Abstract
Eelderink, M., J. M. Vervoort, and F. van Laerhoven. 2020. Using participatory action research to operationalize critical systems thinking in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society 25(1):16. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11369-250116
Highlights
Social-ecological systems (SESs) involve multiple stakeholders with widely diverse interests and perspectives on problems and solutions
INTEGRATING SYSTEMS FRAMING IN PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH To help overcome the issue of limiting problem framings leading to the failure of development projects, we propose to strengthen the ability of participatory action research (PAR) to engage with systems framing in SESs by combining PAR with critical systems thinking (CST)
We explored the benefits of using CST to inform and strengthen PAR to overcome development challenges associated with noninclusive, preframed problem approaches in development research and planning in SESs, which we call critical action research in SESs (CARS)
Summary
Social-ecological systems (SESs) involve multiple stakeholders with widely diverse interests and perspectives on problems and solutions. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and governments engage with challenges in socialecological systems using preexisting problem framings (Cuppen 2012, van Laerhoven and Andersson 2013), aiming to convince other parties of the validity of the organizing actor’s perspective on problems and solutions (Eelderink et al 2017). This situation poses a challenge because such preexisting problem framing may miss important underlying or contextual challenges that should be of primary concern to those exploring interventions to solve the problem. When a tightly predefined problem framing, objectives, and project boundaries are developed without understanding the systemic challenges and opportunities and their interrelatedness, project failure often follows, especially when the project addresses messy or unstructured problems within SESs (Cuppen 2012, Midgley 2016, Helfgott 2018, Watkins et al 2018)
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