Why universities are failing: 2. Abandoning critique?

In a recent posting I outlined the parameters of my inquiry into how and why universities may be seen to be failing.  I began by addressing social purpose, or more precisely, loss of clarity about social purpose. In this Blog I reproduce an article by Henry Giroux because of its relevance to the issues I wish to explore in this series of posts. Professor Giroux is at McMaster University where he holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest.

Exile as a Space of Disruption in the Academy
by Henry Giroux

How can one not be in exile working in academia, especially if one refuses the cliques, mediocrity, hysterical forms of resentment, backbiting, and endless production of irrelevant, if not sometimes unethical, research that increasingly has come to characterize the corporate university? The spaces of retreat from public life now occupy too many institutions of higher education and have transformed them into dead zones of the imagination mixed with a kind of brutalizing defense of their own decaying postures and search for status and profits. Leadership in too many academic departments is empty, disempowering, and insular, lacking any outward vision or sense of social responsibility. Mimicking the instrumental logic of a business culture, too many administrators lack the vision, totality of knowledge, or will to address what role the university should play in a democracy. Too many individuals are tied to endless committees, overwhelmed by the mediocrity they or others endorse, and fearful of anyone who steps outside of the boundaries of bureaucratic conformity and civility. Excellence has become part of an empty recruiting slogan that has little do with the actual work or scholarship of faculty who are often punished or resented for such work.

One thing is clear: The retreat from the ethical and political imagination in higher education in too many countries has become legion. Little is being done to address the army of subaltern labor that has become the new poor in higher education and elsewhere. Moreover, faculty are increasingly told that the most important register of scholarship is grant writing over and against activities of teaching, community engagement, or other forms of public scholarship. In addition, students are constantly being told that they should feel good instead of working hard and focusing while being burdened, at the same time, with an insufferable amount of financial debt. Too many academics no longer ask students what they think but how they feel. Everyone wants to be a happy consumer. When students are told that all that matters is feeling good, and that feeling uncomfortable is alien to learning itself, the critical nature of teaching and learning is compromised.

This is an academic version of the Dr. Phil show where infantilized pedagogies prove to be as demeaning to students as they are to professors. Professors are now increasingly expected to take on the role of therapists speaking in terms of comfort zones but are rarely offered support for the purpose of empowering students to confront difficult problems, examine hard truths, or their own prejudices. This is not to suggest that students should feel lousy while learning or that educators shouldn’t care about their students. To the contrary, caring in the most productive sense means providing students with the knowledge, skills, and theoretical rigor that offers them the kinds of intellectual challenges to engage and take risks in order to make critical connections and develop a sense of agency where they learn to think for themselves and become critical and responsible citizens. Students should feel good through their capacity to grow intellectually, emotionally, and ethically with others rather than being encouraged to retreat from difficult educational engagements. Caring also means that faculty share an important responsibility to protect students from conditions that sanction hate speech, racism, humiliation, sexism, and an individual and institutional attack on their dignity.

For a range of theorists extending from Theodor Adorno to the post colonialist theorist Edward Said, exile was a central metaphor for defining the role of academics. As oppositional public intellectuals, academics played an indispensible role in Adorno’s notion of critical theory and Said’s work in defending the university as a crucial public sphere. They also played a crucial role in engaging culture as a site informed by mechanisms of power, and taking seriously the idea of human interdependence while living on the border — one foot in and one foot out, an exile and an insider, for whom home was always a form of homelessness. In Representations of the Intellectual, Said argued that exile referenced a space of engagement and critique, serving as both a theoretical and political reminder that educators often occupy a similar role and space where they work to “publicly raise embarrassing questions, confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), and refuse to be easily co-opted by governments or corporations” while offering models of social engagement that redefined the role of academics as civically engaged public intellectuals. This politically charged notion of the oppositional intellectual as homeless—in exile and living on the border, occupying a shifting and fractured pedagogical space in which critique, difference, and a utopian potentiality can endure—has provided the conceptual framework for generations of educators fighting against the deadly instrumentalism and reactionary ideologies that have shaped contemporary educational models in public schools and universities.

Under the regime of neoliberalism, too many institutions of higher education have transformed the culture of education into the culture of business and are now characterized by a withdrawal into the private and the irrelevant. In this view, education is driven largely by market forces that undermine any viable vision of education as a public good connected to wider social problems. Solidarity, rigor, public scholarship, and integrity are in short supply in many departments and are largely ignored by the new and expanding managerial class of administrators. In this context, exile is less a choice than a condition that is forced through policies of containment and procedure where contingent faculty are given short term contracts, struggle with course over loads, and bear the burden of time as a deprivation rather than a space of reflection and ownership over the conditions of their labor. Under such circumstances, exile is a state that can just as easily be manipulated to produce a key element of the neoliberal university which, as Noam Chomsky points out, is “designed to reduce labor costs and to increase labor servility.”[1]

Exile in this context speaks to new forms of faculty servitude that restrict and shut down spaces for dialogue, scholarship, dissent, and quality teaching. This is a form of forced exile, one wedded to expanding faculty powerlessness and undermining any sense of autonomy. It is against this notion of oppressive exile wedded to the market driven prescription of undermining faculty power while intensifying their labor that the concept of exile has to be rethought. Instead, exile must be seen and theorized as part of a larger political and empowering discourse connected to an affective and ideological space of struggle and resistance. Less an oppressive space of containment and deskilling, exile can become the grounds for a revitalized kind of public space and activism where a new language, a new understanding of politics, and new forms of solidarity can be nurtured among the displaced — that is, among those who refuse the neoliberal machinery of social and political violence that defines education solely as a source of profit, mode of commerce, and “feel good” pedagogy. The renowned sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s comments on his notion of welcoming exile under certain circumstances should not therefore surprise us, especially in light of his own experience of marginality as a Jewish public intellectual and as a courageous exemplar of civic courage. What must be understood and emphasized here is that Bauman’s position, along with that of Adorno and Said’s, does not constitute a celebration of marginality. Rather, for all of these scholars, exile is an affirmation to keep going in the midst of what sometimes appears to be a deadening form of academic madness and insularity driven by forces which constantly seek to undermine the university as a democratic public sphere. Bauman writes:

