Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
. 2023 Jan 14;32(1):1–15. doi: 10.1007/s11518-023-5549-9

Beyond COVID: Reframing the Global Problematique with STiP (Systems Thinking in Practice)

Raymond L Ison 1,✉
PMCID: PMC9840418  PMID: 36687144

Abstract

Since 2019 humanity has been subjected to the perturbations of pandemic, economic disruption, war, civil unrest and changes in whole-Earth dynamics associated with a human-induced Anthropocene. Each perturbation is like a wave-front breaking on the shore of our historical ways of thinking and acting, increasingly unfit for our human circumstances. This challenge to humanity is not new. In 1970 the French term ‘problematique’ was coined to refer to a set of 49 interrelated global problems; the classic description of wicked and tame problems was published soon after, yet little progress has been made towards answering the question: what purposeful action will aid human flourishing, create and sustain a viable space for humanity, in our ongoing co-evolution with the Anthropocene-Biosphere? A case for innovation in our ways of knowing and doing is made based on arguments that our social world is constrained by: (i) explanations we accept that are no longer relevant to our circumstances; (ii) outdated historical institutions (in the institutional economics sense) that contribute as social technologies to a broader human created and ungoverned technosphere; (iii) inadequate theory-informed practices, or praxis, and (iv) governance-systems no longer adequate for purpose. Practitioners of knowledge science and systems science are urged to act reflexively to critically evaluate the traditions-of-understanding out of which they think and act.

Keywords: Cybersystemics, governance systems, reframing and framing, critical social learning system

Acknowledgments

I thank the International Society for Knowledge and Systems Sciences who with the Systems Engineering Society of China invited me to contribute a keynote to their conference (especially Professors TANG Xijin and CHEN Jian). Preparation of this paper was supported by the IFSR, founded in 1981, as a non-profit, scientific and educational organization for the purpose of advancing cybernetic and systems research and systems applications in order to serve the international systems community as an enabling ‘peak body’. My thanks also to Maddie Shelton for research assistance and to two anonymous referees.

Data Availability

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Footnotes

Endnotes

1 Also known as Qian Xuesen after his return from the USA to China.

2 In Systems Science in China, Presentation by Lei GUO taken from CCTV News, Jan. 2008 — see https://www.jst.go.jp/crds/sympo/20140221/pdf/Guo.pdf Accessed 25th September 2022. The English version of Qian Xuesen was H.S. Tsien (1911.12.11-2009.10.31).

Ray Ison (BScAgr, Univ. Sydney, PhD, Univ. Queensland) is professor of systems at the UK Open University (OU). Within the Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) program he is involved in co-authoring and presenting Post-Graduate modules (e.g., ‘Managing Change with Systems Thinking in Practice’ and ‘Evidencing Systems Thinking in Practice’) as part of the OUs MSc and Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship awards. He has led a range of major research, scholarship and teaching programs and projects as part of the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice (ASTiP) Group. He is widely recognised for his work on systems praxeology within rural development, sustainability management, systemic governance and the design and enactment of learning systems, as evidenced in an extensive number of publications (e.g. ‘The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking. Governance in a Climate Emergency’).He is the current President of the IFSR (International Federation for Systems Research); has served as President of ISSS (International Society for the Systems Sciences) and as a Trustee of the American Society of Cybernetics. In 2022 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award, by the Systems Society of India ‘for contributions to the transformation of society with a systems approach’.

