Pondering paradigms
January 21, 2023(Started on a Summer’s Saturday afternoon on the couch) Jan 2023 and a continuing exploration with my thoughts and understanding of paradigms….
The beginning…
In response to a SM conversation on ‘Donella Meadows list of interventions in systems’. (Maxed out on the word count for the response!) This is the thought trail on designing interventions in systems (or not).
https://medium.com/hackernoon/donella-meadows-recommendations-for-how-to-dance-with-and-intervene-in-systems-92ace21743fb [taking Daniel’s advice to ‘expose your mental models to the open air’…]
My Initial response
Shocks and disruptions often shift paradigms [e.g. ill health for farmers (from chemical exposure) make them open to organic approaches), disasters make neighbours connect etc ]
so how do we replicate that condition without the loss/damage of its reality?
[reply posted]
My Response to reply….
….Totally agree – capability for resilience (collective and individual) is necessary for any healthy community or system. The only way I can bear to think of an inevitable ‘cascading collapse’ is that we have a choice to ride the wave down either supporting each other above water till we can touch the bottom or fighting each other and drowning (I chose the former option).
….Exploring my thoughts on shifting paradigms without the ‘shock’ ; and how to create ‘ power to transcend paradigms’ (Donella.meadows.org – later listing #1[long reply here/below ]
My Response to reply expanded….
Agree that skills and effort for building capability of resilience as a collective and individually – is key for any healthy community.
My position was – when engaging levers in a system [a mechanical paradigm in and of itself]- how do we create the power to ‘transcend paradigms’ (#1 identified as the most ‘powerful’ lever).
– in my understanding – to create conditions in any system that have the profound impact of ‘shocks’ without needing those shocks to happen would be the constructive approach
– the conditions that shift people’s world views and ‘paradigms’ in an ‘upstream’ sense ie how do we open people up to another way; or provide space to experience’ a different paradigm – in the sense of ‘paradigm’ in the older meaning of ‘pattern, example, model’… and motivate their action – typical examples include e.g. sharing visible examples of ‘alternate’ economy, experiencing different types of food growing systems to ‘traditional’ agriculture (I say that tongue in cheek given what is usually meant is ‘industrial’ era agriculture e.g. 1910 and onward).
I find help in methods that give space for speculation of ‘other’ ways; the many possible futures, making this tangible through models, art or conversations. [ could be my bias as a ‘visionary’ creative type]
Original phrasing for #1 is:
‘The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, power structure, rules, its culture — arises.’ and the later version this became no.: ‘2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
1. The power to transcend paradigms.’ and in her explanation of examples2 – ‘Paradigms are the sources of systems.’
Leads me to consider that the ‘upstream’, ‘essence’,3 or disposition of a systems state. [ avoiding using the term ‘root cause’ here – newb error when talking in systems]
[Start with ] ‘The paddock between your ears’ [various attributions – Charles Massey in context of regenerative farming]
Q. Who is to know the ‘goal’ of natural systems?
‘So how do you change paradigms? Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the seminal book about the great paradigm shifts of science,4 has a lot to say about that. In a nutshell, you keep pointing at the anomalies and failures in the old paradigm, you keep coming yourself, and loudly and with assurance from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm in places of public visibility and power. You don’t waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded.’1 [ reminds me of affirmations used in solar punk]
‘Systems folks would say you change paradigms by modeling a system, which takes you outside the system and forces you to see it whole. We say that because our own paradigms have been changed that way.’1
Reminds me of Carol Sanford’s point of view on who to work with within a system to motivate change.
Q would it be of benefit to identify boundary objects in each of the paradigms you are comparing. – The ‘Common ground’ – the conversation starting points. What could we join together on with a common view e.g. and amplify or dampen?
Q defining power in systems context
Power structure – who/what has impact or influence over what else? A Relationship state
Definition of power (physics) Power is the rate at which work is done or energy is transferred in a unit of time.
To transcend paradigms (Donella’s 2nd version #1 lever)
‘ the basis for radical empowerment. ….’1
‘If no paradigm is right, you can choose whatever one will help to achieve your purpose.’1
Q Can I recognise I am in a paradigm?
Q Can I see the paradigm (patterns, model) I am in; and that of others (the ones they think they are in) – from many lens or positions?
Q if everything is connected, does it matter where I intervene, but more how I intervene [intent]?
Bias – I will act from what I think I know [ so make an effort to know more]
“everything they [I] think is guaranteed to be nonsense “1
Interpretive School in systems thinking.5,- the basic idea behind it is that everything we do and say, is a framing or is the result of a framing.
Heuristics for a View from Above 5 –
To gain a more systemic point of view: See
Further
Deeper
Differently
1 an expansion of our view, we see further than we used to see, and then what does that mean? What kind of questions does that trigger?
2 lead to new questions is that it is an invitation to abstraction, and to alienation, and to really live that alienation to submerge ourselves into it. And so we’re constructing, that gives us a license to construct alternative viewpoints. We learn ourselves to see ourselves differently.
3 seeing deeper into ourselves and into the world around us. So it is about discovery.
‘When dealing with complexity, the more you can zoom out, you can focus on the simple details that matter most’ 6
Even if you cannot fully know the nature of a system, you can glean its disposition, – which tendency might it have? 2 [align to whatever framework or model to pin labels here] e.g. complex, bleedingly obvious/ clear, or in a chaotic state or even taking the position that you don’t know its state
Create your intervention or ‘dance with the system’ based on that understanding of the disposition AND in the context of why you are intervening.2
A Cautionary note from Donella on the hero’s journey pushing and pulling levers in systems –
‘Magical leverage points are not easily accessible, even if we know where they are and which direction to push on them. There are no cheap tickets to mastery. You have to work hard at it, whether that means rigorously analyzing a system or rigorously casting off your own paradigms and throwing yourself into the humility of Not Knowing’1
Avoid thinking like this…
anthropomorphising a system –
it is not only the individual’s resilience, paradigm or mindset. There is no guilt in a system.3
What other perspectives/ Other truths are out there?
Does Donella’s list hold up in recent research on systems? Valid research peer reviewed vs SM recycling. ‘Shift the paradigm’ on this assertion of the systems levers list.
A. Look for dissenters and critical reviews…
A. Find local examples for practical applications e.g. local council and state regulations and the community
And this…
Key Concepts
Maja Göpel The Great Mindshift
How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations Go Hand in Hand
Springer International Publishing, Berlin, 2016
(The Anthropocene: Politik – Economics – Society – Science; Band 2)
184 Seiten, 53,49 Euro (D)
ISBN: 978-3-319-43765-1
Open Access @ Springerlink
and the original thinking on paradigms from Thomas Kuhn in 1962
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/
and this angle…
Charles Massey – the paddock between the ears and…
Creativity – to open up to other ways you need creativity> ?
Creativity is the ability to come up with ideas or artefacts that are new, surprising, and valuable 7.
1 donella.meadows.org https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
2 Cynefin framework
3 Carol Sanford
4 Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 [ is there are more recent point of view]
5 View from Above (ETHZ Philippe Vandenbroeck) (excerpt)2022
6 Eric Berlow: Simplifying complexity
7 Bodin MA CREATIVITY IN A NUTSHELL* Think · September 2009 [reprinted from pp. 1-10 of M. A. Boden, The Creative Mind: Myths andMechanisms (London: Routledge, 2004).]
Key:
Q =question
A. Action
Time to get off the couch and do some gardening to ground myself!
Lizzy Smith