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Pa#ern Languages for Systemic Transforma5on
Towards a 4th Genera/on of Pa2ern Languages
PURPLSOC 2015 Helene Finidori – Sayfan Borghini
Bridging mul+ple paths
“On each con/nent and in each na/on one can find crea/ve bubbling, a mul/tude of poli/cal ini/a/ves in the direc/on of economic, social, poli/cal, cogni/ve, educa/onal, ethical or existen/al regenera/on. But everything that must be connected is yet dispersed, compartmented, separated. These ini/a/ves are not aware of each other, no ins/tu/on enumerates them, and no one is familiar with them. They are nonetheless the livestock for the future. It is now a ma2er of recognizing, aggrega/ng, enlis/ng them in order to open up transforma/onal paths. These mul/ple paths, jointly developing, will intermesh to form a new Path which will decompose into the paths each of us will follow and which will guide us toward the s/ll invisible and inconceivable metamorphosis.”
Morin, E. (2011). La Voie: Pour l'avenir de l'Humanité. (Paris: Fayard). Pp. 34. Translated by H. Finidori.
From a big picture, aggregated perspec/ve? § Are we actually changing something? And is the change we
‘design’ going in the ‘right’ direc/on?
§ What is my ‘place’ my ‘posi/on’ in the space of societal change? And how can my own endeavor benefit the whole?
§ How can what others are doing benefit my own endeavor? And how can my own endeavor benefit others?
The Challenges of Societal Change
The Pursuit of Pa2ern Languages for Societal Change involves 1. The development of domain specific or project specific Pa2ern
Languages towards societal change.
2. Looking at how pa2ern languages can help coalesce various societal change efforts to increase collec/ve awareness and mul/ply the impact of disparate ini/a/ves.
Pa9ern Languages & Societal Change
Mul+faceted Engagement in Social Change
Learning styles
Mental func/ons
Crea/ve styles
Values Beliefs
Mo/va/ons
we chose to focus our attention, efforts and
resources on
What
Why How we do what we do, what
drives us
we function, process information, Interact with systems
and people
Language
Paradigm
Technologies
Telos: the inten/onality through which the why becomes a what
Know-‐how: the praxis through which the how
becomes a what
Paradigm: the thought pa2erns through which the why becomes a how
Shaping the paradigms our systems arise from
Donella Meadows – 12 Points to intervene in a System
This applies to social change too: Independently from their actual paradigm, telos and know-‐how, change agents individually or in groups may prefer to intervene on the ‘thing’ itself, on the prac/ces or on the inten/ons and mo/va/ons of stakeholders (Commons, commoning, commoners)…
etc…
Priori/zed Dimension
Systems observed & transformed
Objects of attention
What
Why How
Paradigm
Where To Intentions
Psycho-cognitive Drivers
Relationships to each-other & the system
Practices
Social Change Agent
Dimensions, priori+zed
Individuals or groups assemble in clusters around one or several shared dimensions of change, engagement or ac/on, with variable degrees of cohesiveness on all preferences. Change is driven from a whole variety of clusters that cannot or do not necessarily want to align on any if not all of these dimensions.
Note that a How or a Why for one group can be a What (object of a2en/on and care) for another, and that the development of a how or a what can be invoked as a why… Which makes things rather complicated when talking about strategies for change.
Agency, mul+faceted and distributed
These bubbles of agency, or islands of language and knowledge are effec/ve in their own cohesive domain of focus. They func/on effec/vely and convergently within their own boundaries, with new ideas that permeate through areas of overlap with other clusters. For change to cross boundaries and be sustainable it needs to occur in a variety of ways and come from a variety of places in the system. A network of interven/ons on whys, hows and whats that can cross pollinate each other.
“Social networks influence how ideas and beliefs can spread around a society. In this study, the University of Pennsylvania's Damon Centola shows that networks that are very diffuse (lej) make it hard for ideas to catch on, while networks with very strong group boundaries (right) make it almost impossible for ideas to spread. A network that was moderately "grouped," however, was most conducive to spreading complex ideas.” Credit: University of Pennsylvania Read more at: h2p://phys.org/news/2015-‐06-‐social-‐networks-‐group-‐boundaries-‐ideas.html#jCp
Agency, clusters and interconnected
• Are we actually changing something? And is the change going in the ‘right’
direc/on? Ø We must find ways to make sure our designs and their evolu/on
responds to the intended direc/onality of the system in a sustainable way (telos)
• What is my ‘place’ my ‘posi/on’ in the space of societal change? And how can my own endeavor benefit the whole? Ø We must find ways to understand and recognize each other across
domains and paradigms, and accommodate our divergent priori/es and inten/onali/es.
• How can what others are doing benefit my own endeavor? And how can my own endeavor benefit others? Ø We must find ways to exchange and cross pollinate experience and
know-‐how across domains
• How to increase collec/ve awareness and make ‘agency’ more effec/ve at the collec/ve level?
The Challenges of Societal Change
How to increase collec/ve awareness and make ‘agency’ more effec/ve at the collec/ve level?
