2015-02-18

February 18 was the twenty-third meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration was on Eventbrite.

Theme: Systems and Resilience: Deciphering Panarchy

Panachy is a theory of adaptive change that is cross-scale and dynamic. Amongst systems thinkers, the 2002 book Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems by Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling is well known as a classic work. However, many readers of the text have found the concepts and diagrams difficult to grasp.

This Systems Thinking Ontario session will be a group sense-making opportunity, where individuals can bring their understandings and questions for discussion with others.

The short 90-minute duration of our sessions will favour individuals who have done the pre-reading.

Venue:

• Special time: 6:30 to 8:15 (15 minutes later than usual, there's a booking ahead of us!)
• Lambert Lounge, OCAD U.

Required pre-reading:

Please read this comprehensive article:

• C. S. Holling, C. S. 2001. “Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems.” Ecosystems 4 (5): 390–405. doi:10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5, cited at http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=1326346503885901396.

For background context, participants may be entertained by a casual video by Lance Gunderson.

Featured reviewer

To help our group through some of the fine points on panarchy, we have a featured reviewer:

• Marta Berbés-Blázquez is finishing her PhD in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and has recently been appointed a post-doctoral fellow in Climate Change Adaptation in the department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on the dynamics of human well-being and natural resource management in agricultural communities in Costa Rica informed by resilience thinking and political ecology.

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Systems Thinking Ontario Feb. 2015: Special session on "Systems and Resilience: Deciphering Panarchy", with exceptional request that all attendees preread the 2001 Holling article. Rich discussion, with varying views on the helpfulness of diagrams to either clarify or confuse the text. (OCAD U., Toronto) 20150218