3
Knowing Systems and the Environment
Richard Bawden
Introduction
The logic behind the ‘environmental concern’ is seemingly impeccable, and evi-
dence in its support, increasingly irrefutable. Through our activities as an ever-
expanding and ubiquitous population of human beings, we are despoiling and
degrading the environment of the world about us, while depleting it of its finite
resources at an ever-increasing rate. This is not only threatening our own well-be-
ing and that of future generations of our own species, but also the stability and
sustainability of particular biotic communities across the planet, as well as the
integrity of the biosphere as a whole. The organization, functions and hierarchical
organization of the long-evolved ‘natural ecosystems’ in which we are embedded as
but one component species, are all now at very considerable risk. Such could be the
level of the malignancy here that it could lead to a loss of hierarchical control
across the entire ‘systems-of-complex systems’ by which ‘nature’ is seemingly organ-
ized, with the prospect of ‘sudden and catastrophic failure’ (Pattee, 1973) on an
unimaginable scale. Ironically and tragically, much of this circumstance represents
the unintended consequences of the developmental processes of modernization
that we had come to claim as our greatest achievement as a species. This should
dictate the need for a critical reappraisal of our whole techno-scientific, neoliberal
approach to the idea of progress and ‘betterment’ and for us to be much more
reflexive about how we should be living our lives in the context of the impacts that
we are having on our environment (Beck, 1992).
The Conundrum
In the face of such a comprehensive and urgent challenge, it is difficult to reconcile
our continuing acts of environmental despoliation with our competencies and dis-
Reproduced by permission of SAGE Publication, London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Singapore,
from Pretty, J et al (eds), Sage Handbook on Environment and Society, Copyright (© Bawden, J, 2007).