Understand and recognize each-other across paradigms and leverage
the contribution of each to the whole Accommodate divergent intentionalities…
Exchange and cross-pollinate experience and know-how across domains
Systems observed & transformed
Nexus of attention
What
Why How
Paradigm
System Intentionality
Psycho-cognitive Drivers
Relationships to each-other & the system
Practices
Collec+ve Awareness & Agency
Make sure our designs and their evolution responds to the intended
directionality of the system in a sustainable way
Addressing the challenges of social change from a systemic perspec+ve
They addresses the three dimensions of change in each of their specific domains
Pa9erns & Pa9ern Language Pa9erns & Pa9ern Languages
Vehicle for a Purpose: QWAN, Wholeness
Aliveness, life supporting etc… Give a directionality to the
designed objects
Organized procedure and tool, instrument for sense-making and design to purpose
Systems observed & transformed
Objects of attention
What
Why How
Paradigm
System Intentionality
Psycho-cognitive Drivers
Relationships to each-other & the system
Practices
Pa9ern & Pa9ern Languages
Lingua Franca in a domain of practice, formalizing tacit
knowledge
Christopher Alexander was on a quest to integrate complexity into Design. In the words of Alexander: “The crea/on of fine-‐tuned, well -‐adapted Complexity must now take shape as a major topic of scien/fic thought. Our ability or failure to master this science is crucial to our survival” However, design pa2erns as problem solu/on constructs became a way to reduce complexity while we need more than ever pa2erns to support our understanding of complexity and that can help us expand opportuni/es and alterna/ves. The recent decades achieved a greater maturity in the understanding of organized complexity allowing us to be2er see the rich set of dynamics and effects produced by systems. We need to bring these insights into pa2ern languages.
Systemic elements in Pa9ern Languages
Alexander asked “what is the criteria of success for a complex system?” We design systems, over /me they take their own dynamics, and we have li2le means to monitor the evolu/on of systems in rela/on to their intended direc/onality. We do need to introduce and build a transversal knowledge for the naviga+on and orienta+on of systems along their evolu+on in +me. Pa2erns are a cri/cal tool in this, in the possibility they embody to connect general abstract theory to the local prac/ce across contexts and cultures. Pa2erns can be connected through systemic elements, which also establish a seman/c connec/on across pa2ern languages and domains of prac/ce.
Systemic elements in Pa9ern Languages
There is a correla/on between structural aspects of a system, the behavior of it, and the possible ways in which it evolves its ini/al behavior over /me, that pa2ern languages can encode and decode in order to orient and evolve our designs.
Forms and systems people build or that arise from social
interaction
Structure
Evolu+on Behavior The way the system
transforms, adapting over time
(generating, depleting, changing)
Func/on Of the System
The way the system operates over time
Poten+ality
Systems adapt and evolve in +me
Orientation
Dynamic Systemic Forms (Structures & Systemic
behaviors, Relationships & Effects)
Design is emergent in the system, stigmergetic and self-
organizing over time
Connecting agencies across domains and praxis
Collective interpretation and navigation of system
directionality
Collaborative discovery, sense-making and learning
in action
Efficiency and accuracy of development
Practice of design
Pattern Language 4.0
Adapted from Takashi Iba – Comparison among genera/ons of Pa2ern Language
Towards a 4th Genera+on of Pa9ern Languages
How can this be put to work so that these various pa2ern languages interconnect, ‘serve’ and complement each other?
Systems observed & transformed
Objects of attention
What
Why How
Paradigm
System directionality
Intentions Psycho-cognitive
Drivers
Relationships to each-other & the system
Practices
Pa9ern & Pa9ern Languages
Pa9erns & Pa9ern Languages as a response
Systems observed & transformed
Objects of attention
What
Why How
Paradigm
System Intentionality
Psycho-cognitive Drivers
Relationships to each-other & the system
Practices
Explore Probe
Know-‐how Repository Systemic Pa9ern Language
Assess Evolve
Learn Share
Dis/nguish Understand
Appreciate Federate
Hermeneu+c Inquiry
Collec+ve Interpreta+on Media+on Orienta+on
Decode Encode
PLAST: a collec+ve interpreta+on and systemic orienta+on System
‘Hacking’ & Sense-making Systemic Interpretation Elements as units of structure and
behavior enable the recognition, sense making and ‘re-elaboration’ of observed or known systemic phenomena,
identified issues, alternative possibilities and models.
Systemic Inquiry These elements are combined into systemic patterns as building blocks to describe and
interpret (encode, decode) interacting forces and dynamics in domain patterns, operating on
a meta-level to assess, compare and evolve models and practices.
Semantic Inquiry Semantic Connections are established
through primitives and systemic patterns used as tags to connect patterns across
pattern languages and domains, and across levels.
Mutual Discovery Semantic connections enable collective exploration of possibilities across pattern
languages, domain and levels in the system.
Searchable and navigable repository The Pattern as knowledge format enables the recording and sharing of know-how in
an interoperable format.
Collaborative Learning & Design The Pattern as ‘object’ of collaborative
discussions is used as learning tool on the field for deeper understanding and collective
problem solving.
Collective Hermeneutic Approach The Pattern as unit of research through a hermeneutic process and the recording of
controversies and evolution of thought, enables to better address wicked and
almost impossible challenges involving multiple domains and patterns.
Assessing Fitness to Purpose The Pattern as tool to cast “intention” or desired effect can help monitor course of
action and readjust structures, models and practice.
Orientation heuristics An orientation engine based on angles of
approach, action logics, cognitive preferences, helps navigate adjacent possibles and create
multiple personas and scenarios.
How PLAST Operates
