on “knowing and learning”

approach

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New ways to practice research in complex situations

• as researchers external to the process, observing, recording, and analysing methods and processes for the co-creation of inter-active learning (R1),

• who are orchestrating invitations to engage in conversations and actions (R2),

• and who are looking at the ‘objects’ around which new actions and relationships among IB, SH, and C, are mobilised (R3),

• as well as participating in the co-creation of the new actions and relationships (R4).

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Organisational learning

Second order change Goals &

Concepts

First order change Rules

Third order change

Values & Ideas

Theories for action (« self evident »)

Action strategies implemented

Values, theoretical backgrounds, worldviews and conceptions

Consequences

Five ‘variables’ which enhance or constrain transformation towards concerted action

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For a transformative praxis

• A premise is that it is very useful to view sustainability as an emergent property of stakeholders interaction with their relational domain, and not a technical property of the ecosystem

• Understanding adaptation as co-evolution in terms of the conservation of structural coupling (between relational domain & phenomenal domain)

• And take on the choice to see a situation as a wicked problem (vs a tame one), depending on our will to face complexity

• Build the system of interest as an epistemological device (a way of knowing about a situation)

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Two looks of an observer in noting the generative domain,

or the resultant phenomenon in a different domain.

This figure depicts Maturana’s iconic representation of a living system that remains conserved as such, as long as both autopoiesis and adaptation (structural coupling) persist (Source: adapted from Bunnell 2008, p. xiii)

.

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Some ‘basics’ about ‘research’ as a form of practice

• practice as a relational dynamic

• traditions of understanding of the researcher(s)

• choices that can be made

– theoretical frameworks (F)

– about situations (S)

– researcher/practitioner (P) modes

– about method/methodology (M)

• research as an effective (emergent) performance

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Understanding research practice …?

P = practitioner F = framework of ideas/theory S = situation M = method or methodology T= techniques

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Too often the focus is on the M

M

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Technology is rarely understood in relation to practice

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What 30 years of cognitive research suggests?

Table 1 Some contrasting features between the traditional Western conception of the

disembodied person with that of an embodied person

Traditional Western conception of the

disembodied person The conception of an embodied person

The world has a unique category structure

independent of the minds, bodies or

brains of human beings (i.e. an objective

world).

Our conceptual system is grounded in,

neurally makes use of, and is crucially shaped

by our perceptual and motor systems.

There is a universal reason that

characterizes the rational structure of the

world. Both concepts and reason are

independent of the minds, bodies and

brains of human beings.

We can only form concepts through the body.

Therefore every understanding that we can

have of the world, ourselves, and others can

only be framed in terms of concepts shaped by

our bodies.

P

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P

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Is a concert made up from a collection of different ‘disciplines’ collected in the same room?

Bringing multiple perspectives to a joint task?

Is it additive, as in a final report?

A situation of concern

Different theoretical frameworks & assumptions

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An emergent performance

….what makes systems practice?

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Some ‘basics’ about ‘Systems’

• the two adjectives from ‘system’

• exploring ‘Systems’ intellectual lineages

• choosing ‘system’ or ‘situation’

– a ‘system of interest’

– results from relational thinking

• key concepts common to different lineages

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• The systemic, systematic duality

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An emergent performance

….what makes systems practice?

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S1 → S2 → S3 etc

Changes in social relations

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Choices about ‘framings’ for situations

S

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Levels of organisation

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Systemic

(epistemologies)

Systematic

(ontologies)

To start with a situation or THE system – a choice to be made

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For an aware systems practitioner a system of interest is an epistemological device – a way of knowing about a situation

? of purpose

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What narrative can be constructed?

• appreciating the nature and scope of the contribution that Systems understandings and practices have already made

• Building sustainable rural future: The added value of systems approaches in times of change and uncertainty

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3. Ricefield as an agroecosystem

Agro-ecosystems analysis

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Conceptual models/typologies

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Agroecosystems as human activity systems: Hawkesbury model

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An ethics of practice – opening up more choices

• fostering the circumstances for epistemological awareness and researcher responsibility

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Heinz von Foerster ‘act always so as to increase the number of choices’

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Institutionalizing systems approaches

• recognizing and addressing factors that constrain the flourishing of Systems as a domain of inquiry and practice

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Different institutional forms for governing and managing purposeful action as part of an overall process of systemic

development through social learning (Source: Ison et al 2008).

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In a climate-change world we need greater capability for

improvising and sustaining effective performances

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Conclusions

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Systems thinking and practice which attends to perspectives, multiple partial views, assumptions, framings, traps….and much

more… still has much to contribute