System Change

“We have a problem with scale. The planetary crisis can seem impossible to grasp. But focusing on the local can feel limited. How do we work to a scale that feels manageable? There is a way of reorganising how we think about scale: the -shed. -sheds (from Old English scead) describe the natural boundaries between waterbodies. They are not

Burnout, then, is an outcome of an interaction between burnout producing environmental factors and individually susceptible workers.

“leverage points.” These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM

(in increasing order of effectiveness)

12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards).


13. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.


14. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures).


15. The lengths of delays, relative to the

What we need are visions of the future of technology that are values-driven, but we don’t need just design fictions. We need business model fictions, engineering feasibility study fictions, interop protocol specification fictions, investment return fictions.

Post capitalism is not simply another ‘ism’ to replace previous ideologies; it is a conceptual container for social pluralities based on shared values (e.g. reciprocity, altruism, cooperation, gifting, equity consciousness, empathy, interbeing and solidarity with all Life). It stems from the shortcomings of the existing system and the lived

Exploring where impediments are hard, where they are soft and when they can be ignored is powerful.