Summary

The website content outlines a living systems perspective as a holistic approach to understanding and addressing societal challenges, particularly sustainability, by recognizing the interconnectedness of humans and nature, emphasizing dynamic relationships, self-organization, and continuous learning and adaptation.

Abstract

The article summarizes the concept of a living systems perspective, drawing from the author's PhD research, as a necessary shift in worldview for addressing contemporary sustainability challenges. It posits that our current societal perspective, rooted in a modernist Western worldview, has contributed to unsustainable practices. Adopting a living systems perspective involves seeing ourselves as part of a larger, interconnected whole, where dynamic relationships and self-organization are key to understanding life as a continuous process. This perspective aligns with the inherent nature of our environment and society, suggesting that systemic change can be achieved through nurturing relationships, operating at multiple levels of organization, and embracing constant learning and innovation. The article also hints at the importance of developmental theory in understanding the evolution of human consciousness and the potential for paradigm shifts towards more sustainable perspectives.

Opinions

The author believes that the current modernist Western worldview has led to unsustainability and that a shift to a living systems perspective is crucial for sustainability.
A living systems perspective is described as recognizing nested structures within nature, including humans and society.
The perspective emphasizes the importance of dynamic relationships and constant interaction within living systems.
Self-organization is seen as an inherent tendency of life towards innovation and novelty.
The continuum of life is highlighted as a process of emergence that is central to understanding systemic change.
The article suggests that systemic change, including changes in social systems, can be facilitated by learning, adapting, and developing, as well as by cultivating relationships and recognizing our embeddedness in nature.
The author argues that to achieve a sustainable future, a paradigm shift to a living systems perspective is necessary, which involves re-evaluating and potentially changing our current societal perspective.

Living systems perespective — a summary

This post is a a framing of a living sytems perspective drawn from my PhD.

Perspective

A worldview, a particular philosophy of life, paradigm, mind-set or set of core assumptions about how the world works, how we make meaning of our lives. A perspective informs how we act.

Living systems perspective

‘To take a living systems perspective we need to: Seek the whole system view that recognises ourselves and our society are nested within our environment; take a relationship-based approach to cultivating change; and learn and innovate.’ (Birney, 2014a:19).

A collective living systems perspective, is a societal worldview where we see ourselves embedded in the continuum of life.

Summary

The prevailing perspective shapes society and our current perspective (modernist western worldview) has helped shaped our unsustainability

Systems and systemic thinking might help us address these challenges

A living system perspective might be an appropriate perspective to take for sustainability as it (gets closer or) aligns with how our environment and society works

The qualities of a living systems perspective are:

- Nested wholes — embedded multi-layered structures (including humans, society as seen as part of nature)

- Dynamic relationships — we are in constant flow, in dynamic interaction

- Self-organisation — a spontaneous process that is life’s inherent tendency towards novelty

- Life as a continuum — These all come together as a continually process of emergence

This therefore indicates how systems change, including social systems and might be the bases of how we might create systemic change:

- Through constantly learning (and innovating), adapting and developing

- Through cultivating relationships

- Through operating a multi-levels (recognising we are embedded in nature)

We also need to explore our prevailing paradigm or perspective when exploring systemic change.

Developmental theory (understanding how humans develop) positions our consciousness, paradigms and perspectives as something that continually emerges (more to follow)

I argue that if the challenges of sustainability are born out of our current dominant perspective, it might suggest we need to access or act from a more systemic perspective to achieve a sustainable future; which includes looking at how we might shift the paradigm we are currently in. How might we shift to a living systems perspective?