New Waters: Utilizing Path Dependency to Interrogate Settler-Colonial Systems
As I enter into my education in Climate Action Leadership what is at the top of my mind are the systems we exist inside of and how we can dismantle them, shift them and transform them. If we know that settler colonialism is, “not a thing, but rather ‘the sum effect of the diversity of interlocking oppressive social relations that constitute it” (Coulthard 2014, p. 15 as cited in Gram‑Hanssen et al, 2020, p.4), we can come to grapple with the way in which it is imbedded into every system which we work within. Moving into our work this week I was surprised and relieved to begin learning about new ways in which to interrogate this within Introduction to Complex Systems. The concept of Path Dependence, that the “past trajectory of a system constrains its future possibilities trajectory” (Cascade Institute) has offered a critical lens with which to think through these structural challenges.
Understanding this property of complex systems can help us to think through “wicked problems”. As explained by Cankurtaran and Beverland in Using design thinking to respond to crises: B2B lessons from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, “Wicked problems cannot be solved with an extension of the same dominant logic used in times of greater certainty and stability” (Cankurtaran & Beverland, 2020). Although existing dominant logics cannot solve the wicked problems we are facing now, I wonder perhaps if interrogating these logics with an understanding of path dependency can help us in understanding the epistemological and axiological barriers which stand in the way of building solutions. If we are able to better understand how we can interrogate the settler colonial systems which we are so deeply entrenched within and the original logics which produced them, perhaps we can find tangible ways in which to make meaningful systemic adaptations.
Thinking through how path dependency makes directions which were once possible “inaccessible as the system develops” (Cascade Institute), I wonder if analyzing closely how these logics have shaped our ontology might allow us to not only decolonize our minds, but imagine what is impossible outside of them. Simply put, a fish does not know it is in water. Can we not only work towards seeing the water but understand how it got there in the first place, who poured the water in, what existed before and if there are new waters we can swim towards?
References
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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.05.030
Cascade Institute. Introduction to Complex Systems. file:///Users/lauraheidenheim/Downloads/Intro%20to%20Systems%20Handout%20(1).pdf.
Gram-Hanssen, I., Schafenacker, N., & Bentz, J. (2021). Decolonizing transformations through ‘right relations.’ Sustainability Science.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00960-9