I need to admit, however, that my view of the sociologists’ vocation does not necessarily overlap with the consensus of the profession. Dennis Smith has described me as an “outsider through and through.” It would be dishonest of me to deny that denomination. Indeed, throughout my academic life I did not truly “belong” to any school, monastic order, intellectual camaraderie, political caucus, or interest clique. I did not apply for admission to any of them, let alone did much to deserve an invitation; nor would I be listed by any of them—at least unqualifiedly—as “one of us.” I guess my claustrophobia—feeling as I do ill at ease in closed rooms, tempted to find out what is on the other side of the door—is incurable; I am doomed to remain an outsider to the end, lacking as I [do] the indispensable qualities of an academic insider: school loyalty, conformity to the procedure, and readiness to abide by the school-endorsed criteria of cohesion and consistency. And, frankly, I don’t mind.[2]

While I don’t want to romanticize positions of marginality and exile, they may represent some of the few spaces left in the university where one can develop a comprehensive vision of politics and social change, challenge the often deadening silos of disciplinarity, while making connections with wider social movements outside of the university. The fight for the university as a public good is essential to the development of a vibrant formative culture and democracy itself. Exile may be one of the few spaces left in neoliberal societies as democracy is pushed ever farther to the margins where individuals must learn to work together to cultivate a sense of meaningful connection, solidarity, and engaged citizenship that moves beyond an allegiance to narrow interest groups and fragmented, single issue politics. Exile might be the space where a kind of double consciousness can be cultivated that points beyond the structures of domination and repression to what the poet Claudia Rankine calls a new understanding of community, politics, and citizenship in which the social contract is revived as a kind of truce in which we allow ourselves to be flawed together. She writes:

You want to belong, you want to be here. In interactions with others you’re constantly waiting to see that they recognize that you’re a human being. That they can feel your heartbeat and you can feel theirs. And that together you will live—you will live together.The truce is that. You forgive all of these moments because you’re constantly waiting for the moment when you will be seen. As an equal. As just another person. As another first person. There’s a letting go that comes with it. I don’t know about forgiving, but it’s an “I’m still here.” And it’s not just because I have nowhere else to go. It’s because I believe in the possibility. I believe in the possibility of another way of being. Let’s make other kinds of mistakes; let’s be flawed differently.[3]

To be “flawed differently” works against a selfish desire for power and a sense of belonging to the often suffocating circles of certainty that define fundamentalisms of all ideological stripes. Being “flawed differently” also suggests the need to provide room for the emergence of new democratic public spheres, noisy conversations, and a kind of alternative third space informed by compassion and respect for the other. Under such circumstances, critical exchange and education matters not as a self-indulgent performance in which individuals simply interview themselves but as public acts of reaching out, a willingness to experience the other within the space of exile that heralds and precipitates a democracy to come. This would be a democracy where intellectual thought informs critique, embodies a sense of integrity, and reclaims education in the service of justice and equality.

What might it mean, then, to imagine the university as containing spaces in which the metaphor of exile provides a theoretical resource to engage in political and pedagogical work that is disruptive, transformative, and emancipatory? Such work would both challenge the mainstream notion of higher education as a kind of neoliberal factory, as well as the ideological fundamentalism that has emerged among many conservatives and some alleged progressive voices. What might it mean to address the work that we do in the university, especially with regards to teaching as a form of classroom grace– a place to think critically, ask troubling questions, and take risks, even though that may mean transgressing established norms and bureaucratic procedures?[4]
 
 Exile is not a prescription or rationale for cynicism, nor is it a retreat from one’s role as an informed and engaged faculty member. On the contrary, it is a space of possibility where the reality of the university as defined by the culture of business and a reductive instrumental rationality can be challenged by a view of the university as a public good, one that expands and deepens relations of power among faculty, administrators, and students while redefining the mission of the university. In an age of overwhelming violence, war, and oppression, universities must create formative cultures that allow students to assume the role of critically engaged citizens, informed about the ideologies, values, social relations, and institutions that bear down on their lives so that they can be challenged, changed, and held accountable. Exile in this sense is a space of critical dialogue, a posture of engaged dissent, a place filled with visions that refuse to normalize the present while imagining a more just future. It is a deeply political and moral space, one that makes education central to any viable notion of agency and politics, and works hard to create the public spaces and formative cultures that make democracy possible.
--
Henry Giroux received his Doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon in 1977. He then became professor of education at Boston University from 1977 to 1983. In 1983 he became professor of education and renowned scholar in residence at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where he also served as Director at the Center for Education and Cultural Studies. He moved to Penn State University where he took up the Waterbury Chair Professorship at Penn State University from 1992 to May 2004. He also served as the Director of the Waterbury Forum in Education and Cultural Studies. He moved to McMaster University in May 2004, where he currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest. He is a frequent contributor to Tikkun Magazine and the Tikkun Daily Blog.
_ _
[1] Noam Chomsky, “The Death of American Universities,” Reader Supported News, (March 30, 2015). Online at: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/29348-the-death-of-american-universities
[2] Efrain Kristal and Arne De Boever, “Disconnecting Acts: An Interview with Zygmunt Bauman Part II,” Los Angeles Review of Books (November 12, 2014). Online: http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/disconnecting-acts-interview-zygmunt-bauman-part-ii
[3] Meara Sharma interviews Claudia Rankine, “Blackness as the Second Person,”Guernica (November 17, 2014). Online: https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/blackness-as-the-second-person/
[4] Kristen Case, “The Other Public Humanities,” The Chronicle of Higher Education(January 13, 2014). Online: http://m.chronicle.com/article/Ahas-Ahead/143867/

