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Environmental and Ecological Knowledge Systems: Enquiring the Role of the System Observer.

Friday, 20 July 2018: 15:30-17:20
Location: 802A (MTCC SOUTH BUILDING)
RC51 Sociocybernetics (host committee)

Language: English

Birrer (1999) identifies environmental issues as one of the fields where first order systemic perspective have strong development (i.e. modeling of environmental systems); however, it holds ambiguity when it refers the role of the system’s observer. This is because, since its origins, ecology pioneers promoted a complex, holistic and systemic approach to analyze the relationship between humans and nature (Odum, 1963); but, they did not always set the position of the observer explicitly within the system´s construction.

For us, the definition of environmental knowledge not only considers the biophysical dimension of nature, but as proposed by Hays (2000: 98), it also includes knowledge about collective decisions on the environment.

The session aims to collect and discuss papers which offer proposals and steps towards the analysis of the knowledge systems (KS) of nature, with a particular emphasis on the conceptual and theoretical papers which contribute to developing a new understanding of such system´s construction.

The session welcomes papers that review ecological knowledge systems, environmental knowledge systems, local environmental knowledge systems and/or other categories of knowledge systems of the natural bio-system, emphasizing a sociocybernetics perspective. This is, using systems theory and second order cybernetics (Geyer and Van der Zouwen 2006), concepts such as system reflexivity and second-order observation (Foerster 1973), issues such as self-organization, emergence, positive and negative feedback (Geyer 1995) and/or other means of reflexivity of the process as a way of understanding the process of systemic construction.

Session Organizer:
Patricia Eugenia ALMAGUER-KALIXTO, Interdisciplinary Institute on Human Ecology and Sustainability, Mexico
Chair:
Luciano GALLON, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia
Oral Presentations
A Brief View on Systems Approaches in Human Ecology
Karl-Heinz SIMON, University of Kassel, Germany
Rural Laboratories of Social Entrepreneurship: A Sociocybernetics Approach
Gloria LONDOÑO-MONROY, Profesional Autonoma, Colombia
Implications of the System’s Observer in Environmental and Ecological Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development
Patricia Eugenia ALMAGUER-KALIXTO, Interdisciplinary Institute on Human Ecology and Sustainability, Mexico
The Theory of Public Policy Paradigm Shifts -- Application to Selected Environmental Policies: A Social Systems Theoretical Perspective
Marcus CARSON, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden; Tom R BURNS, Uppsala University, Sweden
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