“The profound and urgent challenge of ensuring the long-term survival and well-being of human society within societal and biogeophysical planetary boundaries depends on making decisions that seek to avoid, mitigate, or adapt to potentially catastrophic consequences of rapidly changing conditions on Earth,” said Ilan Chabay of the School for Global Futures at Arizona State University. “But how do we cope with the challenge of global change in complex socio-ecological systems especially given the fact that we are part of the system, not separate from it. Making decisions for a resilient sustainable community means you must draw on many different approaches. You want to increase the number of options for making decisions, not be bound in a narrow way. One of those ways is to enlist art as a way of expanding one’s imagination, of transcending language and enlisting empathy.”
“The realisation of sustainable societies requires a more explicit and expansive engagement with their human dimensions as integral parts of Earth’s complex socio-ecological systems. I believe the synthesis of art, culture and science is essential in dealing with complexity,” he added.
“We are in the Anthropocene. We can’t turn around and go back so what do we do? We need pathways to just, sustainable, resilient societies and communities. But we must do it in a way that addresses not avoids the reality of the complexity.
Chabay explained that the consequences of transgressing the physical planetary boundaries include biodiversity loss, climate change, inequities in wealth, resources, education and rights, all of which may lead to unforeseen consequences.
Explaining complexity, Chabay noted that systems are defined by boundaries and can be complex or complicated. Complex systems are about multiple, interdependent components and feedback loops across space and time. These loops are not linear and may be positive or negative. Complex systems can display emergent properties that are not characteristic of any one component. He also emphasised that while complicated is usually predictable for complex this is not a given. There is a high probability of unintended consequences, uncertainty and ambiguities which are often dependent on human values and contingencies.
He also explained that complex systems have potential tipping points. “The system may change state and you cannot go back,” he said. “For example, a reversal of the Gulf Stream current would change Northern Hemisphere climates for ever.”
We must also make many decisions without complete knowledge because of ambiguity from contingency of human values and emergent properties of feedback loops in complex systems.
“Ultimately, it’s about making decisions,” he said. “And it’s about asking how to establish and reinforce democratic norms of deliberative decision-making.”
He believes such decision-making can be made more inclusive and effective by engaging with narratives of individual and collective identity, the meanings of place and time, and the explicit and implicit epistemic and ontological dimensions operating beneath the surface of everyday existence.
These ideas led him to establish KLASICA (the knowledge, learning, and societal change research alliance) in 2007.
‘I wanted to think about collective behaviour change and how it manifests in different cultures and continents, and to identify and analyse narratives of social identity and future vision and their influence on decision-making,” he explained.
The alliance is developing a Digital Observatory of Narrative and Sustainability which will source, collect and curate narrative tools with the aim of developing further models (for more information see: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328722001161).
Art and culture as currency
So how do art and culture link into decision-making? Chabay explained that the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss manifest locally in different forms and each community must decide how to avoid, mitigate, adapt and recover. How these decisions are made, who is included and excluded, marginalised or disengaged, and whether the sense of ownership and collective agency is developed affects intentions and actions. Art shapes and reflects culture and social identity, and cultural artefacts have a role to play in inclusive decision-making. “They are a way of showing the group is part of the deliberations and the reality. Art and culture recognise and honour different narratives of social identity, context and perspectives. Cultural artefacts (including objects, dance, theatre and images) can be leveraged to enrich the context of decision-making by self-recognition of common values, strengthening communication, sense making, empathy and collective agency.”
“For example, dance is present in all cultures and the relationship between people and the environment is directly captured in dance, for example as in the Native American Corn Dance enacted annually near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Narrative, dance, music and images establish and maintain coherence in communities giving the message ‘We are in this together’,” he added.
Multiple examples
Chabay pointed to multiple examples of this in his work ranging from establishing terms of engagement and communication for highly contested discussions between fishing communities and environmentalists in Poland; to understanding the cultural significance and social role of whaling artefacts and community gatherings in Alaska; to working with indigenous communities in Taiwan in the aftermath of typhoons and understanding the significance of mural artworks and the rebuilding of community structures and homes; to understanding the need for symbols in post-earthquake Kumamoto and Hagashi-Miyoshi in Japan. “There was a 1000-year-old camphor tree, which was a much-revered symbol,” he explained. “People saw it as a symbol of the resilience of the town.”
He explained that the work is about trying to understand the drivers that collectively benefit or fail to benefit change. What makes change possible or not and what the barriers are. “If you understand those dynamics, who the actors are, their connections and resources – this allows you to know where the power comes from and who is subjected to it.”
It also gives a qualitative context to interrogate quantitative information.
“Drawing on these experiences in facilitating decision-making for multi-generational sustainable and resilient communities in Poland, Alaska, Taiwan and Japan, I propose that by incorporating local social and cultural artifacts in decision-making, art provides a basis for substantively enhancing considerations of sciences and technology, thereby leading to a more inclusive dialogue, a greater sense of collective agency, and more commitment and ownership for effective implementation of the decisions,” he said.
“I’ve been focused on the community level for a long time now because I believe there we have a chance to make inroads where other ways are blocked,” he said. “We can work under the radar at community level to change or strengthen norms of deliberative democracy.”
“It’s about bringing together art, culture, science and technology to reimagine community decision-making,” he added. “I believe this can help to counter the rapidly increasing authoritarianism, anti-science and oligarchic regimes that are currently slowing, stopping and reversing essential work on climate, biodiversity, equity and education.”
Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS
Photograph: SCPS Photography