Multi-Solutions

Description

Geordan Shannon and Jeremy Lauer:

"Poly-crises require multi-solving, the development of systemic solutions that solve for multiple concurrent challenges. Multi-solutions can be harder to conceptualise and to actualise but have the added benefit of addressing multiple, intersecting issues at the root. Berry refers to this as “solving for pattern,” where a “good solution” has several considerations (Berry, 2018). These include being as simple as possible, solving for more than one problem, not making new problems, being aware of how much is enough, allowing other solutions to emerge in the case of failure, being frugal, not enriching a person at the expense of the distress or impoverishment of another, actually being embodied and done by those who come up with them, thinking of the whole and its interrelationships while protecting and honour its components where possible, and encouraging humility: technological solutions may be designed on natural principles, but remain an interpretation or an artefact of nature itself (Berry, 2018). A good solution is built with pattern integrity: “a good solution in one pattern preserves the integrity of the pattern that contains it” (Berry, 2018).

Systems-based solutions optimise for systemic health, or the health of the whole. They understand health as a complex adaptive system, accounting for interconnectedness, complexity, and evolving dynamics (Thelen et al., 2023; Vallières et al., 2023). By focusing on the health of the system, as well as aligning the system towards human flourishing, different leverage points can be identified that enable systems-based solutions to emerge.

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Systemic multi-solutions highlighted by Systemic Alternatives are based on the premise that “we are living a systemic crisis that can only be solved through systemic alternatives” (Systemic Alternatives, 2014). Systemic alternatives reflect systems-based approaches that centre place, care, pluralities, and justice, including vivir bien, the commons, degrowth, deglobalization, eco-socialism, the solidarity economy, ecofeminism, food sovereignty and others (Systemic Alternatives, 2014). These systems alternatives support aspects of planetary health, even if not explicitly stated, by positively impacting the relationships and the resources that feed into sustaining the health of each other and the whole. For example, ecofeminism centres caregiving and justice for humans and for nature, highlighting the links between equality, human health, and a healthy environment, while food sovereignty focuses on systems of agency over food production that have direct consequences for human nutrition and land and soil health (Shiva & Mies, 2014).

Systems-based multi-solutions are lived experiments. They’re not a disconnected intellectual project, but something that is embodied and experienced, allowing for learning to occur through practice."

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