Conducting a Systemic Conversation Conducting a Systemic Conversation

Conducting a Systemic Conversation:

Conducting a Systemic Conversation: Discourse for ‘Public’ Judgment in the Risk Society of a Mixed-up World Richard Bawden Michigan State University

A Risk Society? “In the course of the exponentially growing forces of the modernization process, hazards and potential threats have been unleashed to an extent previously unknown”. Ulrich Beck

A New Imperative “We are concerned no longer exclusively with making nature useful, or with releasing mankind from traditional constraints, but also and essentially with problems of techno-development itself. ” Ulrich Beck

‘Public’ Judgment? “…in present-day America, few institutions are devoted to helping the public to form considered judgments, and the public is discouraged from doing the necessary hard work because there is little incentive to do so” Daniel Yankelovich

A Mixed-up World? “If reading the daily paper is modern man’s form of prayer, then it is a very strange man indeed who is doing the praying today while reading of these mixed-up affairs. All of culture and all of nature get churned up again every day”. Bruno Latour

So The matters of every-day life are complex and risk-laden on a scale that is increasingly global. They demand the engagement of the entire citizenry in a ‘universe of human discourse’. Systemic conversations represent a useful foundation for such discourse.

Take the every-day matter of food for example:

… talk about the churning up of both nature and culture!!!

Most intellectual maps of agriculture fail to recognize it as the very interface between people and their environments Ken Dahlberg

Nature Culture Agriculture/Food

Or in ‘Systems Terms’… ‘Natural Systems’ ‘Social Systems’ ‘Agri-food Systems’

And most intellectual maps of agriculture also fail to reinforce the responsibilities that come with operating at that interface.

The responsibilities that come with actions at the interface. Ecological Economic Ethical

Systems Ideas: • • • Wholeness Boundaries Inter-connectivities Dynamic Inter-relationships Hierarchies/Embeddedness Emergence

Type I Systemics Perspective. Observed environment Observed system Observed sub-systems

Input/Throughput/Output Flows ‘Natural ‘Social Systems’ ‘Agri-food Systems’

Extended Input/Throughput/Output Flows ‘Natural ‘Social Systems’ ‘Agricultural Systems’

‘The Ambient Environment’ ‘Natural ‘Social Systems’ ‘Agricultural Systems’

Feedback and Other Flows ‘The Ambient Environment’ ‘Natural ‘Social Systems’ ‘Agricultural Systems’

Hierarchy and Embeddedness Global Regional Local

Global Regional Local

‘Social Systems’

Various ‘sub-systems’ within ‘Social Systems’ Citizenry Service Media Commerce Governance Church Academia

Language networks Citizenry Media Service Commerce Governance Academia Church

Type II Systemics Perspective. Construed environment Construed/conceptual system Construing/learning sub-system

A Systemic Process of Construing/Learning Ideas Perceptions Actions Concerned participants Issue of shared concern

A Systemic Process of Construing/Learning ‘A Learning System’ Issue of shared concern e. g. Genetic engineering in food production Concerned participants Inter-connected learning activities

Window on the world

Worldviews reflect sets of assumptions about • The nature of nature (ontology) • The nature of knowledge (epistemology) • The nature of human nature (axiology) • The nature of language and human inquiry (discourse/methodology)

Some Dimensions of Windows on the World Holism Contextualism Objectivism Reductionism

Some Key Dimensions of ‘Windows on the World’ Holism Type II Type I Systemics HOLOCENTRIC ECOCENTRIC Contextualism Objectivism Reductionism

Learning about learning – meta-learning [Meta-discourse] Embedded learning

Learning about the nature of knowledge Epistemic-learning Epistemic discourse

Emotions Dispositions Learning System

Emotions Inspirational Inquiry Dispositions Learning System Experiential inquiry

‘The Environment’ Natural Political Social Technological Cultural Economic Learning subsystem Conceptual System

Natural Political Social Technological Cultural Economic Learning subsystem

The Spirit of ‘Inclusive Well-being’ Ecological Economic Harmonization Optimization Ethical Realization

Ethical Realization • Does it do harm? (non-maleficience) • Is it in society’s best interest? (beneficience) • Is there freedom of choice? (autonomy) • Is there just distribution of benefits and burdens? (justice)

If genetic engineering is to be accepted it will have to be used with respect for: Human autonomy and dignity and for the integrity and vulnerability of life. Danish Ministry of Trade

My Workshop Tomorrow “A Systemic Perspective on the Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) will progress through three phases of discourse: 1. The identification of issues associated with the TBL in situations in which participants are currently engaged. 2. The generation of ‘scenarios’ of plausible future states of the ‘environments’ in which they believe that they might have to operate. 3. The development of TBL strategies in response to some of the ‘future environmental challenges’ that have been identified.