Sustaining Places: Sensibility Models as Decision Support Tools for Messy Problems

Greg Walkerden

doi:10.3390/su11061725

Abstract

Methods for passing on findings of ecological research are well established; methods for passing on what is learned in environmental management are much less institutionalized, and much less comprehensive. In particular, questions that are less disciplinable are less likely to be investigated and the learnings shared. A key challenge is that the orderliness of knowing-how is not nearly as systematic as science, law or ethics. It is shaped by practical exigencies, and so is profoundly historical-reflecting tradition and experience. Felt understanding, researched through disciplined reflective practice, provides a valuable empirical opportunity. It is the layer of knowing-how that practitioners rely on (consider, for example, the importance that feeling uncomfortable in a negotiation has). Secondly, it is a window on the field of possibilities practitioners are considering, so it offers a wider lens on know how than research that focuses on what practitioners are observed doing. Thirdly, it makes complex practice skills such as acting simultaneously as scientist, politician and manager researchable. Decision support tools built from explicating felt understanding therefore better support flexibility and openness, and are better suited to scaffolding expert practice than, for example, documenting repertoires of procedures. They are particularly well suited to sharing expertise related to ‘messy problems’ encountered by sustainability practitioners. The ‘sensibility model’ explicated here is a proof of concept of an alternative way of researching know how, and supporting reflective transfer amongst sustainability practitioners.

Highlights

In environmental management, learning from our efforts to sustain communities and ecosystems is critically important
Methods for passing on findings of ecological research are well established; methods for passing on what is learned in environmental management practice are much less institutionalized, and much less comprehensive [1,2,3,4,5]
It sketches my overall gestalt—the family of practices I experience as salient as I orient myself in ecosystem management situations (Figure 1a), with particular detail on the family of practices I use for deepening my understanding of what is at stake and what is possible (Figure 1b)

Summary

Introduction

In environmental management, learning from our efforts to sustain communities and ecosystems is critically important. How what we learn in one situation should guide action in another situation is much less settled than this emphasis on learning implies. Methods for passing on findings of ecological research are well established; methods for passing on what is learned in environmental management practice are much less institutionalized, and much less comprehensive [1,2,3,4,5]. The situation in environmental management and other practice traditions which place a central emphasis on sustainability is not unlike that of nursing as characterized by Clarke and Procter [8] This paper explores the potential of explicating practitioners’ sensibilities—their ‘feel’ for what may occur and what it may be helpful to do—as a way of making what practitioners are learning explicit and shareable in a formal way, providing a “paradigm for practice” that designs in contextual sensitivity [6], and supports “reflective transfer”—context sensitive sharing of learnings [7].

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Conclusion