Systems Thinking

• Which system (type of stakeholder) that Easterbrook identified did you find your own understanding of GMOs most aligned with? Why? What are some of the stakes of these stakeholders?

I am the supporter of “a system of scientists doing research”. In this system, the stakeholders are scientists who purely pursued the applied research of GMOs which is expected to have practical function for agriculture. I am more understandable for these scientists as their research might bring huge financial and food supply’s benefits. For those stakeholders who are worried food safety issue, their worries had been considered by scientists and they had trials at Rothamsted for testing the new GMO. For stakeholders who are ethnical review board member, their stakes are “beneficence”(value versus risk). For stakeholders who are advocate for ecosystem health, their stakes are protecting the balance of ecosystem in the specific area. For stakeholders who are the members of corporations, their stakes are how to make more profit from the intellectual property rights they controlled. 

• Using your own topic for research, can you Identify 3 stakeholders (groups or phenomenon) with different perspectives, and then describe the system (the stakes) from which they are operating? For instance, if the subject is “Safari Parks”, 3 stakeholders could be (1) Animal Rights activists, (2) the region’s Board of Tourism, and (3) the local land itself. The first operates in a system of ethics around the treatment of animals; the second in a networked system of economic benefits for the community (hotels, food, and attractions), and the third, in an ecosystem that the safari park may put at risk, by introducing pollutants from animal waste and fertilizer, and ecological competitors such as escaped non-indigenous plant products used in the landscaping of the Safari Park.

My topic is kinship & quilting, 3 stakeholders could be (1) female in poor family (2) user(consumer)’s satisfaction of objects that are made by quilting and (3) quilters’ community.

The first operates in the expression of value and important family role of female, because in some area’s poor family, women take the role of quilters in order to make warm clothes for their family. Also quilting could be their unique language to express their thought and aesthetics.

The second operates in whether the function of quilting object has good quality(thickness, material of cloth, etc). Also, users care about whether the quilting object has good looking. 

For the last one’s operation, quilters’ community could gain benefit from quilters(saving money by using leftover cloths, and increasing affinity and cohesion with neighbour). Besides, quilters could also gain a positive feedback from their community. They could gain a sense of achievement and be respectable by family and friends.