Assignment 4: The Spatio-Temporal Matrix
Team Complexity: Amrita Khoshoo, Chun Zheng, Cathryn Ploehn, Devika Singh
Introduction
In this assignment, the Spatio-Temporal Matrix provides a tool for us to synthesize both the Multi-Level Perspective Mapping exercise and the Everyday Future Vision. By summarizing the past, the present and the future trends of the problem and exploring the interconnections or contradictions among these trends, better interventions can be informed. In this post, we will cover the following topics: the Spatio-Temporal Matrix, the insights and reflections emerging in this assignment and the initial brainstorming of interventions.
The process of developing the Spatio-Temporal Matrix was very brief. The team collectively discussed the themes in the MLP map and came to a common agreement on how to synthesize each cube in the matrix. Then each team member claimed one or two units in the matrix to further flesh out the content. Later we got together and had a pass through the entire matrix and finalized the content. Lastly, one of us digitalized it to make it visually more readable and presentable.
Spatio-Temporal Matrix Narrative
The Past
Higher Systems Levels
The rise of colonialism between the late 1400s-1700s shifted the society from place-based, ancestral foodways to globalized, commodified food systems. Initially, the globe comprised of many place-based, local societies that had their own cultivation practices and knowledge based on their immediate geography and context. Colonialism marked a shift in values from place-based subsistence to value-based resources, displaced from its origin. This also shifted global values towards values of exploitation and violence.
Industrial Revolution introduced greater machine and technological use, which shifted the society from a draft animal based economy to an urban economy of machine use (movement of society towards a sociotechnical model).
Urbanization and rise of immigration which meant urban centers become more densely populated and then led to the Great Depression affecting the food system with increased government oversight in food production and rise in food preservation efforts. During the WWII period, food shortages accelerated social and economic inequality.
Primary Level of the Problem Definition
In pre-modern time, food-related practices relied on manual labor. Farmers and eaters were lack of food preservation techniques. In the 20th century, the pressure of war and urban development manifested as population growth, needs of food convenience, profit and efficiency. Government control in food policies gradually overpowered decentralized organic farming methods. Food production and distribution started to be controlled by agribusiness. McDonaldization of food and centralization of agriculture led to the rise of the working class and massive productive labor in the food industry.
On the flip side, awareness of food nutrition and food safety started to develop in the early 20th Century. The consciousness of sustainable agricultural and sustainable food consumption emerged in the late 20th Century.
Lower Systems Levels
In pre-industrial time, individuals and families cook with locally-grown ingredients. Food cultivation, distribution, and preservation methods were primitive. Farming, cooking, and eating were ways to not only satisfy the needs for subsistence but also strengthen local personal/social connections.
In the 20th Century, more and more niche-level innovations of agricultural tools, processed food techniques, and home food appliances. Precursors of chain stores and fast-food brands also appeared that shifted people’s accessibility to food products and eating habits.
The Present
Higher Systems Levels
Currently, we live in a society where food norms and values are defined by convenience, efficiency, and McDonaldization. Further, high-energy consuming, technology-driven industrial agriculture dominates the food production landscape. Increased centralization means less diversity of food supplies. Globalization brings food diversity but submits to very fluctuate tax policies and threatens local smallholdings. Corporate farming’s dependence on chemicals means the continued destruction to the environment. The long history of inequality and redlining means that cities are not planned for the equitable distribution of healthy food.
In terms of possible intervention points at lower-levels, lifestyle induced diseases are on the rise which might spur a greater need for healthy food awareness (obesity, diabetes). Also, the climate change tipping point may provide an opportunity to shift to and promote more ecologically sustainable, decentralized, and local practices.
Primary Level of the Problem Definition
Current paradigm of food is constituted by the combat between healthy food and fast food. There is also a huge imbalance of access to food caused by complicated social and economic inequalities. We are witnessing the skills gaps enlarging between generations–preparation methodologies, knowledge of how to grow and store food, cultural practices, and other aspects of traditional foodways erode with each generation. The food industry is mature and highly efficient. Every node on the food production, distribution, and consumption chain is benefit and effciency oriented. However, the rights and well-being of food industry workers are still not ensured. At the same time, certain groups of people pay more attention to food nutrition and food sustainability.
Lower Systems Levels
Individuals (due to lack of time and/or resources) seek and expect tasty, convenient, and fast food. In terms of Max-Neef’s needs, synergistic ways of cultivating food that satisfied needs for subsistence, participation, and identity are replaced in the everyday by the purchase of food from large corporations, which prioritize cheap, unhealthy food that is engineered for taste (and not nutrition). In this sense, only the need of subsistence is partially fulfilled, perhaps classified as a pseudo-satisfier.
An emerging solution that enables a transition towards new traditional foodways could satisfy the needs of subsistence, participation, and identity is the establishment of gardens centered around building and feeding community throughout areas with little access to healthy food. Projects such as Garfield community farm already exist as models in the efforts to rehabilitate soil on previous housing projects. Further, niche programs that help re-engage and educate people about key skills regarding gardening, within areas that lack access to healthy food and beyond, also exist as models for re-establishing the new norms of gardening skills. Key in these solutions is the notion of a sociable, pleasurable experience in growing, preparing, and eating healthy food. Further, regaining the means of producing healthy food is vital for allowing synergistic needs satisfaction.
