Month: June 2021
Transdisciplinarity, and mosquitoes?
I recall as a child watching a mosquito land on my uncle’s face, and I quickly alerted him so that he could swat it away, but he instead responded, “it has to eat too, better from me than you.” It blew my mind, as I had never heard of anyone being kind towards a mosquito and I remember reflecting on how it made sense, and as an animal lover how could you respect one species and not another. I wish I would have dug deeper into this premise and explored the interconnectedness of our natural world and how we can fit into it. But alas I was 8 or 9 and had bigger fish to fry. My hope is that in this Climate Action Leadership program( https://macal.royalroads.ca/ ) I can circle back to that epiphany and rethink my relation to our natural world in hopes to be able to guide others on a journey to sustainability.
I now see Indigenous storytelling as a key aspect to guide my journey and explore ways to engage others to rethink how they relate to the world around them. Indigenous scholar, Michael Lickers shared a four-quadrant framework, where the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual relations should all be taken into consideration when making a decision as one action may have a substantial negative ripple effect (Personal dialogue, June 7, 2021). This premise inspired my approach to the CALS 501 design challenge, where we were prompted to use a design thinking approach to find an approach to increase citizen engagement in climate adaptation. Focusing on the emotional, mental and spiritual over a physical or tangible solution allowed our group to take a deep dive into discovering the problem. Seeing first-hand how expansive of a problem (people being disengaged from climate action) is, and how interconnected our society is to consumerism, individual freedom and colonial principles, the agenda went far beyond education and outreach. If only there was a way to analyze all of these interconnected principles…
Transdisciplinary thinking aims to go beyond the scope of a single, or even a set of ideas and evaluate a whole system from a more holistic lens (Corman & Cox, 2020). As I see it, transdisciplinary thinking has the potential to evaluate and understand each ripple of a ripple effect and provide ecological insight to a complex or wicked problem as an entity rather a culmination of systems. It makes me think of animals who are generalists rather than specialists, and that likely the generalists have a higher chance of survival when threatened by habitat loss or change, that even though they are maybe less specifically adapted then are more adaptable to change. So, a mosquito, who requires mammal blood for sustenance, and water to breed and since mammals require water they will likely thrive as long as mammals do. Whereas a koala bear is specifically adapted to eat eucalyptus leaves and if the eucalyptus disappears, the koala likely would as well. Therefore, in the heightened scale of climate change, the best chance of survival for humans would appear to be niche resistant, and rather be able to adapt to a variety of conditions. As transdisciplinary thinkers, it is beneficial to be able to jump between niches and ideologies, in order to gain understanding and success. As opposed to being specialized in one field and trying to solve a problem, this approach may bring specialists from across disciplines together to find a solution. Maybe someone somewhere else understands the value of not swatting a mosquito, and setting off a butterfly effect across our interconnected world
Corman, I. & Cox, R. (2020) Transdisciplinary Thinking in the context of the MACAL program. Paper produced for MACAL.
#CALS501
Thoughts on Design Thinking
Engaging in the design thinking process was the highlight of my first week of the CALS 501 learning intensive. Leading up to the activity I was uncertain of how valuable of an exercise it would be, and how it fit into realm of climate action leadership. Approximately 4 minutes later almost all of these reservations were replaced by inspiration, excitement and intrigue.
Slowing down the process of developing an idea and engaging in the interview and reflection process elicited a deeper understanding of the issue in question of waste reduction and brought several key ideas to the forefront of our discussion. By focusing the discussion on our observations of the root causes of waste production, our group came to a similar set of topics. These topics include the burden of tackling this issue, a gender gap, colonialism, disassociation and a lack of waste literacy. Not recycling, composting or landfills.
The design thinking process which encompasses steps to empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test aims to identify the underlying causes of issues, and encourages the thinker to find a unique solution to the problem at hand (Razzouk & Shute, 2012). Cankurtatan and Beverland (2020) discuss the benefits of design thinking in response to the COVID 19 pandemic and allude to the potential of it as a concept to tackle other wicked problems such as climate change. Design thinking slows down the process of defining a problem and puts emphasis on including empathy in the decision-making process. I can see how incorporating indigenous perspectives, as well as individuals who are currently facing climate adaptation challenges, or will the foreseeable future into the design thinking process may foster a more diverse understanding, perspective and potential equitable solutions.
One question I am left with is what the next step is, and how this process can be transcribed into action. I believe this is a valuable tool to explore in the quest to climate adaptation, but I need to learn more about testing and implementation as steps in the process.
Cankurtaran, P., & Beverland, M. B. (2020). Using design thinking to respond to crises: B2B lessons from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, 255-260.
Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It Important? Review of Educational Research, 82(3), 330–348. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312457429
