Dynamics of interdisciplinarity: a microlevel analysis of communication and facilitation in a group model‐building workshop

Participatory system dynamics is assumed to generate inter‐ and transdisciplinary understanding and whole‐system perspectives via scripted workshop structure, facilitation, and the use of visual boundary objects. However, there is little research into how exactly workshop activities and facilitators affect communication dynamics during a workshop and create an interdisciplinary perspective. Thus, we offer an innovative dynamic understanding via a rare microlevel analysis of facilitation and dynamics of communication and interdisciplinarity in a group model‐building workshop. We investigate how the conversation focus unfolds over time and examine in depth disciplinary transitions as well as the facilitator's role. We also analyse participants' perceptions of interdisciplinarity from the workshop and provide a research framework for workshop microlevel analysis. Based on the workshop's heritage science setting, we discuss the recursive nature of generating joint meaning and the use of participatory system dynamics for managing interdisciplinarity in a research project and make recommendations

Playing the new devil’s advocate role in facilitated modelling processes to address group homogeneity

To address complex issues, facilitated modelling aims to represent and accommodate plural worldviews from many stakeholders and experts. In these contexts, group homogeneity can become problematic when participants’ plurality of perspectives and information is missing and people attending facilitated sessions have similar problem perceptions and interests. This is a challenge because it can lead to narrow discussion, groupthink and undermine output quality. Despite not being uncommon, effective approaches to deal with homogeneity are hardly reported. This paper presents a new role—the New Devil’s Advocate—in which some facilitators leave their neutrality-oriented stance and act as the missing stakeholders. The paper illustrates a first application to a group model building process aimed at supporting the development of energy efficiency policies in the UK. To evaluate the results, workshop transcripts were coded, participants’ and facilitators’ feedback collected, and the modelling output assessed with respect to the New Devil’s Advocate interventions during the workshop. Although the role performance appears to increase facilitators’ workload and be influenced by role performers’ personality and background, the analysis shows positive results as a promising practice to address homogeneity. Additionally, it offers a practical experience of how facilitation teams may temporarily abandon neutrality and intervene on content

Systemic Issues of Social Housing in England: Identifying Archetypes for a Just Transition towards Sustainability

Social housing is fundamental to accommodate a growing urban population within planetary boundaries. However, political, economic, environmental, and societal pressures jeopardize its provision. This study restructures insights on the challenges faced by the English social housing sector, with the aim to identify leverage points to support a just transition towards sustainability. By extracting variables and interconnections from key sources, we obtain six causal loop diagrams depicting interrelated dynamics of mismanagement and exclusion. Two archetypes illustrate how the push for new construction and regeneration as a remedy to housing shortage and segregation is a temporary symptomatic solution, with debatable benefits on health and the environment. On this basis, we outline leverage points to intervene in the system and propose research paths to validate its structure empirically

Behavioural Change as a Domestic Heat Pump Performance Driver: Insights on the Influence of Feedback Systems from Multiple Case Studies in the UK

Heat pumps (HPs) are seen as an increasingly important technology able to contribute significantly towards the decarbonisation of the domestic stock in the UK. However, there appears to be a performance gap between predicted and real-life HP performance, with several studies highlighting the need to include the HP’s interaction with users when examining their performance. This study examines the role of user behaviour in mitigating this performance gap from a systems perspective. A sample of 21 case studies was selected from 700 domestic HPs monitored across the UK via the government’s Renewable Heat Premium Payment Scheme for the collection of qualitative and quantitative socio-technical data. The application of systems thinking facilitated the identification of the underlying interactions between the HP system and its users. The systems analysis revealed that HP performance relies on complex socio-technical system interactions, including behavioural patterns, and that enabling feedback information processes can have a significant impact on user behaviour. The study enabled a deeper perspective on performance influencers relating to behavioural patterns and achieved new insights into the requirements for well-performing HPs. These findings have important implications for policy makers, installers and manufacturers of HP systems and their users

Comparisons of Emotional Boundaries: A case study of water neutrality and sustainable urban development in London

