Systems 2018, 6(3), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems6030027
A Systematic Framework for Exploring Worldviews and Its Generalization as a Multi-Purpose Inquiry Framework
1
Centre for Systems Philosophy, Surrey KTI5 1EL, UK
2
Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull, Kingston-on-Hull HU6 7RX, UK
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Alister Hardy Research Centre, University of Wales TSD, Lampeter SA48 7ED, UK
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Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, 1040 Vienna, Austria
5
Centre for Systems Philosophy, Surrey KTI5 1EL, UK
6
Salesforce, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 31 March 2018 / Revised: 5 July 2018 / Accepted: 5 July 2018 / Published: 10 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Systems Thinking)
Abstract
Systems science methodologies do not have a consistent way of working with worldviews, even though determining stakeholder perspectives is central to systems thinking. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive “Worldview Inquiry Framework” that can be used across methodologies to govern the process of eliciting, documenting, and comparing the worldviews of stakeholders. We discuss the systemicity of worldviews and explain how this can help practitioners to find the roots of stakeholders’ disagreements about value judgements. We then generalize the structure of the Worldview Inquiry Framework to produce a “General Inquiry Framework” that can be used to govern an inquiry process in other contexts. We show that the presented Worldview Inquiry Framework is a special case of this General Inquiry Framework and show how the General Inquiry Framework can be tailored for other contexts such as problem solving, product design, and fundamental research. View Full-Text
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MDPI and ACS Style
Rousseau, D.; Billingham, J. A Systematic Framework for Exploring Worldviews and Its Generalization as a Multi-Purpose Inquiry Framework. Systems 2018, 6, 27.
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