Some concepts and tools for resilient
water security cities: A less than
conventional approach
Graham Strickert, PhD
Research Associate
www.usask.ca/water
Outline of Workshop
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Attention Investment Exercise (~10 mins)
Mind Map or Mental Model Activity (~20 mins)
Scenario Exercise (~30 mins)
Debrief presentation (~20 mins)
Questions and comments (~10 mins)
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Attention Investment Exercise
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On your table there is a small box
the box there is are:
a)
b)
c)
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7 cups
Some strings tied to an elastic
Restrictions on communication
Your Task is to use the strings and elastic to stack the
cups as high as possible.
You have four minutes.
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Mind Map / Mental Model Activity
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Instructions for this activity are being distributed to
your table
This will help us to define the important components of
a system
Define the relationships between these components
Run scenarios to see how the system interacts under
changing conditions
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Scenario Exercise
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Scenario description and initial position statements - 5 mins
Groups develop secondary position statements - 5 mins
Interactions and negotiations with other teams - 15 mins
Final position statement - 5 mins
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Debrief
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Why the mind maps?
A few concepts
A bit of theory
Community resilience
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Why the mind maps?
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The basic behavioural pathway
a)
b)
c)
d)
Values and beliefs
Attitudes
Intentions
Behaviour
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3 concepts from environmental policy
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The policy precepts
Tame problems
Wicked problems
Uncomfortable knowledge
Thompson, 2011
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Attention Re-investment Exercise
• Have you ever been in an argument where you
were totally convinced that something was
true, only to find out that the person you were
arguing with was equally convinced that “their
view’” was true, despite appearing to be total
contradictions?
• “They’ll never agree, they are arguing from
different premises”!
• What are these premises?
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Two Dimensions of Social Life
Strong Regulation
+ Grid
Weak
- Group
Integration
Weak Regulation
After Durkheim (1893), Douglas
(1982), Thompson et al, (1990)
Strong Integration
+Strong
Group
Integration
- Grid
Weak Integration
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The four ways of life
+ Rules
Here we go
again…
- Organization
The free market
can sort it out
We’ll tell you all
what to do…trust
us we are experts
Collectively they
had the wisdom
to solve the
problem; but
instead they were
each blinded by
their selective
attention to
specific risks.
+ Organization
We should work
together toward
common goals
through
consensus…
- Rules
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After Thompson et al 1990, Thompson
Harnessing Variety
Accessibility
Adaptive
Institutions
Single voice
drowning
out others
To get more of what we
want and less of what we
don’t want…
… requires that we do
more to ensure requisite
variety
Responsiveness
After Thompson, 2008
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Refurbishment of Dahl's Pluralist
Democracy
R
Reflexive
Deliberation
Strategic
Deliberation
Assertive
Deliberation
e
s
p
o
n
s
i
v
e
n
e
s
s
IVORY TOWER
LEARNING DYAD
PLURALIST
DEMOCRACY
ADAPTIVE INSTITUTION
RATIONAL
MANAGEMENT
CLOSED
HEGEMONY
A\
COLLUDING DYAD
VASCILLATING DYAD
STRATEGIC PLURALISM
ISSUE NETWORK
A c c e s s I b I l I t y
Mono-centric
policy space
Adapted from:
Steven Ney, &
Bi-polar Policy
Space
Tri-angular Policy
Space
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Arsenal’s Football Stadium
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To be Resilient
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We need variety
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References:
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Bigely, G.A. & Roberts, K.H., (2001) The Incident Command System: HighReliability Organizing for Complex and Volatile Task Environments
Douglas, M. (1982) Essays in the Sociology of Perception. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Durkheim, E. (1893) De La Division du Travail Sociale: etude sur l’Oganisation
des Societes Superieurs. Paris: Alcan
Rayner, S. (2006) Wicked Problems, Clumsy Solutions. First Jack Beale
Memorial Lecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia, 25 July.
Thompson, M., Ellis, R., and Wildawsk, A., (1990) Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO
and Oxford Westview.
Thompson, M., (2008) Organising and Disorganising: A Dynamic and NonLinear Theory of Institutional Emergence and its Implications. Triarchy Press,
London.
Thompson, M. (2011)
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Comparing the elements
for each way of organizing
Nature Survival
Capricious
Culpability
Acceptance
and
Personal
Irrelevant
Life,
the
universe
Chosen
for
through
inherent
Irrelevant
absorption
Non
consent
and
everything
chaos
- Group
+ Grid
Adaptability
Observe
Ignorance
Nature
Resilient
Choice
The
Present
Insight
Live
and
let less
live
Scalable
Awareness
Preservation of
Rational
Analytical
Nature
Benign
the
individuals
Exploitability
Acceptance
and
Short Term
Threats
to
market
freedom
of
through
inherent
Appropriate
deflection
Implicit
Consent
Dominant
functions
contract
fluidity
Nature
Perverse
Controllability
Rejection
and
Secure
Internal
Truncated
Short
Loss
of
the
public
Heuristics
and
andLong
Tolerant
through
order
Large
absorption
Hypothetical
Structure
of
and
trust
Biases
Conset
Authority
+ Group
Nature
Sustainability
Rejection
and
Survival
ofEphemeral
the
Long
Term
Catastrophic,
Naturalistic
through
inherent
Small
deflection
Direct
Consent
Collective
Dominates
irreversible,
fragility
inequitable
developments
- Grid
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Elements for Comparison
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