Ray Ison

Second-order R&D rather than 'Knowledge transfer' In a long and fruitful collaboration with David Russell (formerly UWS, now WSU)8 beginning in 1986 they have made a major contribution to elucidating the failings of the linear model of knowledge, or technology, transfer that dominates the mainstream innovation and agricultural extension paradigm, understandings and practices they characterised as 'first-order R&D'.9 This research was built on a critical review of 'agricultural extension' practices (subsequently translated into French and Persian).10 Co-researching with pastoralists, extension and research staff in the NSW Western Division in the CARR (Community Approaches to Rangeland Research) project (1990–94), Ison with Russell established how 'enthusiasm' (from the Greek meaning 'the god within') could be understood as theory, underlying emotion and methodology and how an R&D system could be designed based on 'common enthusiasms' rather than 'information transfer', the prevailing, yet inadequate 'first-order' paradigm.11 In making 'second-order R&D' doable they demonstrated how the limitations of the linear model could be overcome through conceptual, praxis and institutional innovation.

Research has shown that attitudes of rangeland decision-makers are rarely a constraint to dealing with issues of land degradation and management and technology "adoption".

28 A recognition of the unequal power relations implicit in traditional practice is a necessary precondition to the emergence of participative processes which reverse the history of subjection of grazier knowledge and values by institutionalised authority.

These include (i) reinterpreting our relationship with land; (ii) policy development based on citizen as opposed to individual values and (iii) acknowledging power in the design process.

His work with the seed industry had demonstrated that progress through agronomic and biological research was secondary to matters within the social and organisational realm (though only minimally in the economic).

Such a choice is common according to Don Schön who characterised it as the crisis of relevance or rigour, a decision to descend into the swamp of real-life issues or to continue to stand on the high ground of technical rationality.

His 26 years at the OU can be understood in terms of two phases marked by geography but realising significant scholarship, development and application of STiP (systems thinking in practice) as a praxeology much needed in the time of the Anthropocene.36 1.

Ison has an established record of achievement in the design of 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, 41 to their capacity to be response-able.42 43 44 In the lineage of Dewey, Schön, Churchman, Bawden, Vickers and Checkland, Ison's research seeks to lay the groundwork for the emergence of 'learning systems' as an alternative to seeing 'knowledge transfer' as an 'end-of-pipe' process (see 45 46 47 48) and as a means to generate transformative change through social learning (see below).

With colleagues (including Niels Röling, Chris Blackmore, Janice Jiggins, David Gibbon, Drennan Watson, Bernard Hubert, Patrick Steyaert, Kevin Collins, Neil Powell and Pier Paolo Roggero), Ison co-developed and led (as PI) the EU funded Fifth Framework project SLIM (Social learning for the integrated management and sustainable use of water at catchment scale).

SLIM presaged an ongoing body of work concerned with social learning as process and governance mechanism in a range of river catchment settings including the UK, Australia54, South Africa, China and Western Europe.55 56 In a decadal review of this research in 2014 Ison and colleagues concluded that:57 "case studies, which originated from the SLIM Project, ... constitute inquiry pathways that are explored using a critical incident approach.

The initial starting conditions for each inquiry pathway [were] compared; significant pathway dependencies [were] identified which foster the development of social learning processes locally, but constrain their uptake and embedding across the wider system.... in England & Wales, promising developments in the application of social learning approaches to river basin planning over an initial 3-year period were subsequently marginalised, only to resurface towards the end of the 10-year period of study.

In the second, South African case study, significant spaces for social learning and innovation in integrated water resources management were opened up over a five year period but closed down again, primarily as the result of lack of policy support by national government.

The third, Italian, case study was designed to assess options for adapting to climate change by opening up new learning spaces between researchers, stakeholders and policy makers.

A case for investing in local level systemic innovation through social-learning praxis design approaches and in learning processes around well contextualised case-studies is supported.

