Notes - Dynamic Complexity and Resilience Thesis/ISR-G

by Leon Santen

These are notes for my thesis and independent study with Linda Vanasupa.

Thesis thoughts

Preliminary title: Creating collective resilience, empowerment, and social innovation in higher education through immersive, community-based learning experiences and an integrated understanding of all the sciences

Abstract

Modern science has reached a paradoxical position, in which the international community has acquired overwhelming amounts of knowledge by the means of ever-increasing specialization. However, those insights, oftentimes separated by discipline, leave us with little understanding to fight our current time’s structural disconnects (Scharmer 2013[^Scharmer2013]). We argue that life in the 21st century is one of dynamic complexity that asks for non-linear and organic thinking to engage in sustainable and effective problem-solving efforts, often called sustainable development (Holling 2001[^Holling2001]). At Olin College of Engineering, the disruption caused by the 2020 pandemic created a moment of campus-wide reflection that lead to an independently organized micro-campus of 15 students at a family-owned off-grid permaculture farm in North Carolina. This social enterprise showed a need for an integrated understanding of science and served as evidence that immersion into nature, sustainable living, and an intentional community can lead to a better understanding of our ecosystems and social-ecological systems. We see an opportunity in higher education to leverage our collective ability to create change and initiate social innovation by teaching an integrated, transdisciplinary understanding of science and opening up spaces and time for students to act upon emerging opportunities to contribute to and scale-up social innovation.

Go to the full Thesis outline - resilience and dynamic complexity.

Insights from fall 2020 semester

We only take a break when we're sick. As soon as we're sick the door opens to relax. Why do we need to have a weekly schedule that continues throughout the entire semester without any divergences? Such a repetitive routine attenuates any enthusiasm for the project work itself as you will have to inevitably face it. It doesn't matter whether or not you choose to engage with the project; if it's already in your calendar, there is no need to self-initiate engagement with the material. SCOPE was on every Tuesday (8-10AM), every Wednesday (6-7 PM), every Thursday (8-10AM), and every Friday (12-5PM). Good luck connecting with the material outside of your mental obligation zone. The only break from the five-hour Friday meeting was after thanksgiving. It felt as if I had never even been able to imagine what a free Friday was like. Why do we stick to weekly schedules in such a pathological manner? Anything that is not the exact plan is a failure - 14 vacation days per year are a good example.

This WHMF experience was magical in so many ways, but I'm only slowly starting to understand that this is a lived form of research even though the orthodox definition of research doesn't apply. One could call this Emancapatory action research after Ledwith, 2017¹. This brings up a question to myself: how can we look at the spring 2021 semester as participatory/emancipatory action research?

An unchecked positive loop will ultimately destroy itself.

Wait and create an environment where people want to do something. But humans need time to change. Humans need to learn how to learn, how to become a learning society. Encouring reflection, learning, and personal choice.

Current science allows us to rule out a range of future as unrealistic. Relatedly, goal setting is rather a psychological than a scientific or technical aspect of project work.

To be considered challenging, a goal must be relatively difficult but still realistically attainable. If a goal is too easy, then people are not motivated by it (e.g., change a light bulb?). Similarly, a goal that is clearly unrealistic and overly difficult causes people to give up and not even take the first steps toward achievement (e.g., go completely carbon neutral?) (Locke and Latham, 1990). Thus the best goals are specific, realistic, and challenging and can be broken down into specific behavioral steps. This type of goal results in the highest levels of motivation and achievement. Only a few studies have examined goal setting and sustainable behavior. One set of experiments examined goal setting and energy use[^Manning2009].

Systems with humans will show : - limited predictability - bounded rationality - limited certainty - undetermined causality - evolutionary change (Hjorth 2005²)

Hidden things control the system.

Why do engineers not work with wood? Why do they think that they can only do things that go beyond carpentry and woodworking - i.e. working with metals and CNC machines.

There are so many meaningful group work insights and learning outcomes that arise from working on simple geometry with people - build a wall frame with timber. Make cuts that are the right size. Plan and build together. When we take group work to a more abstract level, the issue-points of groupwork also become more abstract, which makes it harder to act upon arising issues. To get to know your own working habits, styles of communication and planning, we don’t need complicated projects. Keep it simple! If it’s even then still tricky, that tells you more than a tricky project that becomes more tricky.