Why universities are failing: 1. Social purpose

Stefan Collini in his book 'What are unversities for?' observes that 'asking what something is for all too often turns out to be asking for trouble' (p.ix).  On the other hand those adept at systems thinking appreciate that questions of purpose are central to generating systemic understanding in all human action.  I would claim that it is the failure to attend to questions of purpose that cultivates the disillusionment experienced so frequently in contemporary organisations and in our responses to the adequacies, or not, of historical institutional arrangements.

This is the first of a series of postings in which  I will explore some of the failings of the contemporary university as I and others have come to understand them.  In particular I will explore some of the emergent properties of modern universities as a particular organisational form, and as sites of enactment of particular, often perverse, institutional arrangements.   As in this paragraph I will distinguish between institutions (norms, rules of the game, which we humans invent like policies and codified practices such as 'key performance indicators' or KPIs) and organisations (configurations of institutions, structures and practices which may, or may not, be related to a discernable organisational purpose).

What experiences do I have to make these claims?  I have never been a VC or PVC for example. On the other hand I have worked in, and contributed to, the social purpose of a University for over 40 years (if one counts undergraduate and postgraduate years).  My own academic trajectory has been influenced by powerful early experiences of ‘development failure’ (in Indonesia, Tanzania, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines) as well as systemic organisational failure (e.g. the inappropriate strategies of  a government department where I was first employed).  These experiences led me to realise that ‘failure’ was usually a product of the thinking and worldview of the ‘would be developers’ and the historicity of particular organisational policies and practices built on assumptions or circumstances that were no longer valid or distorted by the exesses of 'command and control' management practices.  My research has subsequently spanned the biophysical and the social (including organisations/institutions) and has evolved as my own understandings have changed. 

A distinctive feature of my career in Higher Education has been my experience of, and contributions to, four contrasting University settings and forms:

• the first was a five year experience in co-developing a radical, student-centred curriculum based on experiential learning, systems thinking and effective communication and in which the academic role was the facilitation of student learning; 
• the second was eight years in a traditional, research intensive university in Australia
• the third was my ongoing experience (22 years now) of one of the largest and most significant Open and distance teaching universities – the Open University (UK);
• the fourth was nine years within (partially) globalising, metric-led, research intensive Australian Universities

My motivation for developing these reflective pieces arises from a number of powerful experiences during 2015 in addition to a longstanding concern about the trajectory of HE in general and the University in particular. One of these experiences was in Beijing last September during a lunch with a group of very bright students and staff from one of China's leading universities.  Much to my amazement the focus of the conversation was  'gaming' the modern 'academic system': the difficulties of writing in English, journal impact factors, citation metrics and the like and how best to improve performance.  I was asked for my advice, as if I was one who had mastered this practice!   My reply instead was to ask them how, through their work, they felt they would be able to address some of the many issues that confronted contemporary China, not to mention the world, given global climate change and the like. Unfortunately I did not find their responses very convincing.

In systems terms the metrics that concerned my young Chinese aquaintances are measures of performance.  But what is the system for which these metrics are measures?  This question goes largely unexplored and unanswered in the contemporary university.

In his 2012 book Collini, building on Keynes' question 'what is economics for?' responds to his own title question 'What are universities for? by arguing that:

'..any discussion of the place of universities in contemporary society will inevitably be driven to articulate, in however rudimentary terms, some sense of human purposes beyond that of accumulating wealth. Or so one might think.  Yet it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the greater part of public discourse about universities at present reduces to the following dispiriting proposition: universities need to justify getting more money and the way to do this is to show that they help to make more money.'

In his THES review, Fred Inglis argues that:

'[Collini] has plenty of allies, for sure: the Campaign for the Public University and its recent manifesto; Jonathan Bate's 2011 edited collection (The Public Value of the Humanities) compiled in vindication of the discipline recently brought to bankruptcy by the Browne Review; along with vehement criticism by and in the pages of Times Higher Education, naturally, as well as in the pages of the London Review of Books, where much of it was written by Collini himself (in this connection, among many instances, do not miss Gary Rolfe and his address to the International Networking for Education in Healthcare Conference last year).'

However, my aspiration with these posts is not to fall into the trap articulated in a cutting review of Collini's book by Peter Conrad:

"What universities are emphatically not for is to subsidise the self-pity of those they employ."

Floods in Scotland - experiencing the effects

A colleague of mine has written to describe what he encountered on a visit to the River Dee in Scotland, following the recent floods.

Dear Ray,...

Morag and I visited a village in the next valley (the river Dee) that had been hit by floods it has never before exprienced and took some photos - and this is after a good deal of clearing up. Devastation considerable. It was impressive to see even very solid, thick, granite walls had been completely threatened. Near the river they had a caravan site that was locally owned and produced profit of £40k/year put into the local community. 60 permanent caravans and 40 seasonal. Well, the 60 permanent that were on site were devastated. I attach two photos of what we saw and will send two more. 

I have a bit of worry that the slides may have come out a bit  dark - but maybe that is just how they appear on screen of my computer. I took quite a few and, if anyone - say Kevin - is interested in some for teaching purposes, I can put them on a disc and send them.

