MACAL 501 Learning Intensive Reflection
June 14, 2021
A key determinant of our continued slow pace towards a just transition to rebuild ecosystem health and respond to the climate crisis can be found in our affinity for quick solutions; to achieve more transformational change we need to more deeply understand the problems we are seeking to solve and develop our capacity for complexity thinking.
Climate action in Western society is largely focused on incremental quick solutions with success determined in near term and local scales, often at a component level. This can lead to a false sense of progress and pre-empt the capacity for more transformative change. For example, a broadly considered climate change mitigation strategy is the rapid transition of cities to energy efficient buildings powered by renewable energy generation systems. However, in the absence of considering different spatial or temporal scales in the determination of success (Adger et al., 2005) we often fail to consider the socio-ecological consequences of scaling such solutions. For instance, the production of renewable energy systems and building materials have their own climate change consequences as a result of their extraction and production processes. Given the Earth’s finite resources, can this solution be delivered in an equitable way across all global communities? When we spend more time on exploring the problem and develop our capacity for complexity thinking, we see beyond the local contexts and begin to consider connections across and within interconnected socio-ecological systems (Dixon, 2017). In the city infrastructure example, considering Earth’s finite resources and a need for resource equity, might then lead to more transformative solutions such as developing regional circular material solutions or rethinking city planning and core energy needs. By centering our efforts on deepening problem understanding and developing the capacity for complexity thinking we increase the potential to attain more effective solutions and transformative change.
So how then do we refocus our thinking? The integration of Indigenous ways of knowing in climate action leadership contributes to the process of Reconciliation and provides a key pathway to recalibrate the predominate Western worldview and affinity for quick solutions. For example, gaining an understanding of traditional ecological knowledge and “the relationships of living beings (including humans) with one another and their environment” (Berkes, 1999, p. 8, as cited in Alexander, 2011, p. 477). can help shift Western perspectives from a predominant disassociation with the natural systems on which we depend. Further, In the exploration of a “…more relational disposition to collaborative knowledge creation and sharing.” (Goodchild, 2021, p. 79)., Melanie Goodchild contrasts the Western analytical pursuit of knowledge to the Indigenous practice of the pursuit of ‘wisdom in action’ (Goodchild, 2021, p. 79). Indigenous oral histories and storytelling can teach us how to listen more deeply, shift our worldview, increase our capacity to engage with complexity and thereby reflect more deeply on problem definition.
In the context of Reconciliation and climate action, resilience is an important determinate in shaping how systems respond to change. This is applicable at individual and community scales as well as within ecological and socio-economic systems. Béné’s three typologies of resilience (Béné et al., 2012, as cited in Lonsdale et al., 2015) include persistence, incremental adjustment and transformational responses. This provides a helpful way of thinking about different dimensions of resilience. For example, the persistence of social or economic structures to change can lock in unsustainable or colonial practices. At the other end of the spectrum, Christine Nieve’s TedMED 2018 talk on lessons post-Hurricane Maria demonstrates both individual and community level transformational responses in the face of severe disruptive change. A precondition for transformational responses is the degree of “…openness, adaptability and flexibility within the system.” (Dovers & Handmer, 1992, as cited in Lonsdale et al., 2015, p. 15). Thus, openness to Indigenous ways of knowing, flexibility to embrace change and the capacity for adaptive thinking are determinates in attaining transformative change.
Transformational change in the context of climate action requires a significant shift from quickly devised localized solutions to a deeper framing and understanding of the core problems with all their extended complexity. Reconciliation can provide an important pathway in broadening the Western mindset and exploring more deeply. Resilience thinking, particularly openness and adaptive thinking, establishes the conditions conducive to transformation change at individual and community scales. Such reflective change lays the path to transformative climate action.
References
Adger, W.N., Arnell, N.W., and Tompkins, E.L. (2005). Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change, 15(2), 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.12.005.
Alexander, C., Bynum, N., Johnson, E.G., King, U., Mustonen, T., Neofotis, P., Oettlé, N., Rosenzweig. C., Sakakiabara, C., Shadrin, V., Vicarelli, M., Waterhouse, J., & Weeks, B.C. (2011). Linking Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge of Climate Change. BioScience, 61(6), 477-484.
Dixon, T.H. (2011). “Complexity Science,” Oxford Leadership Journal, 2(1),1-15.
Goodchild, M., Senge, P., Scharmer, C.O., Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky), D.L., Kahontakwas, D.L., Hill, R., & Ka’nahsohon (A Feather Dipped in Paint), K.D. (2021). Relational Systems Thinking: That’s how change is going to come, from Our Mother Earth. Journal of Awareness Based Systems Change 1(1), 75-103. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i1.577
Lonsdale, K., Pringle, P. & Turner, B. (2015). Transformative adaptation: what it is, why it matters & what is needed. UK Climate Impacts Programme, University of Oxford, Oxford UK. www.ukcip.org.uk.
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