Critical Systems Thinking

4Critical Systems Practice: An Overview

There is always a well‐known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.

(H. L. Mencken, 1917)

4.1 Introduction

This chapter begins with a brief account of the emergence of Critical Systems Practice (CSP) from the original critical systems ‘multimethodology’ called Total Systems Intervention (TSI). It then provides a summary of contemporary CSP and its four stages – Explore, Produce, Intervene and Check – called to mind by the mnemonic EPIC. Next, it sets out several considerations that underpin the successful employment of CSP. These include its primary purpose, its use for both diagnosis and design and its role as an ‘ideal type’ of multiperspectival and multimethodological systems practice. Five approaches to inquiry and change that have similarities with CSP are outlined. Two of these – ‘reflective pragmatism’ and ‘phronetic social science’ – are from the Western tradition. Two – ‘relational systems thinking’ and ‘trans‐systemics’ – reflect Indigenous systems thinking. Finally, WSR (wuli‐shili‐renli) is of Chinese origin. A conclusion sets the scene for the closer examination of the four stages of CSP in the following chapters.

4.2 The Origins of Critical Systems Practice

Once Critical Systems Thinking (CST) had been formulated as a theory and set of principles, it needed guidelines that would enable it to be applied in practice. These were initially provided in 1991 with the publication of Flood and Jackson’s ...