Following a partial relocation to Monash University (Melbourne, Australia from 2008 to 2015) Ison created and led till 2015 the Systemic Governance Research Program (SGRP).

Based on these experiences Ison was invited in 2018 to design and conduct a summer school for 28 PhD students of the Chinese Academy of Sciences University, Beijing.

Through collaboration with water governance researchers then at Humbolt University, Berlin (and a Visiting Professorship) Ison secured funding from the VWStiftung (c. €150k) to bring together 100 scholars plus 30 PhD students in systems, cybernetics and institutional economics from around the world in a novel 'systemic inquiry' held at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover.

Governance in a Climate Emergency' (with Ed Straw, March 2020) Ison achieves a synthesis of his research and OU experience of educating systems thinkers to address perhaps the most compelling issue of our times, viz.

His work argues against most contemporary framing choices contending that it is not the Earth we seek to save nor a river catchment (or a social-ecological system etc) but a viable, healthy, ongoing co-evolutionary dynamic between humans and the biosphere in manifest, localised and situated ways.84 His research draws on work originally conceived, but not pursued, by Richard Norgaard in his 1994 book Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Coevolutionary Revisioning of the Future.

Originally funded by Charles Sturt University and the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust the project built a community of practice among a network of local, regional, state and federal natural resource managers and policy-makers who engaged in systemic co-inquiry, jointly generating a number of emergent themes worthy of on-going investigation.

Each theme was given seed funding by DELWP and at least one has evolved into a self-organising autonomous organisation mediating relations between urban Victorians and their environment.85 Gardens for Wildlife Victoria is an outcome and an initiative that continues to grow throughout the State.

2018 + Director of the Systemic Change Lab of the European School of Governance, Berlin 2017 Reviewer of EPSRC Complexity Science Programs, Swindon, UK (April) 2014 + External Scientific Advisory Committee member, The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (TAPPC), Sydney, Australia; a A$23 million NHMRC-funded Partnership Centre focusing on research on systems perspectives on the prevention of lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

2010 Member Expert Panel Reviewing the €22 million EU Sixth Framework SWITCH (Sustainable Water Management in the City of the Future) Project, Brussels (July).

(2017) Fruits of Gregory Bateson's epistemological crisis: embodied mind-making and interactive experience in research and professional praxis Canadian Journal of Communication 42 (3): 485–514.

& Seddaiu, G. (2014) In search of systemic innovation for sustainable development: a design praxis emerging from a decade of social learning inquiry Research Policy 43, 760–771.

(2009) Transitioning to Water Sensitive Cities in Australia: A summary of the key findings, issues and actions arising from five national capacity building and leadership workshops.

(2016) Water governance in England: Improving understandings and practices through systemic co-inquiry Water 8, 540; doi:10.3390/w8110540 64� Hall, Andy, Peter Carberry, Appolinaire Djikeng, Harold Roy-Macauley, Bruce Pengelly, Aboubakar Njoya, Leah Ndungu, Issoufou Kollo, Caroline Bruce, Larelle McMillan, Ray Ison & Brian Keating (2016) The Journey to R4D: An institutional history of an Australian Initiative on Food Security in Africa.

65� Ison, R.L., Carberry, P., Davies, J., Hall, A., McMillan, L., Maru, Y., Pengelly, B., Reichelt, N., Stirzaker, R., Wallis, P., Watson, I., Webb, S. (2014) Programs, projects and learning inquiries: institutional mediation of innovation in research for development, Outlook on Agriculture 43(3), 165-172.

67� Maru, Y.T., James R.A. Butler, Andy Hall, Ashley Sparrow, Onil Banerjee, Ray Ison & Peter Carberry (2018) Towards appropriate mainstreaming of 'Theory of Change' approaches into agricultural research for development: challenges and opportunities.

85� Mumaw, Laura, Ison, Ray, Corney, Helen, Gaskell, Nadine, Kelly, Irene (2020) Reframing and enacting biodiversity conservation as human-nature relations through systemic co-inquiry Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning (submitted)