[Dialogue] Ecology and the Social Process: This press release, from September of 1996, recognized a remarkable effort, spearheaded by Jean Watts.

Tue Nov 24 11:17:17 CST 2009

BARATARIA-TERREBONNE NATIONAL
ESTUARY PROGRAM (BTNEP): Governor Mike Foster was notified this week that the
BTNEP’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan is the recipient of the
American Planning Association’s  award
for Outstanding Planning in the Comprehensive Planning--Large Jurisdiction
category.  This national level award
follows a regional award from the same organization in September, 1996.  The 1997 National Planning Award recipients
will be recognized on April 8, 1996 during the annual conference to be held in San Diego.    Contact: Barbara Keeler (5-6698)
 Jean responded to, and received, a grant to facilitate this CCMP effort as a part of the US Environmental Protection Agency's project to protected the largest estuaries in the United States.  She involved a number of us as colleagues -- both in Louisiana (Carol Fleishman, Carlos Zervigon, Julianna Padgett, among others) and also brought in colleagues from around the country (Sue Laxdall, Sherwood Shankland, among others)

After a series of Management Conferences involving important stakeholders in the Estuary (think:  the end of the Mississippi river south and west of New Orleans) a "conceptual framework" was created to show the complicated inter-relatedness of what was going on in the Estuary.  Jean wrote this up as a chapter in Government Works, edited by Jim Troxel.  This conceptual framework was represented as a set of triangles:  The Natural Factor (lower left) (consisting of the Land Mass, the Water Flows and the Diverse Biologic Communities (plants, animals, micro-organisms, etc.), The Human Factor (lower right) (consisting of Economic Development, Education and social life, and National Recognition (think "social process"), and The Management Factor (top) (consisting of Research and Data, Regulation, and Planning).  A fourth set of triangles also emerged, called the Linking Factor which was placed in the middle of the other 3 (consisting of Balanced Use
 Indicators, Infrastructure Compatible with Nature, and Common Ground Solutions).  These triangles went down a level or 2 and were very useful in describing the complex interactions taking place.

This is the best work I am aware of at expanding the "social process" work to the next larger set of dynamics and functions.  In this framework, the Natural Factor is the foundational, the Human Factor, in some sense, is living off /living with the Natural Factor, and the Management Factor represents the attempt to coordinate the other 2.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTES:  My daughter was in high school at the time and as I described this project, she said, "Finally, Dad, you are working on something important."  She was taking a course in ecology or environmental science at the time, and I paged through her text book.  In the last chapter I spied a triangle!!  It was describing the cosmology of tribal peoples -- the three poles were Nature, Human Beings, and Spirit.  I thought, Wow -- we replaced Spirit with Management!

HOW THIS FRAMEWORK EMERGED FROM THE PLANNING PROCESS:  The beginning point of the project was the identification of 9 priority problems in the estuary -- based on extensive scientific studies and data collection -- things like erosion of barrier islands, incursion of salt water destroying fresh water marshes, over fishing, etc.  These priority problems were predominantly located in the NATURAL FACTOR triangle.  As the stakeholders assembled to review these data and articulated their VISION, it predominantly focussed on the HUMAN FACTOR triangle -- them and their children continuing to live in and prosper in this place, being able to learn and grow and develop their communities, and being recognized as a national treasure (significance).  When we turned to contradictions, it turned out that most were in the MANAGEMENT FACTOR triangle -- the ways of doing research and regulating and planning were as much a block as a benefit in caring for the Estuary.  As
 the planning moved into Strategic Directions, many of the actions and recommendations fell into this 4th area -- the LINKING FACTOR -- developing new, more helpful indicators to measure, working towards common ground solutions vs. reliance on legal action and regulation, etc.

and Water Jim

There's a big difference between marching to a different drummer and having no sense of rhythm whatsoever.   -- the morning paper.

Jim Wiegel
401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
+1  623-936-8671   +1  623-363-3277
jfwiegel at yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

________________________________
From: Richard & Maria Maguire <unfolding at smartchat.net.au>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 6:27:48 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Nature and the Social Process Triangles

At 06:26 AM 22/11/2009, you wrote:
Yes we have, and many other colleagues we know as well.  But its not easy to do.

We notice that social process triangles speak directly about the natural world only is as a resource in the economic triangle.

Since the triangles are about the *social* process I find it difficult to put nature in directly.  If I were to include the natural world it would be in a symbol that surrounds and interacts with the social process all over the place, or a large triangle of some sort with the social process as a sub triangle.  The natural world is finally more powerful and durable than our human social world.  We arise from it and  utterly depend on it.  Our Western technologists have only recently begun to realize what Indigenous peoples have known for a long time--our fate will very much depend on how we treat it.  It almost seems that our attaining a healthy relationship with nature very much depends on our creating the balance in the social process that has been so important to us as the ICA.  It is clearer than ever that economic overemphasis of the current society, even more blatant than in the 60s, is not only the source of great social injustice, but also damage
 to our natural world for which many people, and other species are paying dearly.

Another thought I have had is that nature plays an unspoken role within of the social process, particularly as a locus of meaning and significance, so especially in common religion, but also in wisdom etc.  An awful lot of our political activity now has to do with the natural world as well. Maybe we should include this in our contexts.

On another note:

Since the Nobel commission gave the Peace prize to Obama for *promising* to eliminate nuclear weapons, maybe they should *promise* that a Nobel peace prize will be given to the "world leaders" who put a strong carbon plan into action, some years after it is successfully implemented.  After all, they don't give prizes in physics or medicine until the results have been validated, (I understand that that's the reason why Einstein never got one for relativity) and the same could be true for the peace prize.

Best wishes

Richard

> hat's a good statement and worth archiving!
> 
> Occasionally I muse on how to place the social process into the Earth
> process. I haven't had a brilliant idea about this yet. One approach is to
> have an Earth process set of triangles (like the carbon cycle, the
> hydrological cycle, etc.) parallel to the social process. Another approach
> is to have the Earth process in the middle triangle of the social process
> triangles. Another is to redo the social process triangles to include
> interactions with nature.
> 
> I haven't really done much except muse about this. (One approach I saw that
> I question is to apply the social process to nature--it's not entirely
> unfruitful but it seems like an artificial imposition on the natural
> processes rather than beginning with the natural process itself.)
> 
> I wonder if anyone else has thought about this.
> 
> -

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