Systems approaches to managing sustainable development: experiences from developing supported open-learning.

It is argued that a failure to consider ecological sustainability within a systemic framework constrains the design of learning systems which are needed for taking effective purposeful action for 'managing' sustainable development. The arguments put forward are grounded in the author's experience of developing supported open learning curricula delivered in a distance teaching mode in the area of systems practice for managing complexity as well as the supervision of post-graduate student research

Systems thinking and practice for action research

This chapter offers some grounding in systems thinking and practice for doing action research. There are different traditions within systems thinking and practice which, if appreciated, can become part of the repertoire for practice by action researchers. After exploring some of these lineages the differences between systemic and systematic thinking and practice are elucidated – these are the two adjectives that come from the word 'system', but they describe quite different understandings and practices. These differences are associated with epistemological awareness and distinguishing systemic action research from action research. Finally, some advantages for action research practice from engaging with systems thinking and practice are discussed

Some reflections on a knowledge transfer strategy: a systemic inquiry

This paper presents a case study of a systemic inquiry into a knowledge transfer strategy (KTS) by a division of a UK Ministry. Two main points are made. Firstly that it is possible to 'build' a generalisable form of practice as a response to experiences of complexity by initiating a systemic inquiry that fosters the emergence of a learning system. Secondly, that exploring how metaphors reveal and conceal offers scope for shifting the 'mental furniture' of participants as part of a systemic inquiry. This inquiry proceeded with a process designed for the circumstances - there are no blue-prints. A key design aspiration was that those participating might experience a coherence between espoused theory and theory in use in relation to considering the KTS as if it were a second-order learning system. In this aim it succeeded. The inquiry suggested two sets of considerations for the design of learning systems and a potentially fruitful line of further inquiry

Conceptual Metaphors: a review with implications for human understandings and systems practice

We provide an overview of metaphor theory and explore implications for systems practice by building on claims that metaphors are central to our ways of understanding. As stakeholders will have different understandings, each metaphor will reveal and conceal different aspects of their understandings. These differences need to be accommodated within systems practice. Our contribution in this paper is to show how metaphors can explain, appreciate and create different understandings. Further, new understandings can emerge from considering different metaphors

Use of Water Balance Models to Examine the role of Climate in Annual Legume Decline in Southern Australia

fhe content of annual medic and subclover (Trifo/ium subterraneum) in rasture Leys has been declining in southern Australia over the last decade. The models GROWEST and ASW were used to simulate available soil water, dry matter yield and seed production of a temperate annual pasture legume using actual climatic data for Forbes in 1987-89. GROWEST was also used to predict DM and seed production and the site and composition of the seed bank for the period 1957-89 for the subclover cultivars Dalkeith and Woogenellup. The period 1979-82 consisted of below average seasons with DM yields restricted to below 3000 kg/ha/year. It was largely after this period of drought that clover decline was first observed to be. a problem in eastern Australia in areas reliant on soft-seeded cultivars such as Woogene!lup. GROWEST and the ASW model are a start in developing useful predictive tools so that optimum hard seed levels, maturity and a range of other parameters can be predicted for different environments

Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). User requirements

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Rapid institutional appraisal

A week-long intensive process of staff development and induction called Rapid Institutional Appraisal (RIA) was conducted in November 2000 in the Systems Discipline, Centre for Complexity and Change (CCC), at the Open University. We report the systemic roots and characteristics of the RIA as designed from traditions of soft systems methodology and rapid rural appraisal. Our experiences arising from our own use of RIA are described and the wider implications for organizational learning in a complex organization discussed. While acknowledging limitations with this RIA event, we argue that RIA offers a potential model for staff development for adaptive use in different contexts and on varying scales. The process builds on principles of "conversation" and "multiple perspectives" as the touchstone for establishing a purposeful community of practice