Conducting a Systemic Conversation:

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Conducting a Systemic Conversation
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Conducting a Systemic Conversation Discourse for
Public Judgment in the Risk Society of a
Mixed-up World
Richard Bawden Michigan State University
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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
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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
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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
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A Mixed-up World?
If reading the daily paper is modern mans 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
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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.
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Take the every-day matter of food for example
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talk about the churning up of both nature and
culture!!!
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Most intellectual maps of agriculture fail to
recognize it as the very interface between people
and their environments Ken Dahlberg
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Nature
Culture
Agriculture/Food
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Or in Systems Terms
Natural Systems
Social Systems
Agri-food Systems
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And most intellectual maps of agriculture also
fail to reinforce the responsibilities that come
with operating at that interface.
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The responsibilities that come with actions at
the interface.
Ecological
Economic
Ethical
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Systems Ideas

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

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Type I Systemics Perspective.
Observed environment
Observed system
Observed sub-systems
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Input/Throughput/Output Flows
Natural Systems
Social Systems
Agri-food Systems
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Extended Input/Throughput/Output Flows
Natural Systems
Social Systems
Agricultural Systems
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The Ambient Environment
Natural Systems
Social Systems
Agricultural Systems
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Feedback and Other Flows
The Ambient Environment
Natural Systems
Social Systems
Agricultural Systems
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Hierarchy and Embeddedness

Global

Regional
Local
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Global

Regional
Local
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Social Systems
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Various sub-systems within Social Systems
Citizenry
Service
Media
Commerce
Governance
Church
Academia
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Language networks
Citizenry
Media
Service
Commerce
Governance
Church
Academia
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Type II Systemics Perspective.
Construed environment
Construed/conceptual system
Construing/learning sub-system
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A Systemic Process of Construing/Learning
Issue of shared concern
Ideas
Perceptions
Actions
Concerned participants
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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
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Window on the world
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• 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)

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Some Dimensions of Windows on the World
Holism
Objectivism
Contextualism
Reductionism
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Some Key Dimensions of Windows on the World
Holism
Type I Systemics
Type II Systemics
ECOCENTRIC
HOLOCENTRIC
Objectivism
Contextualism
Reductionism
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Learning about learning meta-learning
Meta-discourse
Embedded learning
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Learning about the nature of knowledge Epistemic-l
earning
Epistemic discourse
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Emotions
Dispositions
Learning System
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Emotions
Experiential inquiry
Inspirational Inquiry
Dispositions
Learning System
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The Environment
Natural
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
Cultural
Learning sub-system
Conceptual System
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Natural
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
Cultural
Learning sub-system
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The Spirit of Inclusive Well-being
Ecological
Economic Harmonization Optimization
Ethical
Realization
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Ethical
Realization

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

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