With a focus on “ecological systems”, the second of four lectures planned for the Systemic Design course in the Master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University proceeded as a timeboxed presentation: targeting 40 minutes of content (skipping slides to stay within time constraints), followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Since the slides are rich with content and links to sources, students were directed to pay attention to what I was saying, over trying to read the slides projected behind me.
The agenda was in four sections:
- [preamble] Errors, Attention and Traps (Ecological Understanding)
- Systems Changes Learning Circle (Bateson, Gibson, Ingold)
- (Resistances to) Changing as primary system of interest
- A. Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective
- Tavistock Institute (Emery, Trist)
- Organization as primary system of interest
- B. (Social-) Ecological Systems + Panarchy
- Stockholm Resilience Centre (Holling, Walker, Peterson)
- Ecology as primary system of interest
- C. The Ecosystem Approach
- Resilience Alliance (Waltner-Toews, Kay)
- Sustainable development project as primary system of interest
Online, the video is available on Youtube for streaming.
Viewers who prefer to watch video on a disconnected device can download a video file.
| Video | H.264 MP4 | WebM |
| January 31 (1h18m) |
[20200129_OCADU_Ing HD m4v] (HD 2666kbps 1.2GB) [20200129_OCADU_Ing nHD m4v] (nHD 1352kps 637MB) |
[20200129_OCADU_Ing HD webm] (HD VP8 425kbps 292MB) [20200129_OCADU_Ing nHD webm] (nHD VP8 224kbps 156MB) |
Readers who want to follow through on web link references may want to review the slides directly.
The lecture was given twice. The Wednesday full-time section classroom was disrupted by a water supply issue in the graduate school building, so we all decamped to a lecture theatre in the main building. The Friday part-time section proceeded as scheduled, making that audio recording the practical foundation with presentation slides for the web video.
The acoustics in the January 31 session (part-time cohort) was better for the web video. The digital audio for the talk on January 29 (full-time cohort) was in an auditorium with stadium seating, and a microphone. Versions boosted by 3db make quieter sections more audible.
| Audio | ||
| January 29 (54m58s) |
[20200129_OCADU_Ing ErrorsAttentionTraps.mp3] (51MB) |
[20200129_OCADU_Ing ErrorsAttentionTraps plus3db.mp3] (51MB) |
| January 31 (59m37s) |
[2020031_OCADU_Ing ErrorsAttentionTraps.mp3] (55MB) |
[20200115_OCADU_Ing ErrorsAttentionTraps plus3db.mp3] (55MB) |
Before diving into the multiple views on ecological systems, questions as to whether to intervene (as willful action following wei) or to let nature takes its course (as non-intrusive action following wuwei). Moving away from an anthropocentric perspective, illustrating action as part or not part of nature may be clearer in observing the Canadian beaver.