Attached are four pictures:-

(i) - Site cleared largely of caravans by flood going through. None of them could get insurance and they will not come back to that site if they buy a new one. IE that whole business is gone.

(ii) - One of the piles of waste materials gathered up to date - many more around. Peoples' lives in a pile for landfill.

 (iii) - Bridge immediately downstream of the caravan site with a caravan, or its smashed remains wrapped around one of the pillars. Some of the bridges on this river had to be closed due to damage by the flood.

(iv) - Suspension bridge some miles downwstream from Ballater and which is normally three metres above the river, bent through collision with stuff coming downstreaM - probably one  or more caravans at speed. There is a fine deep pool tucked away close to this bridge and, when we were lads, we used to go "skinny dukin" (nude bathing) when we were there and coming off the hill or a climb  on a hot day. Memories!

The harbour authority at Aberdeen, about 40 miles downstream had to take out heaven knows how many caravans, fishermens' huts, cars etc that arrive uninvited.

Drennan

More water development foolishness!

In response to a Facebook query re my earlier posting about proposed Indian water developments I realised it would have been useful if I had provided some more background. So here it is.

Most Indian rivers and groundwater are already overexploited. Groundwater on the Indo-Gangetic plain has been dropping at alarming rates and is becoming increasingly polluted, especially with nitrate (which is the fertiliser fix that substitutes for the loss of silt deposited by the historical flooding action of the river).  There are also flouride contamination problems in some areas.   The article "China and India 'water grab' dams put ecology of Himalayas in danger" gives more background.

Or this article: "Water Wars: China, India and the Great Dam Rush. The construction of dams on major rivers has serious implications for millions living downstream" explains why the systemic implications are so serious.  

Today I received news of this publication, which confirms in a rigorous analysis what many of us have known for some time:

"There are four billion people worldwide who are affected by severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That is the conclusion of University of Twente Professor of Water Management, Arjen Hoekstra, after many years’ extensive research. This alarming figure is much higher than was previously thought. His ground-breaking research was published in Science Advances.

Professor Hoekstra’s team is the first research group in the world to identify people’s water footprint from month to month and to compare it to the monthly availability of water. “Up to now, this type of research concentrated solely on the scarcity of water on an annual basis, and had only been carried out in the largest river basins,” says Hoekstra.

He defines severe water scarcity as the depletion of water in a certain area. “Groundwater levels are falling, lakes are drying up, less water is flowing in rivers, and water supplies for industry and farmers are threatened. In this research, we established the maximum sustainable ‘water footprint’ for every location on earth, and then looked at actual water consumption. If the latter is much greater than what is sustainable, then there can be said to be severe water scarcity.”

 
The full paper is available to view.  A key conclusion is that:

"Putting caps to water consumption by river basin, increasing water-use efficiencies, and better sharing of the limited freshwater resources will be key in reducing the threat posed by water scarcity on biodiversity and human welfare."

The tragedy is that politicians, bankers, developers and techno-optimists still believe there is a biological free lunch to be had by damming more rivers; in policy circles it seems too hard to appreciate that caps on water consumption are needed.  Unfortunately Australia's new Deputy Premier is of the 'exploitation' persuasion as this report outlines:

"Federal and state government eyes have turned once again toward water infrastructure for northern Australia.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce joined Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for a whistlestop visit to Queensland this week.

At talks with community groups and members of the public, dams and the downturn in resources dominated discussion.

No announcements were made, but Mr Joyce did reaffirm his keenness for water projects.
“Water is wealth and a dam is a bank,” he said.

“Any essence of wealth is connected to water and water infrastructure.

“As they say you can make money out of mud, you can't make it out of dust.

“We have put $500 million on the table, for which $50 million goes towards the feasibility studies of the construction of dams. Now these have actually been over-subscribed.”

Perhaps Barnaby may become known as the minister for Systemic Failings! It is ironic that Malcolm Turnbull has much of the credit for the legislation that has led to caps in water exploitation in the Murray-Darling Basin, although some would argue these achievements are under threat.

Indian water development foolishness?

It is a pity that governments and policy folk seduced by techno-optimism do not reaslise that in human-nature relations there is no such thing as a free lunch.  This is why we have a global water crisis as so many of our river systems and aquifers are over exploited - often irreversibly.  It is thus tragic to hear of the latest round of plans by the Indian Government highlighted in this report:

"The government of India has announced plans to borrow 860 billion rupees (AU$18 billion) from overseas to fund irrigation projects.

Crop output in Asia’s third-biggest economy has been smashed by two dry years, leading the government to undertake bold measures it says will restore as much as 13 million hectares of irrigated farmland.

“We want to use the next 10 years to drought proof the country,” Shashi Shekhar, chief of India’s water-resources ministry, recently told reporters.

“Agriculture must become resilient to climate change.”

India is rumoured to be approaching the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and various state-owned banks for loans.

Reports say ten Indian state governments are part of the plan, which will see the federal government split repayments equally between them.

Water availability will continue to be a major issue in India, even more so given that the strongest El Nino in almost two decades has brought unusual weather and damaged crops across the entire region.

Less than half of India’s 141.6 million hectares of farmland is irrigated.

Most of India’s 263 million farmers rely on rain as a major source of irrigation, but with falls recorded at 14 per cent below the 50-year average in recent years, more solid supplies are needed.

With Agriculture contributing about 15 per cent to India’s GDP and standing as the nation’s biggest employer, the live of millions are inextricably linked to good irrigation."

Remedy 101

Michael Lissack, current President of the ASC (American Society of Cybernetics) has just released a YouTube clip he calls 'remedy 101', or what to do when simplification fails. 