Emotions can shape decisions through the content of thought, depth of thought, goal activation, and interpersonal relationships within groups. While the formal aspects of the system have often been used to compare stakeholders' different perceptions of the system, the role of emotions still needs to be explored in the analysis. Drawing from a case study in London, UK, which explores how local developments contribute to water neutrality (WN) and sustainable growth, this study asks how the emotional boundaries that stakeholders attach to the variables contribute to the dynamics of sustainable urban development. We found that patterns and boundaries of different organizational groups’ emotions towards variables in causal mechanisms were explored. Despite the shared goal of achieving WN in developments, stakeholders have various emotional perceptions of the variables that contribute to WN and long-term sustainable growth. This paper illustrates the proof of the concept of how emotional boundaries impact the dynamics of decision-making in the sustainable urban environment

Dynamics of short-term and long-term decision-making in English housing associations: A study of using systems thinking to inform policy design

Incorporating consideration of causal mechanisms of complex policy issues and goals is critical for policy design, but tools to support exploration of the interconnections, trade-offs and unintended consequences of a focused policy issue are limited. Understanding how to undertake systems-based policy design is crucial for designing effective policy interventions. Through a case study with two housing associations (HAs) in England, this paper explores how group model building (GMB) workshops, as a systems thinking tool, can elicit complex causal mechanisms to inform policy design. The paper presents a causal loop diagram (CLD) describing English HAs’ decision-making around sustainable and healthy housing in response to housing policies. The CLD illustrates how frequent policy changes and disjointed objectives can create disruptive challenges for HA's long-term decision-making, increasing short-term decision-making, and compromising the delivery of housing policy goals as an unintended consequence. We argue that the systems perspective of the interlinkages between policy design, specifically inconsistencies and changes, and housing organisations’ reactions highlights the importance of the systems thinking approach of policy design to support HAs’ organisational decision-making for sustainability and social issues. Policy design elements that facilitate HAs’ long-term decision-making are discussed. Through the case study, we contribute to the housing policy literature by explicitly showing how policy changes affect HA's decision-making. We advance the integration of policy design and soft operational research fields by describing the systems thinking approaches are used not only on the content of policy design to enhance a particular policy, but also on increasing our understanding of its process, by generating insights about the nature of decision-making dynamics and challenges faced. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed

Use of Urban Health Indicator Tools by Built Environment Policy- and Decision-Makers: a Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.

Global initiatives have raised awareness of the need for cross-departmental and cross-sectoral activities to support urban health, sustainability, and equity, with respective indicators routinely used as a way to catalyze and monitor action toward pre-defined goals. Despite the existence of at least 145 urban health indicator (UHI) tools globally, there has been very little research on the use of indicators by policy- and decision-makers; more attention has been devoted to their development and validation. This paper describes the second part of a two-part systematic review of the characteristics (part A) and use (part B, this part) of UHI tools by municipal built environment policy- and decision-makers. Part B is a narrative synthesis of studies on the use of UHI tools. This PRISMA-P compliant review follows a mixed methods sequential explanatory design. The search was conducted using seven bibliographic databases, grey literature searches, and key journal hand searches. Ten studies describing the use of ten UHI tools in seven countries were included in the narrative synthesis, resulting in development of a theory of change (ToC). We found that both expert-led and participatory indicator projects can be underpinned by research evidence and residents' knowledge. Our findings contradict the dominant view of indicator use in policy-making as a linear process, highlighting a number of technical, organizational, political, knowledge, and contextual factors that affect their use. Participatory UHI tools with community involvement were generally more effective at supporting "health in all policies" and "whole-of-society" approaches to governing healthy cities than expert-led processes. UHI tool producers proposed a range of techniques to address urban health complexity characteristics. Finally, in combining data from both parts of the review, we found that potentially important UHI tool features, such as neighbourhood-scale data, were influential in the use of indicators by built environment policy- and decision-makers

