Second-Order Science and Policy

Abstract

In March 2016, an interdisciplinary group met for two days and two evenings to explore the implications for policy making of second-order science. The event was sponsored by SITRA, the Finnish Parliament's Innovation Fund. Their interest arose from their concern that the well-established ways, including evidence-based approaches, of policy and decision making used in government were increasingly falling short of the complexity, uncertainty, and urgency of needed decision making. There was no assumption that second-order science or second-order cybernetics would reveal any practical possibilities at this early stage of enquiry. On the other hand, some members of the group are practioners in both policy and in facilitating change in sectors of society. Thus, the intellectual concepts were strongly grounded in experience. This is an account of the deliberations of that group and some reflections on what came out of the various shared contributions and ensuing dialogues. The overall conclusion of the event is that there definitely are possibilities that are worthy of further research and exploration.

KEYWORDS:

• Complexity
• evidence
• policy
• practice
• second-order cybernetics
• second-order science
• transdisciplinarity
• transformation
• uncertainty

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank all the participants of the workshop for invaluable contributions and insightful dialogue. I am also grateful to Graham Leicester and Camilla Storrie from the International Futures Forum for the high quality of practical arrangements as well as the facilitation and reporting support during and after the event. Last but certainly not least I want to thank Anthony who guaranteed the success of the workshop with his wide personal networks, broad knowledge of the SOS, and skillful facilitation.

Together with the International Futures Forum, SITRA organized this workshop with some of the leading thinkers and policy practitioners in this emerging field in order to make sense of and synthesize the potential contributions of second-order science to the future of scientific research and public policy. This account has been synthesised by the master mind and facilitator of the workshop with his colleague Graham Leicester.

—Timo Hämäläinen

SITRA,

Helsinki, Finland

This Forum would not have been possible without the interest and support of a number of people.

First, we thank the staff of the International Futures Forum at the Boathouse who enabled a smooth flow between the conference room, the lunch breaks, and the toing and froing to the hotel as well as the excellent Forum Dinner at the Balbirnie House Hotel. The conference facilities in the Boathouse are also to be singled out as a great enabler thanks to their development by Pat Heneghan, founder of the Forth Road consultancy.

Especial thanks to Camilla Storrie for supporting the organization and communication from the very beginning to the very end, including taking care of travel needs of participants coming from Europe and the United States as well as the United Kingdom.

Thanks also to Professor Ioan Fazey, director of the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience at the University of Dundee who helped the shaping of the Forum. His insights into the relevance of SOS are opening a whole set of new possibilities for the future. We are indebted to Bill Sharpe of the University of West of England for the introductory framing on pp. 7 to 10. Tom Flanagan clarified aspects covered on participatory dialogic science.

However, without committed and enthusiastic support from the delegates the event could not have held together. It felt as if we were all deposited in unknown territory with some things visible and others obscured by swirling mists. Never-the-less, with a great co-operative spirit we navigated our way through the territory. An analogy might well be those early expeditions to reconnoiter the approach to Everest before it had even been climbed. It paved the way for many subsequent conquests. We all hope that our explorations will feed into the growing attention that is being given to not just second-order, but third- and even fourth-order notions. Our heartfelt thanks to the intellectual contributions and the good will the delegates brought to the event. They are acknowledged through the list in the Appendix.

Questions of the relationship between SOS and policy are not yet a usual area of discourse and investigation. Without the special anticipatory interest of Timo Hämäläinen the project would not have come about. Without the support of his senior executives in the Finnish Innovation Fund, SITRA, there could not have been resources to carry this out.

—Dr. Anthony Hodgson and Graham Lester