Perverse policy and practice....flooding

My colleague Dick Morris has sent the following item from the latest Energy and Environment Management Magazine (an on-line a UK-based monthly update of news/developments).

He, like I, find it unimaginable that such unsound policy should be put into practice. It represents a major waste of resources and is far from being a systemic response to flooding. 

Lincolnshire flood plain housing to have £13 million defence scheme

Post Date: 12 January 2016

Engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald has been appointed by North Lincolnshire Council to design a £13 million flood defence scheme for the new Lincolnshire Lakes multi-village development near Scunthorpe, UK.

The £1.2 billion Lincolnshire Lakes scheme is a strategic regeneration project which will see six new villages created on a flood plain to the west of Scunthorpe. Approximately 6,000 homes, a primary school, stadium, community centre and retirement home, with new access roads and local shops are planned to be built among a series of artificial lakes by 2028. One of the key components of the scheme is to deliver a flood management solution to ensure a safe development, free from flooding.

Mott MacDonald will undertake flood modelling and the detailed design of flood defences, with associated ground investigation studies in the first quarter of 2016, with construction to begin shortly after. The area the project will cover is the 3.6km of the River Trent between the M180 and the southern boundary of Keadby Bridge near Althorpe.

Colin Greensill, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: “North Lincolnshire Council’s investment will help prevent any future flooding into the new villages while also help improve flood defences for existing villages as well."

Summer school - knowledge co-production

I have received the following advice from Mathieu Dionnet

"Dear colleagues,

For your information and for dissemination, Lisode co-organises with ISEG-Lisbon and UFZ-Leipzig a five-days international Summer School called: Concepts and tools to engage in knowledge co-production and public participation. This second edition will take place in Agropolis International, Montpellier, France, from June 27^th to July 1^st 2016.

For more information, please look at the flyer for the course which is restricted to 20 participants or send a message to summerschool2016@lisode.com"

I have no first hand experience of this offering so can not offer any advice to those interested.   

PhD students - opportunity to engage with Systems at IFSA 2016

The IFSA 2016: PhD Course has just been announced. 

Please circulate the announcement to anyone who might be interested.

Systems Thinking in Practice(STiP) in PhD Research: appreciating and effecting transformations with farming systems research (4 ECTS - Subject to Approval)

This PhD course will run throughout the period of the IFSA 2016 Symposium at Harper Adams University from Sunday 10th July to Saturday 16th July 2016. It will focus on the main theme of the IFSA Symposium and consider how research plays a key role in appreciating how purposeful transformations are realized in different parts of the world, related to farming, food, rural areas and environment. It will consider the increasingly multifaceted complexity of issues of sustainability, water, food and soil security and climate change in relation to food and fibre production and consumption, in addition to the maintenance or enhancement of ecosystems services and the concomitant enhancement of rural livelihoods.

The purpose of this course is to help you, the PhD student, develop your STiP skills in contextualizing your research, to make connections among issues using systems thinking and to so improve your ability to work both strategically and purposefully in relation to transformations. The course is also designed to help you build on what other researchers have previously undertaken. The course will be delivered by Dr Chris Blackmore, Professor Ray Ison, and Professor Dr. Nadarajah Sriskandarajah. Full details of the course can be found here.

Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era

Yiannis Laouris  advises that "Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era" is launched! The first Webinar is online. Please feel free to login with your acccount and make comments, ask questions and make statements below it in order to initiate dialogues and discussions.

Yiannis says to "Let me know for ANY ways in which you may join, contribute or benefit."

Unethical systems practice?

Systems practice in and of itself is neither ethical or unethical as all practice is in the hands of the practitioner in a given context. What is, or is not, ethical is always situated. My musings on this question has been triggered by reading material on 'transformative scenario planning' by Adam Kahane.  Kahane became known based on his leadership of the Mont Fleur Scenario exercise in South Africa in the early 1990s, an exercise that many claim helped in positive ways to transition to a post-apartheid state as well as shaping some of the ANC's early political and economic strategies.

Anyone who has more than a passing aquaintance with systems scholarship knows that scenario planning was mainly developed within the Royal Dutch Shell oil company. It was the adaptive scenario work done by Pierre Wack in the early 1970s, 'envisaging' the 1973 oil crisis, that led to scenario planning being institutionalised in Shell.....and presumedly other companies, including other oil companies.  Wack's work enabled Shell, one of the weakest of the infamous 'seven sister's who dominated the oil industry, to emerge from the 1973 oil shock as one of the strongest.

According to Kahane, scenario planning in Shell developed under the leadership of Ged Davis and Kees van der Heijden. Kahane, who was a Shell employee when he went to South Africa, attributes his own learning of scenario planning to these 'two masters'. Shell was also a pioneer in the use of SSM (soft-systems methodology) and Kees van der Heijden was an important player in this activity - as examples written up in several of Peter Checkland's books testify.  SSM can be used as a form of scenario practice and Kahane's 'transformative scenario' practice seems replete with systemic thinking and practice.

With this as background my musings turn to the question of how scenario planning has been used, particularly in the oil industry, in the 45 or so years since Shell began using it.  For example, was it used in the move by BP into 'beyond petroleum' and then the rather rapid departure from that set of narratives and commitments?  Why did most major oil and energy companies abandon their diversified portfolios, including renewable energy assets, in the early 2000s?  Were these decisions guided by an undisclosed 'Big Tobacco' scenario? Or a 'make hay while we can' scenario? Or an 'exploit our social operating licence to the full - till we are stopped' scenario?  My musings are prompted by news of an inquiry that may be gathering steam in California:

"Billionaire supports reported inquiry into possible ExxonMobil cover-up"

"Activist Tom Steyer’s comments followed reports that California attorney general is looking into what the world’s biggest oil company knew about climate change........into allegations that ExxonMobil spent decades lying to investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change."

