Greensynergy research activity is carried out through consulting projects for businesses, organizations and university partners. The following are the main research themes:
Sustainability Culture
- The development of sustainability culture and its implications for sustainability practice.
- Systems thinking, and complexity theory with special focus on the concept of emergence.
- Participatory action research in community and organizational processes.
Sustainable Communities
- Research interest in socio-technical systems supporting sustainable settlement and community development.
- Special focus on remote Indigenous community development, housing and technology processes, and lifecycles.
Technology Philosophy
- Technology as an emergent human culture
- Technacy theory and how to apply it
- The role of technology in sustainability
PhD Research Program
Matthew Parnell, Principal Sustainability Consultant, is in the final stages of a PhD research project:
Working Title: Imperfect Whitefella Dreaming: The Emergence of Sustainability Culture and The Sustainability Practitioner
University: Murdoch University, Perth WA
Supervisors: Professor Peter Newman (now at Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute) and Dr Brad Pettit (Murdoch University)
In this research project, I propose that sustainability is an emergent cultural phenomenon, arising from our conscious and unconscious actions and our relationships and our connection to place; and that such a culture of sustainability is essential to support the vision of a sustainable global society. I further propose that the way sustainability is practised, both personally and professionally, has significant potential for fostering the emergence of sustainability culture.
In recognition of the need for a new cultural paradigm of sustainability, I have designed this research project to investigate:
• culture as an emergent quality of complex adaptive socio-technical systems;
• the connections between human action and emergent system qualities;
• the prospects for the emergence of a culture of sustainability; and
• the implications of emergent sustainability culture for the sustainability practitioner.
This new understanding of sustainability is based on the concept of “emergence” (as understood in chaos, complexity and systems theories). Most human systems are complex adaptive systems, and a key feature of this type of system is “emergence” – that is, the emergence of system qualities that are different from the qualities of the individual parts of the system. In this project, I draw on chaos, complexity and systems theories to explore the emergence phenomenon, with the aim of articulating a new framework for understanding sustainability as practice as well as a vision.
The above proposals have a significant caveat: that emergence works both ways. The current unsustainable state of global society, and its associated paradigm of global development, is also an emergent phenomenon. Real sustainability is not inevitable, just because a vision has been articulated and promoted. The prospects for emergence serving the sustainability vision will be explored throughout the thesis.
The thesis is divided into four parts:
• Proposition: The Emergence of Sustainability Culture
• Change and Emergence
• Case Studies in Sustainability Practice
• Synthesis of Theory and Practice
The thesis is nearing completion, and I hope to submit the final work by the end of 2009. I welcome any correspondence and discussion in relation to this research project.