Two conceptual tools for Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM): ‘Multi-purpose grammars’ and ‘impbkp_redicative loop analysis’

Abstract:

Introduction The epistemological pbkp_redicament associated with the study of the evolution of living (complex adaptive) systems is generated by two peculiar characteristics: (1) they are operating simultaneously on different hierarchical levels of organization, and (2) they are becoming in time, at different paces, across these different levels (for an overview of these concepts, see Giampietro 2003; Giampietro et al. 2006a, b). Therefore, scientists willing to do quantitative analyses of evolving systems have to face two key problems. The first is that of finding multiple useful descriptions of the same observed entity, which cannot be reduced to each other. In fact, these distinct descriptions are generated by different choices made by the observer to adopt either different scales or different criteria of observations. The second is the fact that the usefulness of all these non-equivalent descriptions and models depends on the interests of the storyteller - that is, the person or entity deciding about the relevance of the narrative and the goals of the analysis determining the usefulness of the results. Because of this fact, the validity of any model applied to a sustainability issue will sooner or later expire, either because the observed system will change or because the interest behind the observation - that is, the identity of the storyteller - will change. To make things worse, the validity of the different descriptions and models will expire at different rates. These two problems can be stated in general terms in the following way: 1 When dealing with the issue of sustainability, scientists can only represent just one specific perception and experience of the reality at the time, and not ‘the reality’. It is impossible to have a substantive representation of sustainability issues.

Año de publicación:

2013

Keywords:

Fuente:

scopus