It is clear that practices informed by systems thinking and practice can be used to good effect; whether the practice is ethical or not is another question. When framed in terms of Heinz von Forster's ethical imperative:

...."act always so as to increase the number of choices" or "I always act so as to increase the number of choices".......

then the actions of oil companies, should it be shown that they deliberately set out to prolong their business model in the face of overwhelming evidence about climate change, have clearly acted unethically. Collectively they will have acted to limit the choices we humans have as we move into a climate-change world. 

EMCSR avantgarde, Vienna 30 March – 1 April, 2016

Call for Participation: 30 March–1 April, 2016,  Vienna, Austria - the exact location will be chosen in Vienna regarding the topics and number of attendees.

Format: Pop up conference meetings. The European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR) will be held in Vienna from March 30 to April 1, 2016. It will be the first pop up conference meeting in the field of Systems Science, called emcsr avantgarde.

The name reflects the vision and the core of the programme. We are looking forward to setting the stage for the contemporary avantgarde of Systems Science and Practice, connecting the achievements of the past with inspiring potentials for the future. The new emcsr avantgarde will be the “talent” scout event in the field of Systems Science.

An international scientific jury (selection committee) of renowned experts in their respective fields (philosophy, science, engineering, design, and art) will select the competition attendees and their submissions. Every selected researcher is a nominee for “The Ludwig von Bertalanffy Young Scientist Award” donated by the main organizer of the event, the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS). The winner will be chosen through real-­time voting by the audience of the emcsr avantgarde meetings.  It is the first prototype for “scientific talent” scouting independent of the age and career status of the candidates. The BCSSS as a role model is also eager to meet further potential candidates, master and PhD students, for their upcoming scholarship programme (starting in 2017) through the event, independent from the playful award contest.

This is a unique opportunity to discover the next generation of systems researchers. We intend to invite universities, foundations, donors, startups and investors as well as human resource managers to meet their future potential talents at the emcsr avantgarde.

The emcsr avantgarde will also offer satellite workshops. These workshops are focused on a Specific topic, organized by an invited group of already established researchers, and offer opportunities to showcase and further elaborate contemporary trends in Cybernetics and Systems Science.

The emcsr avantgarde will be intentionally a smaller exclusive conference meeting. We want to ensure that the selection of submissions reflect quality, thus the referee process will be rigor.  We also want to ensure that we enable vivid interaction at the conference meetings through the number of  attendees.

The emcsr avantgarde is the 23^rd European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research in Vienna building on 40 years of tradition. In 1972, the emcsr offered its first forum for discussion of converging ideas and new aspects of different scientific disciplines.  The emcsr was co-founded by the Austrian Society for Cybernetics Studies, chaired by Robert Trappl, which established the Austrian Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna, too.

Since then every two years senior scientists met in Vienna to present in workshops and symposia their latest research results and discuss the rapid developments in our society. From 2016 on the main stage is set for the young researchers, too.

We are very happy that Robert Trappl will be present at the reinvented emcsr avantgarde, when we establish the milestone for the 21^st century scientific avantgarde connected to the roots of the provocative avant-garde of the 70s.

Visit online: http://www.emcsr.net

Improving people-nature relations.....not 'biodiversity conservation'!

Caption:  The Seaford foreshore - nature in the city.  Over forty-thousand people live within 15 driving or walking minutes of the Seaford foreshore and beach.   City creeks, reserves and landscapes managed by Councils, communities, Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria may not be wilderness with threatened species but 4.5 million Melbournians need natural places like this for physical and mental health and well-being.

The Port Philip and Westernport CMA (PPW Catchment Management Authority) recently made this Facebook posting.  It draws on work in which some of their staff are involved being conducted under the aegis of the Lonsdale Systems Group's designed and facilitated collaborative, systemic, inquiry into NRM governance in Victoria.

DOES NATURE MATTER TO PEOPLE IN URBAN MELBOURNE? 

Social science and intuition agree - contact with nature is critical to the health and well-being of over 15 million city Australians.  

Melbourne Water’s waterways program, Council environment staff and Parks Victoria conserve nature in our city but against daily competition for space and resources.  Past government strategy has often under-recognised urban conservation. 

A new Victorian Biodiversity Strategy is being made.  A draft will be released soon and it’s an opportunity for change.  The PPWCMA’s Regional Strategy Team and Living Links Coordinator are working with council and community leaders and the Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning to help the new Biodiversity Strategy better recognise urban community needs and connections with nature.

The PPWCMA’s Regional Strategy Team is also consulting with its partners on a written response to the Draft Biodiversity Strategy.  The response will focus on the importance  of urban nature conservation and the value of its partners’ work to keep nature alive and well in the city.

Does nature matter to people in urban Melbourne?  Yes!

Systems PhD short-course in conjunction with IFSA 2016

Beginning in Aarhus in 2012 a PhD 'short-course' organised as a 'systemic inquiry' has been offered in conjunction with the biennial conference of the European chapter of the IFSA (International Farming Systems Association). In the past these have attracted ECTS points for participating PhD students who are also required to attend the conference.

The first course was so successful that another was organised in Berlin in 2014 which was also very successful.  Now another PhD course has just been announced in conjunction with this year's IFSA conference to be held at Harper Adams University in England.

I invite all who read this to spread the news about this opportunity.

What system is it exactly?

This is a great post from Helen Wilding who draws out the traps that arise from the uncritical and everyday use of the term 'system'.

News from Italian Systems Society

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to bring to your attention, in case of your interest, the publication of the proceedings of the 2014 conference of the Italian Systems Society:

Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), (2016), Towards a post-Bertalanffy Systemics. Springer, New York 

A brief profile of the Italian Systems Society and a list of proceedings published previously are available [below].

