Systems Thinking, Mapping and Change in Food and Agriculture

Domenico Dentoni (), Carlo Cucchi, Marija Roglić (), Rob Lubberink, Rahmin Bender and Timothy Manyise
Additional contact information
Domenico Dentoni: Labex Entreprendre - UM - Université de Montpellier, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School
Marija Roglić: Labex Entreprendre - UM - Université de Montpellier, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Societal actors across scales and geographies increasingly demand visual applications of systems thinkingthe process of understanding and changing the reality of a system by considering its whole set of interdependenciesto address wicked problems affecting food and agriculture. Yet, despite the wide offer of systems mapping tools, there is still little guidance for managers, policy-makers, civil society and changemakers in food and agriculture on how to choose, combine and use these tools on the basis of a sufficiently deep understanding of socio-ecological systems. Unfortunately, actors seeking to address wicked problems with inadequate understandings of systems often have limited influence on the socio-ecological systems they inhabit, and sometimes even generate unintended negative consequences. Hence, we first review, discuss and exemplify seven key features of systems that should bebut rarely have beenincorporated in strategic decisions in the agri-food sector: interdependency, levelmultiplicity, dynamism, path dependency, self-organization, non-linearity and complex causality. Second, on the basis of these features, we propose a collective process to systems mapping that grounds on the notion that the configuration of problems (i.e., how multiple issues entangle with each other) and the configuration of actors (i.e., how multiple actors relate to each other and share resources) represent two sides of the same coin. Third, we provide implications for societal actors-including decision-makers, trainers and facilitators-using systems mapping to trigger or accelerate systems change in five purposive ways: targeting multiple goals; generating ripple effects; mitigating unintended consequences; tackling systemic constraints, and collaborating with unconventional partners.

Keywords: Systems thinking Causal loop diagrams value network analysis wicked problems agri-food systems socio-ecological systems; Systems thinking; Causal loop diagrams; value network analysis; wicked problems; agri-food systems; socio-ecological systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-02-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-hme
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04002011v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Bio-based and Applied Economics, 2023, ⟨10.36253/bae-13930⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-04002011v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04002011

DOI: 10.36253/bae-13930

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().