Professor Ray Ison

Professor Ray Ison

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  Formative experiences in Indonesia and Tanzania convinced me that the failure of much development effort and of attempts at 'technology transfer' had more to do with the 'developers' or researchers and extensionists than with the intended beneficiaries. I recognised it was a failure of understanding linked to inappropriate theories (mental models) and practices.

 

My research and scholarship spans the biophysical and the social (including organisations/institutions) and has been primarily interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. With colleagues I have made significant contributions and gained international recognition for:

• creative research leadership, especially experience of successfully managing a large Europe-wide project comprising researchers from five countries and many disciplines and building an interdisciplinary community of practice based on ‘social learning’;
• research within the Environment Agency (England & Wales) to effect systemic, social learning approaches to the implementation of river basin planning and the European Water Framework Directive within UK policies concerned with social inclusion and community well-being;
• elucidating through empirical, theoretical and systemic-design research how social learning could be employed as an alternative governance mechanism for managing in complex situations, particularly water catchments and other multiple stakeholder settings;
• making major contributions to the development of a systems praxiology for managing in situations of complexity, interdependency, controversy, uncertainty and multiple perspectives;
• elucidating the implications of epistemological awareness for effective praxis – especially systems and research praxis;
• using systems thinking and practice to design learning/inquiry systems in which stakeholders can take responsibility for situation-improving action and at the same time become aware of the constraints, especially institutional constraints, to their capacity to be response-able.

My academic career began as a plant ecophysiologist concerned with grasslands as 'biophysical systems'. Over time I found it made more sense to consider grasslands as 'human activity systems' (i.e. as involving people, 'nature' and agriculture) and, later still, as socially constructed systems.
This transition is captured in the two editions of Agronomy of Grassland Systems (1994; 1997; CUP):see Pearson and Ison (1997).

Formative experiences in Indonesia and Tanzania convinced me that the failure of much development effort and of attempts at 'technology transfer' had more to do with the 'developers' or researchers and extensionists than with the intended beneficiaries. I recognised it was a failure of understanding linked to inappropriate theories (mental models) and practices.

These ideas are developed in a book reporting collaborative research in the early 1990s with pastoralists in semi-arid NSW. An important outcome of the research reported in this book relates to enthusiasm as theory, motivational force and methodology: see Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Breaking Out of Traditions (Hardback, 2000 or Paperback, 2007)

'Enthusiasm' is based on the notion that the primary drive for change comes from within (not from outside by means of information or resources). It is a concept that continues to inform my practice. If you are interested in what was said at the launch of our book, more information here.

My interest in 'Systems' was triggered as an undergraduate and reinforced as I reflected on my own practices and the practices of others. Whilst a Lecturer at Hawkesbury (University of Western Sydney) I was introduced to soft systems methodology and a wider range of systems ideas. At Hawkesbury I pioneered action research approaches within the seed industry (see Australian Seed Industry Study) because I realised that constraints to industry viability were mainly institutional and organisational rather than the biophysical aspects of seed production.

These experiences gave rise to my current academic concerns and has involved me and my co-researchers in developing and evaluating systemic, participatory and process-based environmental decision making, natural resource management, organisational change and R&D methodologies. Examples which are discussed in my publications include second order R&D; systemic inquiry; soft systems methodology; systemic action research; communities of practice and participatory institutional appraisal.
A key question in any form of Systems Practice is 'Who learns? The design of learning systems is thus a key feature of systems practice, the outputs of which are changes in understanding and changes in practices. In situations of complexity, uncertainty, interconnectedness and conflict (such as water catchments, in which there are many different stakeholders) there is a need for these stakeholders to appreciate each other's perspective and to move towards concerted action if catchments and other natural resource situations are to be managed sustainably. 'Social learning' is the outcome of the process of moving towards concerted action for natural resource management. The relationship between understanding, institutional complexity and change and practices is thus a current research priority.

Throughout my academic career I have been concerned with my own 'teaching practice' and particularly how University practices and institutional forms constrain or enhance learning (as an example visit a conversation with Donald Shön or this widely read Gatekeeper published by IIED in 1990. I have experience of introducing problem based and experiential learning into curricula and community processes and of development of supported open distance learning for capacity building in areas of systems thinking and practice and environmental decision making for sustainability. In turn these have influenced my research and scholarship as part of the European LEARNing Network. For example see details of the book 'Cow Up a Tree' or order a copy or here for more details and related projects.