The Future
Higher Systems Levels
International information and communication networks and small-scale and flexible manufacturing, energy, and other technologies can now be combined with localized food production to form decentralized and distributed socio-technical systems. By combining localized import-substitution and regional and planet-wide networking, wherein knowledge and innovation is shared between communities, new kinds of socio-technical systems could become the foundation for more self-reliant and circular place-based economies.[1] The presence of knowledge networks about food helps people connect with others in different corners of the world and learn about their traditional recipes and preparation. Anti-consumerism and circular food economy arise worldwide. Centralized agro-business lost the dominant position because of policy restrictions and decline of non-renewable extractions.
Primary Level of the Problem Definition
Neighborhood restaurants are supplied by local, organic smallholdings, and the supplies reside in the surrounding region and the creation of vital regional social and ecological networks. The network is also amplified into a planetary synergetic network. The former damages of the relationships between people, nature, and the designed and built world; the latter strengthens them.[1] Regional access to healthy food is also gaining support of the regional food cooperatives that work together to negotiate the food price with farmers bringing local, organic and fair-priced food to the community. Hence, individuals are not only growing for themselves but they sell the surplus at the local farmer’s markets. Fast food business lost attraction because people value the practices around food as ways to develop skills, enjoy a peaceful and slow lifestyle and enhance social connections with neighbors. Food safety and gardening skills become a vital part of school curriculums.
Lower Systems Levels
People grow their own food as a result of the traditional foodways being restored and the reduced skills gap that exists today. Small-scale community farming becomes a viable economic option in addition to being a sustainable food alternative. The families satisfy their need for food by going to neighborhood cooperative restaurants. The whole practice has also given people a chance to bond together as a community and community kitchens and potluck dinners have become social rituals. Technology, accessible at an individual level, positively mitigates healthier eating habits. Renewable energy based farming device innovations provide better conditions for citizen farmers. The availability of solar-powered greenhouses that are connected to other regions brings information to people from other regions which helps improve the quality of the produce and reduce damage.
Insights and Reflections
The Spatio-Temporal Matrix exercise didn’t prove much difference than the Multi-level Perspective Mapping. It’s not so effective in helping us think of a future vision because it serves merely as a tool to synthesize the MLP map. We would suggest moving this exercise before envisioning everyday future and as an affiliated step of MLP. It can better communicate the giant MLP in a brief way and may serve as an effective tool to communicate externally. The format can help people quickly grasp the essence of the evolution of the wicked problem.
We were particularly confused by two questions regarding the matrix itself. First, because the nature of our wicked problem is that it has a very long historical background but the matrix only has one column for “the past”. For our wicked problem, there are many “pasts” within “the past” so the rigid grids limited our work. We had to cut down many aspects and supplement it with a longer narrative. Another issue is the inconsistency of the use of terminologies. It’s confusing and unnecessary to phrase the scales as “higher systems levels”, “primary level of the problem definition” and “lower systems levels” while they are basically communicating the same meanings as the “landscape”, “regime, and “niche” levels.
We also see the potential combination of the “Three Horizons of Innovation[2]” method with the Spatio-Temporal Matrix so that it would be a better organizing tool, and will be especially helpful for facilitating thinking. The interconnections and tendencies are implicit in the Spatio-Temporal Matrix while Three Horizons of Innovation provides a very direct and explicit visual language to show the transformations. Compared with traditional design approaches, the time frame of the matrix is useful because the traditional design processes put too much emphasis on “the present” and neglect “the past” and “the future”.
Brainstorming Interventions
After the Spatio-Temporal Matrix, we had a round of brainstorming intervention ideas. Our preliminary intervention ideas are analyzed in relations to Donella Meadows’ leverage points[3] and Max Neef’s needs and satisfiers[4] in order to further narrow down to three key ones. Considering how the interventions will serve as satisfiers to multiple needs provides an overview of the impact of the interventions. Comparing our interventions with Donella Meadows’s leverage points help us examine if our proposals are comprehensive and what are the ones that are most promising. We touched all the leverage points. Since the paradigm of food production and consumption roots in mindset, the realization of many interventions rely on a core value shift. This short exercise led us to the next step of identifying three key interventions that catalyze the transition from the wicked problem to the future vision.
References
[1]Kossoff, Gideon. Cosmopolitan Localism: The Planetary Networking of Everyday Life in Place. Unpublished Material.
[2]Wahl, Daniel. 2017. The Three Horizons of Innovation and Culture Change. Medium. Accessed May 2019.
[3]Meadows, Donella. 1999. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. The sustainability institute. Accessed May 2019 from http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/.
[4]Max-Neef, Manfred, Elizalde, Antonio and Hopenhayne, Martin. Development and Human Needs. Human Scale Development. London: The Apex Press. pp. 197–214.
