Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia is socially and ecologically complex, uncertain and contested. Government and non-government stakeholders act and collaborate in regionally-based... Show More

Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia is socially and ecologically complex, uncertain and contested. Government and non-government stakeholders act and collaborate in regionally-based, multi-scale NRM governance situations, but imbalances in power and breakdowns in trust constrain transparency and equity. Here, we report on an action research project exploring the potential of social learning to contribute to systemic change in multi-governance situations. We sought to understand practices and institutional arrangements in two regional NRM governance case studies in southern Victoria, Australia. Drawing on this research, we explore how social learning, with its foundation of systems thinking, has enabled improved collaborative processes and adaptive governance to emerge.

Addressing the problem of reaching consensus on water reforms was the motive for this operational research. Living up to its ‘clean and green' image is a significant goal for New Zealand, with high... Show More

Addressing the problem of reaching consensus on water reforms was the motive for this operational research. Living up to its ‘clean and green' image is a significant goal for New Zealand, with high economic value derived from the effects of its globally-recognised environmental credentials on key exports like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism. A 2009 government task force (Fresh Start for Fresh Water) suggested that a ‘business as usual' approach is undesirable, and water reform should be a priority. This paper is an account of a community-focused systems study undertaken for a Master's thesis in 2008/9. It examines the challenges and opportunities facing Kapiti, a rapidly growing coastal community, with water scarcity and quality constraints that had long prevented them from meeting their sustainable development objectives. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) and a stakeholder typology were used to identify system stakeholders and examine their perspectives, while Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) from Systems Dynamics were constructed to explore and circumvent potential negative outcomes. Thus, a case study in a community resource management setting is described that tests the effectiveness of the combined problem-structuring framework, to explicitly inform urban water management, and water reform, in New Zealand.

No building or neighbourhood is an island but a constantly changing complex adaptive system produced by many contemporaneous, mostly interconnected and parallel but sometimes also conflicting... Show More

No building or neighbourhood is an island but a constantly changing complex adaptive system produced by many contemporaneous, mostly interconnected and parallel but sometimes also conflicting processes. By using the development of Aalto University Campus, Finland, as an example of such a complex adaptive system in the course of change processes, the article demonstrates the challenge of transforming the production of our urban environment to truly meet the goals of sustainable development. Ecological sustainability is here understood as the need for regeneration, which is proposed as necessary in the current state of the planet. The article uses the concept of the perceived systemic environment and argues for its paradigmatic role in this context. Perceptions of the systemic environment affect and steer the actual goal setting of the stakeholders/actors in the system and can either enhance or even override the transition towards sustainability. The article suggests a way to steer the change towards a more regenerative perception of the systemic environment.

Recent events such as the terrorist attack in Algeria (January 2013), the Boston Marathon Bombing (April 2013), the apprehension of two suspected al-Qaeda linked terrorists in Toronto, (April 2013)... Show More

Recent events such as the terrorist attack in Algeria (January 2013), the Boston Marathon Bombing (April 2013), the apprehension of two suspected al-Qaeda linked terrorists in Toronto, (April 2013), highlight the requirement for greater understanding regarding the radicalization and recruitment of terrorists. As detailed in the US Department of State Report (2011), over 10,000 terrorist attacks occurred in 2011, affecting nearly 45,000 victims in 70 countries and resulting in over 12,500 deaths. With a focus on the outcomes and results of terrorist activities, terrorism itself often becomes a ‘blackbox' concept that does not capture the essence of the radicalization process nor the mechanisms of recruitment. This conceptual paper introduces Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a systems lens to open the ‘blackbox' of terrorism. This systems lens ‘…is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots' (Senge, 1990:68). The systems view facilitated by ANT is supported and informed by methods of network analysis and conceptual modelling that highlight how dynamic networked actors shape the radicalization process through the actor network process of translation.