Best regards,

Prof. Gianfranco Minati

___________________________________
· Polytechnic University of Milan/Department 'Building Environment Sciences and Technology', doctoral lecturer on systems science
· Personal URL  http://www.gianfrancominati.net/

The Italian Systems Society (AIRS)  was founded in the 1996. The AIRS is a network of academicians, scientists, researchers and professionals involved in Systemics. A partial list of disciplines represented is:

 Architecture
 Biology
 Economics
 Education
 Engineering
 Mathematics
 Neurosciences
 Medicine
 Music
 Philosophy
 Psychology
 Physics.

The conferences had as open lecturer professors Arecchi, Haken, Klir, and Kauffman. The proceedings have been published as:

1. Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), (2015), Towards a post-Bertalanffy Systemics. Springer, New York.

2. Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), (2012), Methods, Models, simulations and approaches - towards a general theory of change. World Scientific, Singapore

3. Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), (2009), Processes of emergence of systems and systemic properties. Towards a general theory of emergence. World Scientific, Singapore.

4. Minati, G., Pessa, E., and Abram, M., (eds.), (2006), Systemics of Emergence: Research and Applications. Springer, New York.

5. Minati, G., and Pessa, E., (eds.) (2002), Emergence in Complex Cognitive, Social and Biological Systems. Kluwer, New York.

6. Minati, G., (ed.), (1998), Proceedings of the first Italian Conference on Systemics, Apogeo scientifica, Milan, Italy.

Second Order Science

A conversation about second-order science is being fostered within the American Society of Cybernetics (ASC), and elsewhere, including the journal Constructivist Foundations.

Michael Lissack, current President of ASC, delivered this talk at ISSS2015 in Berlin, which was also the first Ranulph Glanville Memorial Lecture, delivered on behalf of ISSS (see this obituary).

This talk 'Dancing with Ambiguity' was also delivered by Pille Bunnel in Berlin as part of the embedded ASC day within ISSS2015. There are three clips in all.

There is more to be written and enacted under the aegis of second-order science. 

Catching up with Maturana

For some time the innovative work of Humberto Maturana has been neglected, or sidelined, within the fields of perception/cognition research as the current mainstream paradigm pursues, to my mind, a barren trajectory. But the situation may be changing - take a look at this Ted Talk which adds empirical evidence to much of what can be found in Maturana's work (which was itself empirically based).

My own 2010 book, Systems Practice: How to act in a climate-change World (Springer/Open University) is shaped by Maturana's biology of cognition.

As may be seen from this site, Beau Lotto, who delivers the Ted Talk has a new model of lab, the Lottolab, under development at UCL in London. It is claimed:

"Lottolab Studio is the world’s first public perception research space. Perception underpins everything that we feel, think and believe. It is the source of all artistic expression and scientific exploration. What we perceive IS who we are." 

Humberto Maturana, in the workshop conversations that I have experienced, always begins by exploring how and why humans in our living can not, in the moment, distinguish between perception and illusion. This is the human condition, as this Ted Talk makes clear.

Images - German summer 2015

These images come from three interrelated events held in Hannover and Berlin in late July, early August 2015 - see this blog for background. I thank my colleagues for providing some of these photos.

More systemic musings?

It may have escaped your attention (but not mine) that my last Blog was posted in April 2015. So what happened to my systemic musings?  Those of you inclined to, or interested in, systemic musings will be well aware that there has been no shortage of issues that warrant, if not demand, some systemic reflection.

One response would be to claim that 2015 was saturated with events and issues where more systemic insight and action was warranted yet obviously lacking! That is, 'the demand' was overwhelming!   How to evidence such a claim?  Not easy if even a sensible thing to do!

Another response would be to claim that my lack of musings were a response to the emotional and work roller-coaster that unfolded in my life from April onwards.  My own experiential evidence gives some credance to this claim!

Musings are a form of practice; the etymological roots (*) of the word encompass several meanings including 'to have one's mind roused'; 'to both love and to be mad'; to ponder, think, remember, show, foretell, warn'.  Musing, as a practice, could be understood as ranging from 'an animal sniffing around' (knowing its environment, or context), to the purposeful engagement in reflexive praxis (i.e. reflection on reflection through theory-informed practical action).  In resuming my blogging it is this praxis understanding of 'musing' that I seek to exemplify, whilst recognising that a praxis in which the acts of thinking and writing are central has its limitations in terms of effecting the sorts of transformative change that contemporary circumstances warrant.

My last posting was over Easter 2015 - a sort of 'calm before the storm' period that unfolded as the commitments made as President of ISSS (International Society for the Systems Sciences) took hold whilst at the same time I juggled my other academic commitments e.g. the CADWAGO project; the STiP MSc; the Systemic Governance Research (SGR) Program and my commitments to the RESILIM-O project.

For a range of reasons which I will outline in a later Blog, the activities of my ISSS Presidency were focused in Germany over the summer of 2015 (July-August).  Whilst demanding they were very successful as I hope the following report makes clear:

July/August 2015

Three events in Germany

1 1. Systemic Inquiry ‘Governing the Anthropocene. Cybersystemic Possibilities?’ Herrenhausen Palace. Hanover 30-31^st July 2015 (135 participants).

