Jumping Off the treadmill: transforming NRM to systemic governing with systemic co-inquiry

ABSTRACT

While there is continued interest in Deliberative Policy Analysis (DPA) its practice element appears to have been underappreciated. We reflect on our experience of using a systemic co-inquiry to provide new insights into operationalizing DPA that may assist it to speak more immediately to issues related to governing in the Anthropocene. Natural resource management (NRM) in Australia embraced the global turn to governance, but demonstrated how difficult it is to achieve systemic, collaborative approaches to management policy. The treadmill of our title symbolizes the experience of community and organizational stakeholders in the case area, who were constantly in motion but achieving no forward movement in collaborative governance. A systemic co-inquiry into how decision making and action taking in NRM could be improved began in 2015. Systemic co-inquiry is a facilitated process that enables emergence of ideas and opportunities for transforming a situation. We describe this process, present how it was used in the case area, then critically reflect on its contributions for governance and practice, and its theoretical and political implications. Describing and critiquing our use of systemic co-inquiry provides new insights to address challenges for future DPA.

KEYWORDS:

• Systemic co-inquiry
• natural resource management
• systemic governance
• deliberative policy analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Catherine Allan, BAgSci, MNatRes, PhD, is Associate Professor of Environmental Sociology at Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia. Building on her early experience as a State agency based NRM extension agent, her academic research has centred on adaptive management and participatory practice. She is author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications, more than 20 commissioned research reports, and one book for NRM practitioners.

Ray L. Ison, BScAgr, PhD, is Professor of Systems, The Open University (OU) UK. From 2008 to 2015 he also held a joint appointment as Professor, Systems for Sustainability at the Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University Australia where he, with Phil Wallis, created the Systemic Governance Research Program. He is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of water and NRM governance and a pioneer of research on social learning and exploring cyber-systemic possibilities for moving to systemic governing in the Anthropocene. At the OU is co-responsible for managing a post-graduate program in Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP). He successfully coordinated (2000–2004) a major interdisciplinary 5th Framework program (30 researchers, 6 countries) researching social learning for sustainable river catchment management; co-managed the EPSRC-funded Systems Practice for Managing Complexity Network and was a major contributor to the international CADWAGO Project. He is the (co) author or (co) editor of 6 books, 40 book chapters, 150+ refereed papers, 70+ other publications, 7 journal special editions and has been an invited Keynote speaker at many international and national conferences.

Ross Colliver, BSW, PhD, is a consultant, facilitator and social researcher in natural resource management. He has investigated the marginalization of community-based NRM, and how movements such as Landcare can become more influential within NRM governance arrangements. His recent work supports innovation in NRM governance between organizations and across scales.

Laura Mumaw, MScFish, PhD is a Vice Chancellor's postdoctoral research fellow in RMIT's Centre for Urban Research, researching governance of urban biodiversity. She has an international career as a Board member and executive for nature conservation and natural resource management organizations active in community engagement.

Moragh Mackay, PhD is a practitioner-researcher in the field of collaborative governance. Moragh's work continues to focus on the practice of collaborative governing through application of systemic co-inquiring and mindfully employing practices that support participants to develop systems capability beyond the direct engagement in workshops and meetings. The NRM systemic co-inquiry discussed in this paper and the methodological application of the systemic co-inquiry process emerged from Moragh's PhD research. Moragh currently works in a government authority specifically designed to facilitate the transition of a region from dependence on the fossil fuel industry as coal-fired power stations have and continue to shut down; where systems thinking and collaborative governing are everyday practice.

Luisa Perez-Mujica, PhD is a systemic scientist with an interest in complex social-ecological systems, and has published four papers in this area. She has international experience in approaching social-ecological problems, including Mexico and Australia. Currently, she designs and implements state-wide education and behaviour change campaigns for an environmental regulator in Australia.

Philip Wallis (deceasd) Formerly Victorian Catchment Management Council, Melbourne, Australia.

Notes

1 NRM Regions Australia, https://nrmregionsaustralia.com.au/what-is-nrm/ Accessed 20th August 2019.

2 It can be argued that a NRM framing conserves the human-nature dualism, as do recent shifts to natural capital and the framing of parts of the biosphere as assets for human exploitation, or interventions to conserve ecological functioning. The shift to NRG does not escape the dualism but does introduce a practitioner(s) who, in the shift from management to governing, creates possibilities for a shift towards praxis i.e. theory-informed practical action (see Ison, Alexandra, and Wallis 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Victorian Landcare Council; Helen Macpherson Smith Trust; and Institute for Land Water and Society, Charles Sturt University.