Measurement-Informed Logic Model for Sustainable Change In Empowering Participatory Social Ecologies

This is a first draft that hopefully will be picked up, modified, and widely circulated.

Footnotes

1.  See Fisher (2022a) and Knoster, et al. (2000).

2. The confusion of numeric counts for measured quantities is a debilitating error that stands as nothing short of a viral pandemic of miscommunication and short-circuited efforts intended to advance the greater good. Everyone knows full well that there is no way to tell who has more rock from counts of rocks, yet we persist in assuming counts of events, attendees, correct answers, etc. are adequate measurements. Such counts are not and never will be measurements. To stop confusing numeric trees for the quantitative forest we have to demand improved measurements. See references for explanations, alternatives, theory, and practice.

3. The ladder of stakeholder empowerment is widely used by governments around the world as a frame of reference defining a progression of levels ranging from being INFORMED to CONSULTED to INVOLVED to COLLABORATING to EMPOWERED. This ladder can be built into measurements in a way that lets ecosystem stakeholders and leaders know where they are relative to where they have been, their goals, what comes next, and their special strengths and weaknesses. See the references by Morrison and Fisher, Jami and Walsh, Jankowski, and Ortiz and Huber-Heim, listed below for more information.

References

Barney, M., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2016, April). Adaptive measurement and assessment. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 469-490. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062329

Bateson, G. (1978, Spring). Number is different from quantity. CoEvolution Quarterly, 17, 44-46 [Reprinted from pp. 53-58 in Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. New York: E. P. Dutton.]. Retrieved from http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/2017/article/295/number.is.different.from.quantity

Cano, S., Pendrill, L., Melin, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2019). Towards consensus measurement standards for patient-centered outcomes. Measurement, 141, 62-69. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2019.03.056

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2021). Bateson and Wright on number and quantity: How to not separate thinking from its relational context. Symmetry, 13(1415). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13081415

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2022a). Contrasting roles of measurement knowledge systems in confounding or creating sustainable change. Acta IMEKO, in press.

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2022b). Measurement systems, brilliant results, and brilliant processes in healthcare: Untapped potentials of person-centered outcome metrology for cultivating trust. In W. P. Fisher, Jr. & S. Cano (Eds.), Person-centered outcome metrology: Principles and applications for high stakes decision making. Cham: Springer.

Fisher, W. P., Jr., & Stenner, A. J. (2018). Ecologizing vs modernizing in measurement and metrology. Journal of Physics Conference Series, 1044(012025), [http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1044/1/012025].

Hopper, T. (2019). Stop accounting myopia:-think globally: A polemic. Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, 15(1), 87-99.

Hutchins, E. (2014). The cultural ecosystem of human cognition. Philosophical Psychology, 27(1), 34-49.

Jami, A. A., & Walsh, P. R. (2017). From consultation to collaboration: A participatory framework for positive community engagement with wind energy projects in Ontario, Canada. Energy Research & Social Science, 27, 14-24.

Jankowski, P. (2009). Towards participatory geographic information systems for community-based environmental decision making. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(6), 1966-1971.

Knoster, T. P., Villa, R. A., & Thousand, J. S. (2000). A framework for thinking about systems change. In R. A. Villa & J. S. Thousand (Eds.), Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together, 2nd Ed. (pp. 93-128). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Mari, L., & Wilson, M. (2014, May). An introduction to the Rasch measurement approach for metrologists. Measurement, 51, 315-327. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263224114000645

Mari, L., Wilson, M., & Maul, A. (2021). Measurement across the sciences. Cham: Springer.

Michell, J. (1986). Measurement scales and statistics: A clash of paradigms. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 398-407.

Morrison, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2018). Connecting learning opportunities in STEM education: Ecosystem collaborations across schools, museums, libraries, employers, and communities. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1065(022009). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1065/2/022009

Morrison, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2019). Measuring for management in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics learning ecosystems. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1379(012042). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1379/1/012042

Morrison, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2020, September 1). The Measure STEM Caliper Development Initiative [Online]. In http://bearcenter.berkeley.edu/seminar/measure-stem-caliper-development-initiative-online (Ed.), BEAR Seminar Series. BEAR Center, Graduate School of Education: University of California, Berkeley.

Morrison, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2021). Caliper: Measuring success in STEM learning ecosystems. Measurement: Sensors, 18, 100327. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measen.2021.100327

Morrison, J., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2022). Caliper: Steps to an ecologized knowledge infrastructure for STEM learning ecosystems in Israel. Acta IMEKO, in press.

Ortiz, D., & Huber-Heim, K. (2017). From information to empowerment: Teaching sustainable business development by enabling an experiential and participatory problem-solving process in the classroom. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 318-331.

Pendrill, L. R. (2019). Quality assured measurement: Unification across social and physical sciences. Cham: Springer.

