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Fiddling While the Planet Burns: The Scientific Validity of Chaordic Systems Thinking
Author(s) -
Emery Merrelyn
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
systems research and behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 1092-7026
DOI - 10.1002/sres.1091
Subject(s) - humanity , malaise , scientific evidence , scientific thinking , scientific reasoning , systems thinking , epistemology , sociology , management science , computer science , psychology , economics , law , political science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , immunology , biology
In response to my refutation of their 2008 paper, Kira and van Eijnatten defend their refusal to retract their paper with a claim to scientific validity. This note examines the scientific validity of their approach, chaordic systems thinking (CST), using only the most basic criteria: respect for evidence, observing and reporting accurately and precisely, having an approach that is coherent, internally consistent, capable of generating propositions testable in real organizations and generating useful results. CST fails on every criterion. Instead of working on the best available evidence to advance research on the cooperative sustainable organizations that are required to deal with the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, CST is attempting to solve a problem long since solved. It illustrates a serious malaise in social science. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.