References

  1. Aldred J. Licence to be Bad. How Economics has Corrupted Us. UK: Allen Lane; 2019. [Google Scholar]
  2. Ampere A (1834). Essay on the philosophy of science. Accessed August 25, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9-Marie_Amp%C3%A8re.
  3. APSC Australian Public Service Commission . Tackling Wicked Problems. A Public Policy Perspective. Australia: Australian Government/Australian Public Service Commission; 2007. [Google Scholar]
  4. Bateson G. Steps to An Ecology of Mind. 1966. [Google Scholar]
  5. Bawden R. Messy issues, worldviews and systemic competencies. In: Blackmore C, editor. Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. Singapore: Springer; 2010. [Google Scholar]
  6. Boulton G, Lucas C (2008). What are universities for? League of European Research Universities. https://www.leru.org/files/What-are-Universities-for-Full-paper.pdf.
  7. Bunnell P (2008). The origin of Humanness in the Biology of Love. Editor’s Foreword. pp. v-xxi. Exeter, Imprint Academic.
  8. Christakis Alexander N. Wisdom of the people. Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 2004;21(5):479–88. doi: 10.1002/sres.638. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  9. Colvin J, Blackmore C, Chimbuya S, Collins K B, Dent M, Goss J, Ison R L, Roggero P P, Seddaiu G. In search of systemic innovation for sustainable development: A design praxis emerging from a decade of social learning inquiry. Research Policy. 2014;43(4):760–771. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2013.12.010. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  10. Crutzen P J, Stoermer E F. The Anthropocene. Global Change Newsletter. 2000;41:17–18. [Google Scholar]
  11. Cullen C M, Aneja K K, Beyhan S, Cho C, et al. Emerging priorities for microbiome research. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2020;11:136. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00136. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Foster N, Ison R L, Blackmore C P, Collins K B. Revisiting deliberative policy analysis through systemic co-inquiry: Some experiences from the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in England. Policy Studies. 2019;40(5):510–533. doi: 10.1080/01442872.2019.1618816. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  13. Fricker M. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. UK: Oxford University Press; 2007. [Google Scholar]
  14. Goodman M (2022). Our technology sickness — and how to heal it. Sources (Spring): https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/our-technology-sicknessand-how-to-heal-it (Accessed 25th September 2022).
  15. Gu J, et al. Oriental systems thinking. In: Metcalf G S, et al., editors. Handbook of Systems Sciences. Singapore: Springer; 2020. [Google Scholar]
  16. Ison R L, Tait J, Wield D, Morris R M, Naughton J, Martin J, Lane A B (1996). Interdisciplinary teaching and research in UK universities. Submission to the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, the ‘Dearing Committee’.
  17. Ison R L. Editorial: Applying systems thinking to higher education. Special Edition Systems Research & Behavioural Science. 1999;16(2):107–112. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1743(199903/04)16:2<107::AID-SRES278>3.0.CO;2-E. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  18. Ison R L, Russell D B, editors. Agricultural Extension and Rural Development: Breaking Out of Traditions. UK: Cambridge University Press; 2000. [Google Scholar]
  19. Ison R L, Röling N, Watson D. Challenges to science and society in the sustainable management and use of water: Investigating the role of social learning. Environmental Science & Policy. 2007;10(6):499–511. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2007.02.008. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  20. Ison R L, Russell D B. The worlds we create: Designing learning systems for the underworld of extension practice. In: Jennings J, Packham R P, Woodside D, editors. Shaping Change: Natural Resource Management, Agriculture and the Role of Extension. Australia: Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN); 2011. pp. 66–76. [Google Scholar]
  21. Ison R L, Collins K B, Wallis P. Institutionalising social learning: Towards systemic and adaptive governance. Environmental Science & Policy. 2014;53(B):105–117. [Google Scholar]
  22. Ison R L. Governing in the Anthropocene: What future systems thinking in practice? Systems Research & Behavioral Science. 2016;33(5):595–613. doi: 10.1002/sres.2421. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  23. Ison R L. Transdisciplinarity as transformation: a systems thinking in practice perspective. In: Fam D, Palmer J, Mitchell C, Riedy C, editors. Transdisciplinary Research and Practice for Sustainable Outcomes. UK: Routledge; 2017. pp. 55–73. [Google Scholar]
  24. Ison R L. Situations of Uncertainty and Complexity in a Climate-change World (2ed) UK: Springer; 2017. Systems Practice: How to Act. [Google Scholar]