Pendrill, L., & Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2015). Counting and quantification: Comparing psychometric and metrological perspectives on visual perceptions of number. Measurement, 71, 46-55. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2015.04.010

Star, S. L., & Ruhleder, K. (1996). Steps toward an ecology of infrastructure: Design and access for large information spaces. Information Systems Research, 7(1), 111-134.

Sutton, J., Harris, C. B., Keil, P. G., & Barnier, A. J. (2010). The psychology of memory, extended cognition, and socially distributed remembering. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 9(4), 521-560.

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More on finding the will to address climate change: How to reframe the problem

From an article by Lauren Foster published 19 September 2022 in Barron’s:
“This is not pie in the sky. We know we have got technology to do it, we know the money is out there to do it. We just need to muster the will and the decisiveness to act,” said Kristalina Georgieva, managing Director of the IMF, at an event for the opening of Climate Week in New York City.

In 2009, I first commented in this blog on the error committed when we focus on finding the will power to act decisively in addressing climate change. The main barrier to climate action is thinking that will and decisiveness are the main problem. It’s a Chinese finger puzzle kind of problem: the more we insist on shouldering the burden of responsibilities, the more onerous those responsibilities become and the more motivation we have to avoid them. To get results, we have to change the way we frame the problem.

We need to set up systems in which everyone will do the right things because the incentives and rewards make it easy and profitable to do so. We need to find the will and decisiveness to change the way we frame the problem. Ironically, we will continue to fail to find the will to act decisively for as long as we frame the problem as primarily defined by willpower and decisiveness.

We should instead ask ourselves how could we set up systems that everyone would want to be part of and to contribute to because these systems help people everywhere meet their own immediate economic needs at the same time they contribute to the greater good.

Documenting the urgency of the problems and pushing people to take action solely on the basis of their willpower while doing nothing to change the systems of incentives and rewards will do nothing but exacerbate the problems. To build on the lessons learned from the last 200 years of prosperity (Bernstein, 2004; Fisher, 2012), successfully investing in the future and the greater social good requires new sciences, new accounting standards, new property rights, and new communications networks. Transforming our systemically inequitable and disempowering institutions into socially just and empowering ones is a hugely complex task (Fisher, 2022). It is plain to see, however, that continuing to address these problems using the same ideas and methods can only dig us deeper into the hole we are already in. Thinking different is incredibly difficult, but resources for doing so have long been available. See at bottom for a list of previous posts on this topic, and peer-reviewed articles.

References

Bernstein, W. J. (2004). The birth of plenty: How the prosperity of the modern world was created. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2012, June 1). What the world needs now: A bold plan for new standards [Third place, 2011 NIST/SES World Standards Day paper competition]. Standards Engineering, 64(3), 1 & 3-5 [http://ssrn.com/abstract=2083975].

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2022). Measurement systems, brilliant results, and brilliant processes in healthcare: Untapped potentials of person-centered outcome metrology for cultivating trust. In W. P. Fisher, Jr. & S. Cano (Eds.), Person-centered outcome metrology: Principles and applications for high stakes decision making. Cham: Springer.

See previous posts in this blog on this issue:

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2022/08/18/an-ecologizing-approach-to-addressing-viral-epidemics-virally-conflicting-interests-and-public-weariness-with-mandated-precautions/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2022/07/31/comments-on-verra-sustainable-development-verified-impact-standards/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/day-one-memo-to-biden-harris-administration/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2020/05/23/distinguishing-old-and-new-ways-of-thinking-to-solve-problems-of-sustainable-development/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/cartesian-problems-and-solutions/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2018/08/12/self-sustaining-sustainability-once-again/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/reinventing-capitalism/

https://livingcapitalmetrics.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/al-gore-will-is-not-the-problem/

See my peer-reviewed articles on this topic:

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2009). Invariance and traceability for measures of human, social, and natural capital: Theory and application. Measurement, 42(9), 1278-1287.

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2010). Measurement, reduced transaction costs, and the ethics of efficient markets for human, social, and natural capital, Bridge to Business Postdoctoral Certification, Freeman School of Business, Tulane University (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2340674).

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2011). Bringing human, social, and natural capital to life: Practical consequences and opportunities. Journal of Applied Measurement, 12(1), 49-66.

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2012). Measure and manage: Intangible assets metric standards for sustainability. In J. Marques, S. Dhiman & S. Holt (Eds.), Business administration education: Changes in management and leadership strategies (pp. 43-63). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2012, June 1). What the world needs now: A bold plan for new standards [Third place, 2011 NIST/SES World Standards Day paper competition]. Standards Engineering, 64(3), 1 & 3-5 [http://ssrn.com/abstract=2083975].

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2020). Contextualizing sustainable development metric standards: Imagining new entrepreneurial possibilities. Sustainability, 12(9661), 1-22. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229661

Fisher, W. P., Jr. (2021). Bateson and Wright on number and quantity: How to not separate thinking from its relational context. Symmetry, 13(1415). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13081415