“Social innovation is not only a result of a brilliant idea or hard work of an individual. Successful social innovations are achieved through the interplay of “effective demand” (the “pull” factor) and “effective supply” (the “push” factor) (Westley 2010³). At Olin College, the pull from the students was too low to plan a full-blown immersive education prototype for the spring 2021 semester. In comparison, up to 25 Wellesley College students showed interest to live at WHMF in the spring semester. My underlying assumption is that some Wellesley students believe regenerative agriculture, intentional community, and sustainable living are very much part of their identity as a pro-active inhabitant of this planet. Olin students might hear and consume less of such ideology but ironically believe that engineers will stop climate change.

The Design Nature project at the farm should be to design a playground for an animal. Rats, cats, dogs have so much fun on playgrounds.

What sciences form the basis for living in a world of dynamic complexities?

There is no right or wrong

Logistics

• How do we organize with several groups of three or more?
• Grocery availability; food planning; which leftovers do we have? When will they spoil?
• How to have a collective sense of what our needs are? What is the goal of the day?
• Where are which tools? Will it rain or can we leave them at the worksite?
• Who feels responsible for checking if work sites are covered from rain?

Climate/the elements/seasonal change

• What is the winter going to be like? Can we predict it? Why does climate change make predicting harder?
• Which plants can I plant right now to take care of my future self? Which beds need to be maintained?
• How does an early sunset affect my life?

Indigenous wisdom

• How to live in reciprocity?
• Say thank you when you take something, leave gifts

Community and mental balance

• When should we go to bed?
• How do I maintain healthy relationships and vibes?
• How much work is good for us? How little work is bad for us?
• How to lead a group meeting - organize rituals, celebrations, moments of grounding
• How to address conflict in a productive, non-discussion manner?

Ethical self and the world around me - How can I contribute to this world to live with each other in harmony? - What does fulfilling, meaningful work mean? - Which career paths are actually aligned with my values for others and myself? - Which work aligns with the mental and ethical standards for myself?

Biology - How to keep ourselves healthy? What are basic animal needs? - How does the world around us live? From what? - What happens to us, the house, the animals when temperature drop below freezing?

Study of tools

• Operate tools safely and with confidence, build intuition for your own safety: hammers, electric drills, circular saw, rock bar…
• Manage and keep track of tools.

Sport theory/anatomy /physical therapy

• How do I carry heavy wood without hurting my back? How do throw a rock bar?
• How to chop wood without hurting your back.
• How do I hammer properly without putting to much pressure on my wrist?
• What do I do when my back hurts?
• How to be aware of your own body needs.

Mechanical physics

• How do four people lift a heavy beam safely?
• When is a structure sturdy (non-computational thinning and analysis)
• Intuition of structure

Electrical world

• How does electricity flow? Which direction? When is it dangerous? From which side do sparks come and why?
• How do you work with cables? How do you connect electrical devices properly with cables? Cabel labeling, cable harness
• How do you keep an electrical working space clean and safe?
• Simple electronics: connect batteries in series/parallel,
• Coding, Laptop work, CADing
• Arduino programming
• Website HTML coding for communication with other people
• CAD 3D structure for FAE analysis
• Photoshop, make stickers, design signs for people

Vocabulary

• amelioration - the act of making something better; improvement.
• paradigm - a typical example or pattern of something; a model. or a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.
• heterodox - not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.
• counterintuitive
• panacea
• expenditures & depreciation
• leverage point or bandaid in Odalys's words
• panarchy a term to describe a concept that explains the evolving nature of complex adaptive systems. P. is the hierarchical structure in which systems of nature (forests, grasslands), and humans (structures of governance, settlements, and cultures), as well as combines human-nature systems (agencies that control natural resources) and social-ecological systems are interlinked in never-ending adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal. - (from pan- and -archy), coined by Paul Émile de Puydt in 1860, is a form of governance that would encompass all others.

References

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1. Ledwith, M. (2017). Emancipatory action research as a critical living praxis: From dominant narratives to counternarrative. In The Palgrave international handbook of action research (pp. 49-62). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

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2. Hjorth, P., & Bagheri, A. (2006). Navigating towards sustainable development: A system dynamics approach. Futures, 38(1), 74-92.

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3. Westley, F., & Antadze, N. (2010). Making a difference: Strategies for scaling social innovation for greater impact. Innovation Journal, 15(2).

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