3,124 research outputs found
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Systems Practice: How to Act in a Climate-Change World
It is now accepted that humans are changing the climate of the Earth and this is the most compelling amongst a long litany of reasons as to why, collectively, we have to change our ways of thinking and acting. Most people now recognise that we have to be capable of adapting quickly as new and uncertain circumstances emerge: this capability will need to exist at personal, group, community, regional, national and international levels, all at the same time.
Systems Practice is structured into four parts. Part I introduces the societal need to move towards a more systemic and adaptive governance against the backdrop of human-induced climate change. Part II unpacks what is involved in systems practice by means of a juggler metaphor; examining situations where systems thinking offers useful understanding and opportunities for change. Part III identifies the main factors that constrain the uptake of systems practice and makes the case for innovation in practice by means of systemic inquiry, systemic action research and systemic intervention. The book concludes with Part IV, which critically examines how systems practice is, or might be, utilised at different levels from the personal to the societal.
The development of our capabilities to think and act systemically is an urgent priority and Systems Practice aims to show how to do systems thinking and translate that thinking into praxis (theory informed practical action) which will be welcomed by those managing in situations of complexity and uncertainty across all domains of professional and personal concern
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Supported open learning for rural development: some experiences from the Open University, UK
Four key elements which have underpined the OU(UK)s success in delivering an integrated system of supported open learning are outlined. These are: high quality, multi-media teaching materials; locally-based tutorial support; first class research and scholarship and highly professional logistics.
The argument is put that when designing any contemporary education programme there are advantages in considering the programme as if it were a learning system. To be responsible, designers also need to consider this within a context of global sustainable development which encompasses environmental decision making. Seminar delegates are invited to consider the question: How can distance education and open learning contribute to the emergence of viable and sustainable rural livelihood systems?
It is further argued that a valid response to this question involves surfacing the value positions of the major stakeholders as means to establish what is culturally feasible and so as to define what relationships stakeholders wish to conserve in any organisation that is constituted for the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. Evidence from other contexts suggests that any effective rural development strategy needs to be owned by more than one ministry. This presents particular challenges for a multi-national “university” concerned with rural development. International partnerships have a potential role and the OU(UK)’s collaboration models are summarized
Systems practice at the United Kingdom's Open University
This chapter relates the emerging focus on systems practice within the Systems Discipline at the Open University. Recent innovations have occurred in the changing environment of the University (Lane 1999), the higher education sector (Ison 1999) and the systems community more generally (Maiteny and Ison 2000)
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What is Systemic about Innovation Systems? The Implications for Policies. Governance and Institutionalization
Governing in the Anthropocene: What Future Systems Thinking in Practice?
The revealing and concealing features of the metaphor ‘earth as Anthropocene’ are explored in an inquiry that asks: In the Anthropocene what possible futures emerge for systems thinking in practice? Framing choice, so important yet so poorly realised, is the starting point of the inquiry. Three extant conceptual pathway-dependencies are unpacked: governance or governing; practice or practising and ‘system’. New data on the organisational complexity within the field of cybersystemics is presented; new ‘imaginaries’ including systemic co-inquiry and institutional recovery are proposed as novel institutions and practices to facilitate systemic transformations within an Anthropocene setting. The arguments of the paper are illustrated through a research case study based on attempts to transform water and/or river situations towards systemic water governance. It is concluded that future systems research can be understood as the search for effective ‘imaginaries’ that offer fresh possibilities within an Anthropocene framing
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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
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Transforming nature-society relations through innovations in research praxis: a coevolutionary systems approach
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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
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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
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