| Title | From Cybernetics to Sustainability |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Negotiating the World Problematic at IIASA (1972–1989) |
| Contributor | Isabell Schrickel (author) |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Isabell Schrickel |
| Publisher | meson press |
| Published on | 2023-09-29 |
| Short abstract | This chapter focuses on the establishment and the research developments of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, as a key case study to understand the historical and epistemological connections between cybernetics and sustainability thinking. It is argued that by paying attention to the politics and the shared concerns that informed the foundation of IIASA, as well as to the research frameworks and policy proposal developed by the Institute from the early 1970s onwards, it becomes clear that essential elements of cybernetic thinking remain part and parcel of the emerging field of sustainability science. It is also contended here that even if the Institute was in itself a product of the Cold War, it operated paradigmatically as a platform to move the world problematic from the fragmented and antagonistic logic of that period, to a global, interconnected understanding of the common real. |
| Long abstract | This chapter focuses on the establishment and the research developments of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, as a key case study to understand the historical and epistemological connections between cybernetics and sustainability thinking. It is argued that by paying attention to the politics and the shared concerns that informed the foundation of IIASA, as well as to the research frameworks and policy proposal developed by the Institute from the early 1970s onwards, it becomes clear that essential elements of cybernetic thinking remain part and parcel of the emerging field of sustainability science. It is also contended here that even if the Institute was in itself a product of the Cold War, it operated paradigmatically as a platform to move the world problematic from the fragmented and antagonistic logic of that period, to a global, interconnected understanding of the common real. |
| Page range | pp. 37–59 |
| Language | English (Original) |
Isabell Schrickel is a PhD candidate at the Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation (Leuphana University / Arizona State University). Isabell was visiting fellow at Harvard’s Department of the History of Science and at IKKM. Her work historicizes environmental sciences, modeling and simulation, and the evolution of sustainability thinking.