Description
Presentation of P18 on “Understanding languages and perspectives: a first step to a cybernetic approach to water governance?” Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 2022, 29 Nov – 2 Dec, Brisbane, Australia. ABSTRACT Water governance can be contested and challenging due to the complex nature of the linked environmental, social and technological systems that need to be managed. How future governance is imagined and developed has dependencies on past decisions and practices, and current worldviews and preferences. It is also dependent on whose purposes and perspectives are included and what system outcomes are being sought. Part of understanding these perspectives is that we make sense of our worlds through languages, and the concepts and structures embedded within them. By languages we mean both natural (e.g. spoken and written human languages that evolve over time) and formal languages (e.g. mathematical notation, computer languages that require precision to function well). Due to how languages have developed for specific contexts and communities, direct correspondence from one language to another is unusual. This implies that translation or multilingualism is necessary when working across them, and that building in feedback mechanisms that enable effective communication is key to collective action. These processes at their heart are key features of Cybernetics. This paper explores the challenge and opportunity of language and perspective diversity in water governance and how a cybernetic approach to water could be useful. Specifically, it investigates what a first step of a cybernetic approach to water governance might require: detailed elicitation and acknowledgement of the diversity of languages and perspectives making up those who engage in water governance and/or ought to have a role in water governance in the future. One cybernetic analytic-the Languages Tree Tool-and its potential use for awareness and trust building across a diversity of water actors is outlined. Its use is explored through a Murray Darling Basin example application and recommendations provided for establishing more effective foundations for more inclusive cybernetic water governance into the future.| Period | 1 Dec 2022 → … |
|---|---|
| Event title | Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium presentation: "Understanding languages and perspectives: a first step to a cybernetic approach to water governance?” |
| Event type | Other |