Over the past two weeks, my cohort within the Climate Action Leadership Program at Royal Roads University participated in a design thinking intensive. What has struck me throughout this learning experience is the degree to which transdisciplinarity, as a space where we can work “between, across, and beyond disciplines” (Reynolds, 2019, as cited in Corman & Cox, 2020, p. 2 ) offers such a profound solution to begin tackling the “wicked problem” of climate change. Wicked problems present an overwhelming paradox, presenting an infinite amount of variables with “no end to the number of solutions or approaches” (Stonybrook University, 2020 as cited in Corman & Cox, 2020, p. 4). What transdisciplinarity offers, and what the experience of these two weeks has demonstrated, are the webs of experts, leaders, knowledge holders and change-makers who are prepared to meet this challenge. A theme which has emerged throughout the intensive, and what I would like to tease out within this blog post, are the opportunities for white settlers working within climate action to make space and act as accomplices. This idea of making space has shown up across the literature, presentations and discussions our cohort has experienced this week. I will be exploring how Decolonial scholarship, complex systems thinking and professional practices blend together in true transdisciplinarity to create new knowledges and opportunities for making space.
Within Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice, Osler (n.d.) offers that the work of Accomplices directly challenges “institutionalized racism, colonization, and White supremacy by blocking or impeding racist people, policies, and structures” (p.2). Further, a deep understanding of one’s relationships to others is integral in ensuring the sustainability of Accomplice work, as “Realizing that our freedoms and liberations are bound together, retreat or withdrawal in the face of oppressive structures is not an option” (Osler, n.d, p.2). These themes within Accomplice work, including challenging systems and understanding relationships, are themes which have emerged throughout the course of our intensive.
Gram‑Hanssen et. al (2020) offer “right relations” as “an obligation to live up to the responsibilities involved when taking part in a relationship—be it to other humans, other species, the land or the climate”(p.6). The authors frame climate change as a “relationship problem” and offer that beyond adaptation, we must embrace transformation, which emphasizes “radically changing societal systems, structures and relationships” (Gram-Hanssen et al, 2020, p.3). Anishinaabe environmental scholar Melanie Goodchild (2021) echos the importance of relationships in the context of the Two Row Wampum Belt, while also offering ways in which to re-think and transform systems, explaining that in English the word ‘system’ is conveyed as a noun, “whereas in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) a system would be a verb, dynamic and imbued with spirit. And that spirit is in relationship with other spirits.” (p.79).
Many of the professionals who joined our class over the last two weeks similarly spoke of relationship building in order to transform our systems. Within the “What Does It Mean to Be a Climate Action Leader” webinar Saya Mosso, Natural Resources Manager with the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, offered the idea of slowly working to shift people’s mindsets and “creating a champion on the other side of the desk” in order to inspire transformational change (Mosso, 2020 ). In the “Climate Action: Designing with Policy in Mind” webinar Senior Policy Analyst Graeme Reed asked us to think about power imbalances when engaging in climate leadership work, not only building relationships but considering the “time, resources and capacity” it takes to carry out this work (Reed, 2020) and applying this when creating space for equitable work.
Complex Systems thinking similarly offers us ways in which to identify the relationships within our systems and strategies for navigating and disrupting these systems. As I have started to explore in previous blog posts, “Path Dependency” helps us to understand the behaviours of complex systems, as “The past trajectory of a system constrains its future possibilities” (Cascade Institute, n.d., p.2). If we are to consider the work of Saya Mosso in “creating a champion on the other side of the desk” or begin to tackle the task set out by Gram-Hanssen et al. to radically change our systems – understanding elements of complex system thinking such as path dependency can offer Accomplices a critical tool with which to approach shifting individuals and shifting entire systems. Understanding the behaviours of a system and the relationships within those systems is imperative, as stressed by Dan Longboat, “If systems theory and practice can conscience us to that way of understanding the world, then we’ll see some really fundamental change but unless it does that, it will be same old same old” (Goodchild, 2021, pp.87-88).
Transdisciplinary learning asks us to “understand the world around us” (Walker, 2020, lower paragraph), and as Gibson-Graham and Roelvink argue, “to understand the world is to change it ”(2010, p. 342 as cited in Gram‑Hanssen et. al, 2020, p.9 ). In understanding our world we have the opportunity to understand ourselves, our responsibilities and the part we play in not only solving wicked problems but working as Accomplices to make space, build relationships and transform systems.
References
Cascade Institute. Introduction to Complex Systems. file:///Users/lauraheidenheim /Downloads/Intro%20to%20Systems%20Handout%20(1).pdf.
Corman, I., & Cox, R. (2020). Transdisciplinarity: A Primer. https://commons.royal roads.ca/macal/wpcontent/uploads/sites/88/2021/04/MACAL_Transdisciplinary_Thinking03-31-21-3.pdf.
Goodchild, M. (2021). Relational Systems Thinking: That’s How Change is Going to Come,
From Our Earth Mother. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 1(1), 75-103. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i1.577
Gram-Hanssen, I., Schafenacker, N. & Bentz, J. Decolonizing transformations through ‘right relations’. Sustain Sci (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00960-9
Killermann, S. (2017). Taking Up Space vs. Adding to a Space: Questions to Consider – ❤ It’s Pronounced Metrosexual. It’s Pronounced Metrosexual. https://www.itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2017/02/taking-up-space-vs-adding-to-a-space-questions-to-consider/.
Mosso, Saya. (2021, June 2nd). What Does It Mean to Be a Climate Action Leader. Royal Roads University.
Osler, J. (n.d.). Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice Moving from Actor → Ally → Accomplice. whiteaccomplices.org.
Reed, Graeme. (2021, June 8th). Climate Action: Designing with Policy in Mind. Royal Roads University.
Walker, S. (2020, October 30). PYP in Practice – Transdisciplinary Learning: All Mixed Up. Google Sites.https://sites.google.com/isparis.net/conceptualinquiry/transdisciplinary-learning-all-mixed-up?authuser=0.