• A collaborative activity between WINS (Berlin Workshop in Institutional Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems) Humboldt University of Berlin and Prof. Ray Ison (ISSS/Open University) funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The collaboration with WINs was consolidated during a period of sabbatical leave at Humboldt University (Program Umwelt Governance led by Prof. Andreas Thiel) by Prof. Ison (April-May2014). It built on earlier collaboration that has led to the production of a Special Issue of Environmental Science & Policy.
•   Participants came from 32 countries (Brasil, Colombia, Germany, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Mexico, USA, Canada, Sweden, UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Japan, Chile, Ecuador, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, South Africa, Ghana, Belgium, Slovenia, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, India, China, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Thailand) and comprised 27 PhD students studying in nine different countries (Germany, Australia, Austria, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Colombia, USA, Norway). Participants represented 35 professional and academic organisations concerned with Systems and Cybernetics scholarship.
•  To our knowledge the event was the first ever joint meeting of scholars from cybersystemic and institutional economics backgrounds. There were at least 26 of the latter participating mainly from Germany or with backgrounds in German academia.
•   It was also the first purpose-designed event to bring together scholars from such a wide range of organisations concerned with ‘cybersystemics’.
• The event was co-designed by Kevin Collins and Ray Ison, facilitated by Kevin Collins and built on research/design carried out in Australia as part of the ‘transitioning to water sensitive cities’ events held around Australia in 2009.
•  A final program can be seen here; in all there were 22 presenters from 13 countries – six were from the German-speaking world.
•  A blogsite with all presentations and other outputs has been developed; a report has been prepared and sent to the  funders. A more substantial report is being drafted and a  follow-up evaluation is planned (already conducted with PhD students). As noted in the report to the VW Foundation other follow-up initiatives are planned.
• A number of links to sites concerned with the Inquiry theme - 'Governing in the Anthropocene' can be accessed via the Blog.

2 2. ISSS2015 Berlin.  “Governing the Anthropocene. The Greatest Challenge to Systems Thinking in Practice.” Scandic Hotel, Potsdamerplatz, Berlin 2^nd – 7^th August.

• According to feedback this was the most successful ISSS conference in the last decade with 240 participants and very strong contingent of young scholars (over 60) including the 27 PhD student program participants; feedback to me has been overwhelmingly positive.
• The final program can be seen here:  http://www.isss2015berlin.com/ ; also here https://plus.google.com/112203406557197052160/posts  and here: http://isss.org/world/Programme

• ·The conference contained novel design elements which were greeted positively.  These were:
•   A coherent narrative explicating the conference theme and program structure which was shared widely before the start of the conference
•  An embedded ASC (American Society of Cybernetics) day-conference, including an evening session with premier presentations of a play (based on Gregory Bateson’s metalogues) and the launch of a “new concept” by Nora Bateson;
• The first Ranulph Glanville Memorial Lecture was delivered by Prof. Michael Lissack, President of the American Society of Cybernetics.
•  A mixture of keynotes, panels and short presentations (including a Pecha Kucha Discussion) to provide greater variety in the morning sessions and to allow a greater range of voices/perspectives to be heard;
•   A strong and mutually supportive conference organising team with vital ISSS executive input (Jennifer Wilby) and local knowledge and capacity (Louis Klein and his Berlin-based Systemic Excellence Group);
• The addition of a several social media platforms to promote and support the overall event led by VP Delia MacNamara and our Platinum Sponsor (College of Exploration);
• Delivery of 12 morning keynotes (two co-delivered) and one evening keynote; 14 people participated in panel presentations.  152 papers and workshops were delivered in 47 separate afternoon sessions.
• A wrap-around PhD program with 27 students conducting their own systemic inquiry (see below) and feeding back on their learning/insights to the conference as a whole;
•  Liaison and collaboration with affiliated organisations and partners – ASC, INCOSE, Systems Dynamics Society, IFSR, IASCYS and Bs-Lab.

33. PhD Systemic Inquiry – ‘Systems Thinking and Practice in PhD Research: Cybersystemic Possibilities for Governing the Anthropocene’ in conjunction with WINS/Humbolt University, 5ECTS.

• 27 PhD students participated and completed (i.e. were awarded 5ECTS);
• Students were diverse in background, nationality, areas of study (from engineering to systemic family therapy) and age;
• The PhD course focused on the use of systems thinking in research practice - all students conducted their own systemic inquiries in sub-groups based on stage of PhD study;
• The course was lively as well as intensive, generated strong group cohesion and enthusiasm for the subject matter and was evaluated very positively by all participants;
• It comprised participation in 1 and 2 above plus 2.5 days of dedicated workshop on 1-2^nd August and the afternoon of 7^th August.
• The PhD program design and development built on two previous version conducted at the University of Aarhus, Denmark in 2012 and at Humbolt University in 2014.  The initiative has been pioneered and facilitated by Dr Chris Blackmore (OU), Prof, Sri Skandarajah (SLU, Sweden), Prof Ray Ison (OU/Monash) with assistance from Dr Thomas Aenis (Humbolt University) and the European Branch of the International Farming Systems Research association.

A lot of feedback was forthcoming - most of it very positive. This feedback, subject to permission by the originators, will be posted on the Systemic Inquiry Blog or here in due course.

Over this period a number of very successful learning events were run as  part of the CADWAGO project and in relation to the 'Learning Lab' initiative at Monash.  I will post more about these in due course. The rest of the year started well with a successful visit to China (more later) but then ended badly for reasons I shall explicate in future posts.

In 2015 perhaps the most positive event was that of CoP21 in Paris. Much has been written about the process and outcomes and the imperatives that now confront us collectively.  Responding positively will require as much systems thinking in practice as can be mustered and actioned.  The materials generated from the events held in Germany over the European summer are worthy of consideration by anyone wishing to contribute to the next phase of concerted action to transform how we live in a climate-change world.

* My etymological musings are always aided by reference to Joseph T Shipley's (1984) 'The Origins of English Words. A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. The  John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.