Going beyond the metaphor of the machine - complexity and participatory ecological design

Despite decades of environmental concern, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has shown that many aspects of global ecosystems are worsening. Improvements in environmental quality, such as water quality in many European rivers, have been made from cleaning up industrial processes and better ways of sorting waste streams. There are, however, limits to the improvements that can be made through such incremental approaches. This chapter contends that what is needed is a focus on ???upstream solutions???, such that the causes of pollution and waste are designed out of manufacturing, energy and infrastructure provision, land management and buildings. The challenge is how to actually develop such ???upstream solutions???. Ideas about the nature of the relationship between humans and the environment play an essential role in how we are able to make changes in the environment. An understanding of complexity may play an essential role in planning for sustainable human settlements. In this chapter, participatory ecological design is explored as a way for planners and stakeholders involved in planning to learn to ???think like an ecosystem???. In the analogy to ???think like an ecosystem???, the inputs to the system are rainwater, sunlight and occasional flows of minerals (mainly in the form of soil) and species, and the outputs are clean water, biodiversity and highly structured products (which can be composted at the end of their use). The use of the word ???like??? is deliberate. It implies that it would be desirable to design human physical and social infrastructure that behave more like ecosystems than extractive industries. Complexity theory can offer tools for understanding natural systems, in particular in looking at the nature of change and resilience. This understanding can then be developed into ecological design principles as a goal for planning ??? trying to achieve human systems that behave more like ecosystems in their interactions with the bio-geological cycle. Ideas about the nature of the relationship between humans and the environment play an essential role in how we are able to make changes in the environment. This chapter explores the nature of scientific paradigms and metaphorical understanding in the context of ecological design.