An Inquiry into Model Validity When Addressing Complex Sustainability Challenges

Scientific modelling is a prime means to generate understanding and provide much-needed information to support public decision-making in the fluid area of sustainability. A growing, diverse sustainability modelling literature, however, does not readily lend itself to standard validation procedures, which are typically rooted in the positivist principles of empirical verification and predictive success. Yet, to be useful to decision-makers, models, including their outputs and the processes through which they are established must be, and must be seen to be “valid.” *is study explores what model validity means in a problem space with increasingly interlinked and fast-moving challenges. We examine validation perspectives through ontological, epistemic, and methodological lenses, for a range of modelling approaches that can be considered as “complexity-compatible.” *e worldview taken in complexity-compatible modelling departs from the more standard modelling assumptions of complete objectivity and full predictability. Drawing on different insights from complexity science, systems thinking, economics, and mathematics, we suggest a ten-dimensional framework for progressing on model validity when investigating sustainability concerns. As such, we develop a widened view of the meaning of model validity for sustainability. It includes (i) acknowledging that several facets of validation are critical for the successful modelling of the sustainability of complex systems; (ii) tackling the thorny issues of uncertainty, subjectivity, and unpredictability; (iii) exploring the realism of model assumptions and mechanisms; (iv) embracing the role of stakeholder engagement and scrutiny throughout the modelling process; and (v) considering model purpose when assessing model validity. We wish to widen the debate on the meaning of model validity in a constructive way. We conclude that consideration of all these elements is necessary to enable sustainability models to support, more effectively, decision-making for complex interdependent systems

Implementation of systems thinking in public policy : a systematic review

The value of systems thinking in public policy is increasingly recognised. However, the extent of its use in decision- and policy-making within the government and civil service remains unclear. This review aims to investigate the state of systems thinking application in public policy. We conducted a systematic search to identify papers published up to June 2022 from various scientific databases. We also searched the grey literature. Publications eligible for inclusion were those that used or discussed systems thinking concepts and tools relating to policy-making. We included 73 papers falling into five categories: case studies, commentary pieces, user perspectives, reviews, and methodological frameworks. Our analysis highlighted the benefits and values of systems thinking that were observed and reflected by researchers and perceived by users in policy-making. It also revealed several challenges of systems thinking implementation in public policy and mapped out recommendations to address each of these challenges. Decision-makers in public policy are yet to utilise the full benefit of systems thinking. Advancing its implementation and sustaining its use in practice requires (i) exploring how to shift decision-makers' mental models and modify the organisational cultures under which decisions are made and (ii) developing methodological and practical guidance for application and evaluation specific to policy-making

An Inquiry into Model Validity When Addressing Complex Sustainability Challenges

Scientific modelling is a prime means to generate understanding and provide much-needed information to support public decision-making in the fluid area of sustainability. A growing, diverse sustainability modelling literature, however, does not readily lend itself to standard validation procedures, which are typically rooted in the positivist principles of empirical verification and predictive success. Yet, to be useful to decision-makers, models, including their outputs and the processes through which they are established must be, and must be seen to be “valid.” This study explores what model validity means in a problem space with increasingly interlinked and fast-moving challenges. We examine validation perspectives through ontological, epistemic, and methodological lenses, for a range of modelling approaches that can be considered as “complexity-compatible.” The worldview taken in complexity-compatible modelling departs from the more standard modelling assumptions of complete objectivity and full predictability. Drawing on different insights from complexity science, systems thinking, economics, and mathematics, we suggest a ten-dimensional framework for progressing on model validity when investigating sustainability concerns. As such, we develop a widened view of the meaning of model validity for sustainability. It includes (i) acknowledging that several facets of validation are critical for the successful modelling of the sustainability of complex systems; (ii) tackling the thorny issues of uncertainty, subjectivity, and unpredictability; (iii) exploring the realism of model assumptions and mechanisms; (iv) embracing the role of stakeholder engagement and scrutiny throughout the modelling process; and (v) considering model purpose when assessing model validity. We wish to widen the debate on the meaning of model validity in a constructive way. We conclude that consideration of all these elements is necessary to enable sustainability models to support, more effectively, decision-making for complex interdependent systems