Systems/operational research and sustainable development: towards a new agenda

At the 2002 International Sustainable Development Research Conference in Manchester, a great number of the 53 papers presented addressed exciting methodological developments associated with action research. Many of these initiatives can be linked with the rich tradition of operational research (OR). OR and environmental planning for sustainable development share three traditions: first, both have wide boundaries in terms of clientele, range of methodological approaches used and attention to multiple (and often conflicting) values; second, both traditions have an interest in fostering interdisciplinarity; third, both OR and environmental planning are concerned with the implementation, as well as the design, of planning strategies. Given these shared traditions, we recently engaged in a systemic intervention project to explore the possibilities of improved collaboration between OR practitioners and environmental planners. In a literature review and interviews with stakeholders, three generic issues were found to recur: complexity and uncertainty (regarding the unpredictability of natural and social phenomena); multiple and often conflicting values (of those involved in environmental planning) and political effects (on those not involved in planning processes, including non-human nature). This paper reveals a pattern of how these generic issues are perceived in the public, business and voluntary sectors, and explains how, through a series of workshops and a mini-conference, three interrelated agendas for future action took shape.