Our actions
Understanding the complex territorial dynamics in Colombia.
In brief:
From a systemic perspective, we want to understand the Colombian territories’ problems to envision a portfolio of critical interventions that might positively impact and enable new futures for life in our country.
We share this mapping to contribute to the systemic understanding of problems in Colombian territories. Our starting challenge is:
How could we promote territorial protection and community cooperation in Colombia?
- Multiple
Sector:
Social, Environmental, & Human rights.
Location:
Colombia
Year:
2022
wicked problem is a social or cultural systemic problem that is difficult to solve due to its complex and interconnected nature. Wicked problems lack clarity in their objectives and solutions; they are subject to real-world constraints that inhibit attempts to find a risk-free solution.
Although this map is entitled The Systemic Problem of Territoriality in Colombia [General Hypothesis], which illustrates the interconnections between 51 vicious cycles, this is still a superficial representation of the complexity of the problem. There are still many unmapped elements, such as illegal mining, extensive cattle ranching, sexual assaults, and forced recruitment of minors, to name a few.
With your knowledge and participation, we can validate our hypothesis, map more complexity and find blind spots!
Why a systemic map?
Change in complex systems does not occur from a centralized location, but it is the product of many concurrent and parallel processes taking place at multiple different levels in multiple different domains simultaneously.
For this reason, a systemic map is the best (still limited) tool to represent this complexity and find these multiple points of change.
4 themes to explore
These were the focus of our research and analysis:
- Difficulty in cooperation and community efforts
- Difficulty in integrating indigenous and global worldviews
- Lack of a shared vision
- Difficulty in obtaining local, national, and international support
9 Emerging phenomena
In systems theory, emergence refers to the formation of new collective properties, i.e., properties that only arise when the system interacts as a larger whole and the parts do not generate independently.
We have identified nine such phenomena, which you can best locate by their color, location, and connection on the map.
Bottom line
The systemic understanding of the territorial phenomena is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in impacting lives and ecosystems. The historical context and current events create all sorts of vicious cycles we must attend to if we want to achieve a sustainable and equitable society in Colombia and beyond.
