EcoCommerce as an S-ES Scientific Method Application
This article proposes we are unable to solve our most complex societal problems because we lack the methodology to do so.
For 400 years, the Scientific Method has guided us to solve technical and scientific (tame) problems, and it remains useful to solve a portion of our socio-economic problems. But socio-economic problems, or so-called wicked problems are not solvable with the Scientific Method.
The purpose of this paper is to outline the logic foundation for a Socio-Economic Sustainability Scientific Method; a methodology to resolve any complex wicked problems. And then to use that methodology to create an NCU (natural capital unit) Platform to support EcoCommerce, a crypto-economic system for landscape sustainability.
The S-ES SM is a complementary and evolutionary step beyond the Scientific Method by providing the sensemaking apparatus for disparate valuation systems and interrelational governance issues.
Wicked Problems
In the 1970s, Rittel and Weber introduced the term wicked problem to describe the emerging complex socio-economic problems related to poverty, human health, and climate change. This new class of problems emerged from the interaction of three socio-economic components (Gieseke, 2016):
1) Systemic outputs and outcomes that vary in type, scope, scale, and time.
2) System stakeholders that apply different measurement schemes and values relative to the systemic outputs and outcomes that vary in type, scope, scale, and time.
3) System organizations adopting and applying disparate and often conflicting governance styles to develop and apply their different measurement schemes and values relative to the systemic outputs and outcomes vary in type, scope, scale, and time.
Wicked problems quickly emerge when organizations and individuals interact without the tools and knowledge to manage each of these components in an interoperable manner. Resolving wicked problems requires an alignment of complementary values within a shared governance framework. The Scientific Method has little to no capacity to do this.
Scientific Method
The Scientific Method was developed in the 17th century to solve complicated technical and scientific or so-called tame problems. The invention of the light bulb, landing a human on the moon, and sequencing the human genome were made possible due to the Scientific Method. The Scientific Method also formed the logic of today’s capitalism and remains the foundation and paradigm for how society’s problems and solutions are perceived.
The Scientific Method is not capable of solving complex, socio-economic problems, yet it remains as the predominant methodology to solve society’s problems, wicked or tame.
Using only the Scientific Method mindset, entities pursue the perfect metric and MRV system (monitoring, reporting, verification). The Scientific Method is useful for developing metrics, but that is all the farther the Scientific Method can take the solution, and that is where most efforts stagnate.
What happens, is that new technologies improve metric and MRV options creating a sense of progress. The Catch-22 of this situation is that the metrics and the MRVs become the most evolving component of the solution and it becomes a perpetual wait-and-see of the next best metric-MRV combination. Even if creating the perfect metric was possible, the solution would not emerge.
The Scientific Method, while valuable for addressing the first component of wicked problems, cannot make sense of #2 and #3. Those components are value and culture-laden components derived from the interactions of public and private practitioners and policymakers.
And so, despite billions of dollars of investments, society remains stuck in a holding pattern where many can imagine the future they desire but are unable to create the path to get there, because “one cannot solve a problem with the same methodology that was used to create it.”
Socio-Economic Sustainability Scientific Method
The S-ES SM is proposed as a methodology to resolve wicked problems by making sense of wicked components #2 and #3 while utilizing the capabilities of the Scientific Method for #1.
Like the Scientific Method’s stepwise process of solving tame problems, the S-ES SM contains steps to identify the problem.
Unlike the Scientific Method, the S-ES SM is designed to analyze, design, and apply potential solutions in situ. In this case, in situ means that actions that may lead to solutions must be generated by the practitioners within the system in an ongoing manner.
Without access to the S-ES SM, organizations resort to collaborating within the Scientific Method space. While helpful, only incremental gains can be made as many of the collaborative processes remain ex situ.
EcoCommerce as an Application of the S-ES SM Methodology
The Scientific Method has been applied in various disciplines and fields of study, leading to numerous advancements and discoveries, including the advancement of landscape sustainability.
Similarly, the S-ES SM has the potential to be applied in various disciplines and fields of study. This article describes EcoCommerce as the first example and application of the S-ES SM to address the wicked problem of landscape sustainability.
EcoCommerce adopts an NCU (natural capital unit) as the irreducible unit of value and function that enables in situ processes for practitioners to resolve socio-economic issues via shared governance and the alignment of valuation schemes using the wealth of evolving metrics and MRVs.
In EcoCommerce, the NCU functions as the system’s canonical unit which refers to a standard or fundamental unit of accounting within a specific system or context. To function as a canonical unit, it must be a well-defined and widely accepted unit that serves as a reference point for measuring and comparing quantities.
The NCU enables landscape practitioners and policymakers to transcend the existing disparate ecosystem service markets, ESG reporting, SDGs, and the myriad to efforts based solely on the logic of the Scientific Method.
The NCU, as the system canonical unit, supports four arenas or domains. These sub-segments of EcoCommerce include an Eco-Unit, Governance, Natural Capital, and Cryptocurrency domains.
Each domain is sourced from the NCU, the system’s “point of service” where interdependent relationships and functions occur to generate the outputs and outcomes desired by the system in situ. The NCU enables complexity to emerge in a manageable and self-organizing fashion.
Author
Tim Gieseke conceived of the Socio-Economic Sustainability Scientific Method during the course of his four decade career of managing natural capital within the context of learning about and understanding and capturing economic and ecological values.
He is the author of three books that outline the environmental, socio-economics, and governance of instituting a natural capital accounting system and employing EcoCommerce, a planetary-based economic system. EcoCommerce is one example of the application of the S-ES SM.
Collaborative Environmental Governance Frameworks: A Practical Guide (2019)
Shared Governance for Sustainable Working Landscapes (2016)
EcoCommerce 101: Adding an ecological dimension to the economy (2011)
