EFB Forum Copyright (c) 2009 ExpressionEngine tag:efb-central.org,2009:11:12 Philosophy of Management Methods tag:efb-central.org,2006:index.php/forums/viewthread/.21 2006-06-27T11:56:00Z Klaus Ammann Friends,
It is an old problem that scientists working in biology usually have very little knowledge in social sciences and philosophy. This chapter in the ASK-FORCE forum wants to give some hints about bridging the gaps.
My wife, Dr. Biljana Papazova Ammann and I have published a text about the philosophy of management methods under the following title:

Ammann, K. & Papazova Ammann, B. (2004)
Factors Influencing Public Policy Development in Agricultural Biotechnology. In RISK ASSESSMENT OF TRANSGENIC CROPS. (ed S. Shantaram), Vol. 9, pp. 1552. Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA.P. Christou & H. Klee Handbook of Plant Biotechnology,
http://www.botanischergarten.ch/Wiley/Factors-Discourse-Wiley.pdf

It opens perspectives in discursive methods in the present day difficult debate on biotechnology. We do have hopes that the debate can still be enhanced, and we are convinced that the new forum ASK-FORCE will help to steer the debate away from the usual tennis match attitudes.

Clearly, some activists are deviating from the scientific facts, are often ignoring them, this has to be fiercely contradicted. But we should not forget about this fight that the world as a whole cannot be explained solely by scientific facts. Culture, Art etc are existing and living in other realms. This is in short words the explanation for the basic anxiety of a lot of lay people, who feel threatened by scientists intending to monopolize the debate on biotech, this is perceived by many as an intention of scientists to monopolize the whole debate. Active listening (a good American tradition) will help here, combined with the methods described in the above article on Discourse.

There are two key elements one should focus on, when designing discourse:
1. Wicked Problems, see a text written by Jeff Conklin
http://www.cognexus.org/wpf/wickedproblems.pdf
instead of an explanation, here the motto in Jeffs text:
Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.—Laurence J. Peter

2. Symmetry of ignorance, see all explanations under:
Fischer, G. (2000)
Symmetry of ignorance, social creativity, and meta-design. Knowledge-Based Systems, 13, 7-8, pp 527-537
http://www.botanischergarten.ch/Discourse/Fischer-Symmetry-Ignorance-2000.pdf

3. A seminal paper written in 1970 (!)
Kunz, W. & Rittel, H. (1970)
Issues as Elements of Information Systems. Working Papers Institute of Urban & Regional Development UC Berkeley, 121, pp 1-10 http://www-iurd.ced.berkeley.edu/pub/WP-131.pdf
Horst W. Rittel and Frank West Churchman can be seen as the founders of the Systems Aproach in Debates and Decision Making.

Klaus Ammann
klaus dot ammann at ips dot unibe dot ch

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