  25. Ison R L, Alexandra J, J Wallis P. Governing in the Anthropocene: Are there cyber-systemic antidotes to the malaise of modern governance? Sustainability Science. 2018;13(5):209–1223. doi: 10.1007/s11625-018-0570-5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Ison R L, Straw E. The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking — Governance in a Climate Emergency. USA: Routledge; 2020. [Google Scholar]
  27. Ison R L, Schlindwein S (2021). The dynamics of governance failure in the context of the Anthropocene: Brazil, UK and Australia, WOSC (World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics). Conference Paper, Moscow p.71. http://wosc.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Abstracts-Rus-21-12-21.pdfAccessed11thJanuary2023
  28. Khayame H A, Collins K B, Ison R L (2021). Framing matters: How does ‘Anthropocene’ enable and constrain cybersystemic governance of social-environmental issues? WOSC (World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics) Conference Paper, Moscow p.72–73. http://wosc.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Abstracts-Rus-21-12-21.pdf
  29. Krippendorff K. Major metaphors of communication and some constructivist reflections on their use. Cybernetics and Human Knowing. 1993;2(1):3–25. [Google Scholar]
  30. Krippendorff K. Conversation: Possibilities for its repair and decent into discourse and computation. Constructivist Foundations. 2009;4(3):138–150. [Google Scholar]
  31. Lakoff G. Why it matters how we frame the environment. Environmental Communication. 2010;4(1):70–81. doi: 10.1080/17524030903529749. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  32. Lakoff G, Johnson M. Metaphors We Live By. USA: University of Chicago Press; 1980. [Google Scholar]
  33. Maturana H, Varela F. The Tree of Knowledge. USA: Shambala; 1998. [Google Scholar]
  34. Maturana H, Poerksen B. From Being to Doing. The Origins of the Biology of Cognition. German: Carl-Auer; 2004. [Google Scholar]
  35. McClintock D, Ison R L, Armson R. Conceptual metaphors: A review with implications for human understandings and systems practice. Cybernetics and Human Knowing. 2004;11(1):25–47. [Google Scholar]
  36. Meadows D. Places to intervene in a system. Whole Earth. 1997;91(1997):78–84. [Google Scholar]
  37. Özbekhan H (1970). The Predicament of Mankind. Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-wide Complexities and Uncertainties. A Proposal and a Report to the Club of Rome. https://www.academia.edu/21206109/A_RETROSPECTIVE_STRUCTURAL_INQUIRY_OF_THE_PREDICAMENT_OF_MANKIND_PROSPECTUS_OF_THE_CLUB_OF_ROME (Accessed 24th September 2022).
  38. Reynolds M, Ison R L (2022). Evidencing systems thinking in practice (Block 2). On-line Module, Walton Hall, The Open University.
  39. Rittel H W J, Weber M M. Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Science. 1973;4(2):155–169. doi: 10.1007/BF01405730. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  40. Russell D B, Ison R L. The research-development relationship in rural communities: An opportunity for contextual science. In: Ison R L, Russell D B, editors. Agricultural Extension and Rural Development: Breaking Out of Traditions. UK: Cambridge University Press; 2000. [Google Scholar]
  41. Sterling S, Jones P, Selby D. Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education. UK: Earth-scan; 2010. [Google Scholar]
  42. Sterling S (2019). Becoming ‘learner drivers’ for the future: Re-thinking learning and education in a troubled world. Routledge Sustainable Development Pages, June 2019.
  43. Sterling S, Martin S (2019). Climate crisis and the response-ability of universities. Times Higher Education (16/11/19). https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/climate-crisis-and-response-ability-universities.
  44. Tansley A G. The use and abuse of vegetational terms and concepts. Ecology. 1935;16(3):284–307. doi: 10.2307/1930070. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  45. Tsien H S. Engineering Cybernetics. USA: McGraw Hill; 1954. [Google Scholar]
  46. University of Leicester (2016). Research finds Earths technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons. https://le.ac.uk/news/2016/november/research-finds-earths-2018technosphere2019-now-weighs-30-trillion-tons.
  47. Wiener N. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. UK: The MIT Press; 1948. [Google Scholar]
  48. Wolff J (2018). Britain’s bullied universities should be speaking truth to power. The Guardian. Higher Education 10th April. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/10/britain-bullied-universities-jonathan-wolff. (Accessed 4th December 2022).
  49. Zalasiewicz J, Williams M, Waters C N, Barnosky A D. Scale and diversity of the physical technosphere: A geological perspective. The Anthropocene Review. 2017;4(1):9–22. doi: 10.1177/2053019616677743. [DOI] [Google Scholar]

Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Articles from Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES