Table Of ContentCOMMUNITY OPERATIONAL
RESEARCH
Contemporary Systems Thinking
Series Editor: Robert L. Flood
Monash University
Australia
COMMUNITY OPERATIONAL RESEARCH
OR and Systems Thinking for Community Development
Gerald Midgley and Alejandro Ochoa-Arias
CRITICAL SYSTEMIC PRAXIS FOR SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Participatory Policy Design and Governance for a Global Age
Janet McIntyre-Mills
DESIGNING SOCIAL SYSTEMS IN A CHANGING WORLD
Bela H. Banathy
GUIDED EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY
A Systems View
Bela H. Banathy
METADECISIONS
Rehabilitating Epistemology
JohnP van Gigch
PROCESSES AND BOUNDARIES OF THE MIND
Extending the Limit Line
Yair Neuman
SELF-PRODUCING SYSTEMS
Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis
John Mingers
SOCIOPOLITICAL ECOLOGY
Human Systems and Ecological Fields
Frederick L. Bates
SYSTEMIC INTERVENTION
Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice
Gerald Midgley
AContinuationOrderPlanisavailablefor thisseries. A,continuationorderwill bringdelivery ofeachnewvolume
immediatelyuponpublication.Volumesarebilledonlyuponactualshipment.Forfurtherinformationpleasecontactthe
publisher.
COMMUNITY OPERATIONAL
RESEARCH
OR and Systems Thinking
for Community Development
Edited by
Gerald Midgley
Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR Ud)
Christchurch, New Zea/and
and
Centre for Systems Studies
Business School University of Huli
Huli, United Kingdom
and
Alejandro Ochoa-Arias
Universidad de Los Andes
Marida, Venezuela
Springer-Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Community operational research: OR and systems thinking for
community development/ edited by Gerald Midgley and
Alejandro Ochoa-Arias.
p. cm. - (Contemporary systems thinking)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-46l3-4716-3 ISBN 978-1-4419-8911-6 (eBook)
DOI 10 .1007/978-1-4419-8911-6
1. Community development. 2. Operations research.
3. Systems analysis. 1. Midgley, Gerald. II. Ochoa-Arias,
Alejandro. III. Series.
HN49.C6C673 2004
307.1' 4-dc22
2003070329
ISBN 978-1-46l3-4716-3
©2004 Springer-Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer / Plenum Publishers, New York in 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s i edilion 2004
10987654321
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Preface
In this book we have sought to consolidate the previously published
literature on Community Operational Research ('Community OR' for
short), and at the same time introduce new writings that push out the
boundariesoftheory,methodologyandpractice.Wehopethebalancewill
be of value to you, whether you have a long-standing commitment to
CommunityOR,or are comingto this subjectfor thefirst time.
Following an introductory chapter, the book is presented in three
sections:
Section One offers 'Early Contributions and Later Reflections on
Theory, Methodology and Practice'. Here, the nature ofCommunityOR,
itsinstitutional development,andpeople'smotivationsfor engaginginit
are all explored. Some significant theoretical and methodological issues
arealso afocus.
SectionTwocovers'LocalActionforCommunityDevelopment'.This
is concerned with how people have translated the theoretical insights of
Community OR into practice, and how practice has informed theory.
Since the inception ofCommunityOR, the vast majorityof projectshave
dealtwithcomplex,localisedcommunityissuesusingparticipativemeth
ods (mostly in the developed world). This section of the book presents
a variety of methodological ideas evolved for Community OR practice,
and illustrates them with examples of projects with community groups,
voluntaryorganisationsand welfare services.
Section Three is entitled 'Dealing Locally with Global Issues'. The
authors represented in this section seek to extend the practice of
Community OR in two new directions. The first takes Community OR
into developing countries, and the second takes itinto the arena ofenvi
ronmental management. In both these areas, there are significant oppor
tunities for Community OR practitioners to make real contributions to
human welfare and environmentalsustainability.
vi Preface
Wehopethatyouenjoythechapterstofollow, andfeel inspired (like
the authors who have contributed to this book) to participate in both
CommunityORpracticeand the unfoldingdebatesurroundingit.
GeraldMidgley
AlejandroE. Ochoa-Arias
Contents
1. An IntroductiontoCommunityOperationalResearch 1
GeraldMidgleyandAlejandroE. Ochoa-Arias
I EarlyContributions and LaterReflections on
Theory, Methodologyand Practice
2. CommunityOperational Research: ItsContext
and its Future 39
RichardParryandJohn Mingers
3. CommunityOperationalResearch: Purposes,
Theoryand Practice 57
Michael C. Jackson
4. Visions ofCommunityfor CommunityOR 75
GeraldMidgleyandAlejandroE. Ochoa-Arias
II Local Action for Community Development
5. ABlackGhetto'sResearchona University 109
Russell1.Ackoff
6. Housingin the DearneValley: DoingCommunityOR
with the ThurnscoeTenantsHousingCo-operative 121
Charles Ritchie
7. LookingForwardwithaCouncilfor VoluntaryService 143
AndyMarlowandJim Bryant
viii Contents
8. Facilitationas FairIntervention 157
WendyJ. GregoryandNorma Romm
9. PerspectivesofEngagementinCommunity
OperationalResearch 175
John Friend
10. SystemicInterventionfor CommunityOR:
DevelopingServiceswithYoung People
(Under 16) LivingontheStreets 203
AlanBoyd,Mandy BrownandGeraldMidgley
11. Playingwith PANDA: theCybOrgand the Rhizome 253
AnnTaketandLeroyWhite
III Dealing Locallywith Global Issues
12. An InterpretiveSystemic Explorationof
CommunityActioninVenezuela 275
AlejandroE. Ochoa-Arias
13. Communityand EnvironmentalOR:
Towardsa NewAgenda 297
GeraldMidgleyandMartin Reynolds
14. Adaptive Methodologyfor Ecosystem
Sustainabilityand Health (AMESH):
AnIntroduction 317
DavidWaltner-Toews,James Kay, Tamsyn P. Murray
andCynthia Neudoerffer
Index 351
1
An Introduction to Community
Operational Research
Gerald Midgley and
Alejandro E. Ochoa-Arias
1.1 Introduction
It is common for introductory chapters of edited books to start by
defining their subjectmatter. However, inthiscase,itis really the task of
the whole book, not this paragraph, to communicate the meaning of
Community Operational Research ('Community OR' for short). We say
thisbecausewebelievethathealthyresearchnetworksinvolveadiversity
of participants with both common and divergent interests, and the
Community OR network is no exception. For us to specify right at the
startofthisbookwhatCommunityORisallaboutwouldalmostcertainly
mean marginalising other people's concerns. We therefore prefer to por
trayCommunityOR,notasafinite setofideasoractivities,butasalabel
used by a variety of people engaged in debate and on-going learning
abouttheirownand otherpeople's communitydevelopmentpractices.
Having said this, there are two things that all participants in our
researchnetworkhaveincommon(asfarasweareaware). Firstandmost
AcceptedforpublicationSeptember2003.
Gerald Midgley • Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) Ltd.,
ChristchurchScienceCentre,27CreykeRoad,POBox29-181,Christchurch, NewZealand.
CentreforSystemsStudies,BusinessSchool,UniversityofHull,Hull,HU67RX,UK.
Alejandro E. Ochoa-Arias • Centro de Investigaciones en Sistemologia Interpretiva,
FacultyofEngineering,UniversityofLosAndes,Merida,Venezuela.
CommunityOperationalResearch:ORandSystems ThinkingforCommunityDevelapment,edited
byG.MidgleyandA.E.Ochoa-Arias,KluwerAcademic/PlenumPublishers,NewYork,2004
1
2 Chapter1
obviousisadesiretomakeacontributiontochangeincommunities.There
are disparate motivations for this: some have political, religious and/or
professionalreasonsforgettinginvolved,whileotherssimplyhaveadesire
todosomething'good'or'useful'intheirlocalneighbourhoods(Wongand
Mingers,1994).ThesecondthingthatCommunityORpractitionersseemto
have in commonis a concernwith the design ofmethodologies, processes
ofengagement,methodsandtechniques.Ofcourse,manyCommunityOR
practitioners (butnotall) arealsointerestedinthethornypoliticalandthe
oreticalissuessurroundingtheconceptof'community',andwhatitshould
meanfor intervention. However, we suggestthatit is the particular focus
on methodology and methods (usually grounded in theories of community,
organisation, social systems, complexity, power and/orparticipation) that
marks the distinctivecontributionofthe CommunityORnetwork to com
munity development. This is not to saythat CommunityORpractitioners
advocate the 'new Methodism' that Reason and Bradbury (2000) criticise
(reducing the complexities of practice to the implementation of methods
alone). Nevertheless, Community ORpractitioners value the creation and
useofmethodsasacontributiontothewidertheoreticallyinformedpractice
of community development. Some people write up their innovations for
publication,whileotherschoosetoengageinpracticeanddiscussmethod
ologicalideaswithoutwritingaboutthem.
Over the thirteen years or so that we have both been reading and
writing aboutCommunity OR, we have witnessed manyinteresting and
fruitful debates. However, we havebecomeveryaware thatthe literature
inourfield isnoteasilyaccessibletopeoplecorningtoitfromoutsideour
research network. This is largelydue to the originsofCommunity ORin
the disciplinesofoperationalresearchand managementscience (seelater
in this chapter for details). Many of the key papers on Community OR
have been published in places like the Journal ofthe Operational Research
Society, Omega, Systems Practiceand Dragon-arguablynot the mostobvi
ous journals for people to consult for information on methods for com
munity development. Therefore, unless a reader already knows the term
'Community OR' and searches the electronic databases using it, s/he is
unlikelytocorneacrossourworkbychance.Thisisoneofthe reasonswe
decided to edit the book you are now reading: we saw a need to bring
togetheravarietyofideasaboutCommurutyORinoneplacesothatthey
couldbecommunicated to a wider audience.
TwopreviousbooksonCommunityORhavebeenpublishedbefore
this one (RitchieetaI, 1994;Bowen, 1995),andbothmakevaluablecontri
butions to the literatureby presenting accounts ofpractice ina relatively
jargon-free manner. However, these bookswere primarily aimed atcom
munity development practitioners and students corning to Community
