The “Mercury Cube” in the mercury mining museum in Idrija, Slovenia (Photo: N. E. Selin)
In our book, we structure our analysis using a new framework and analytical approach. Our human-technical-environmental (HTE) framework and matrix-based approach incorporates a four-step approach that we believe is a useful model for analyzing a broad range of systems of relevance to sustainability. Through the development and application of the HTE framework together with the matrix-based approach we aim to contribute both to the literature on sustainability science and practical efforts to advance human well-being in the context of sustainability. We hope the use of this framework in the book inspires you to try it out to analyze other important sustainability issues from a systems perspective.
Matrices are commonly-used tools in science and engineering, and some of you might be familiar with the design structure matrix approach in engineering systems. This, and the use of matrices in systems modeling, informed our thinking. As we developed the approach, we were also inspired by popular culture. In the film The Matrix, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) discovers that people are living in a simulation controlled by intelligent machines who harness human biological processes to provide energy. Neo’s activities enable him not only to see connections and underlying processes, but also to work to assist his fellow humans who are harmed by an unjust system – both the ability to see connections and take actions to change interactions are important themes in our work.
Here, we answer some questions about the HTE framework and the matrix-based approach. For more information, see chapter 2 of the book, where we describe our analytical structure in greater detail. From the “Resources” page on this website, you can download a how-to guide to using the framework and matrix approach for your choice of sustainability challenge. There, you can also read a case study that applies the HTE framework and the matrix approach to single-use plastics, view related short video lectures, and download interactive activities designed for classroom teaching.
Why did we develop a new HTE framework and the matrix-based approach?
We did so for two main reasons.
First, we found that existing systems-oriented analytical frameworks and approaches did not provide what we needed to fully analyze the complexity of the empirical material on mercury. We needed an analytical framework and approach that acknowledged the physical and material nature of the problem as well as allowed for addressing institutional and knowledge issues that interacted with material flows. To these ends, we found it analytically helpful to include human, technical, and environmental components as three separate material categories, rather than combining two of them into one, such as putting technical and environmental components into a single category. It was also analytically critical to identify and take into consideration major non-material institutional and knowledge components. And while our analysis of the mercury systems in the book was qualitative, we also wanted a framework and approach that could be applied in a quantitative way, if such data were available.
Second, we wanted to make sure that our work was accessible to the broad range of readers interested in sustainability analysis. We wanted to enable researchers who come from different scholarly backgrounds to use a common language and structure to identify and examine systems of relevance to sustainability, without prioritizing the terminology used by any one particular discipline or field. These researchers include social scientists from political science, sociology, geography, history, or economics, natural scientists who study mercury and other physical processes in the environment, and engineers who study technical or systems processes or develop new techniques for production or environmental remediation. We also wanted the book to be accessible to practitioners who are interested in how systems approaches can inform their efforts to address mercury and other sustainability issues.
How is the HTE framework different?
The HTE framework is named after the material human, technical and environmental components of the systems involved. The HTE framework also explicitly includes institutions and knowledge as non-material components. This framework provides the necessary structure for our matrix-based approach, which can be used for both quantitative and qualitative sustainability analysis.
There are many terms for the types of systems we are interested in relevant for sustainability, which, like our framework, include what we refer to as human, technical, environmental, institutional, and knowledge components. These include coupled human-natural systems, socio-environmental systems, social-environmental systems, social-natural systems, and other variants. There is also a lot of debate in the literature about terminology, but many of these terms and associated analytical frameworks contain similar components as our HTE framework.
In our framework, we found it useful in particular to explicitly include both material and non-material components, and to treat them in different ways in constructing the matrix. We also wanted to explicitly differentiate the dynamics of technological and human systems. This was for analytical reasons – we wanted a framework that captured a material system in a way it could be analyzed and potentially even modeled, but that simultaneously captured important non-material components in a structured way.
How do I apply the HTE Framework?
Our analytical approach involves a four-step process. The first three steps involve constructing matrices that identify system components, their interactions, and potential interventions. We present system components, interaction, and intervention matrices for each of the five mercury systems in chapters 3-7 of the book. The final step draws insights from the analysis.
The first step is to identify the relevant human, technical, environmental, institutional, and knowledge components that are important for sustainability-focused systems analysis. Individual components are the building blocks that determine the state, structure, and function of a system at various points in time. It is important to include all components necessary to capture critical system dynamics, but also not to identify so many components that it hampers effective analysis – we found that no more than 5-7 components of each type were sufficient for analyzing the mercury systems.
The second step involves creating an “interaction matrix” that identifies major interactions between the material components, in the context of institutions and knowledge. To do this, we place each material component in both a row and column of a matrix. If an interaction occurs, we note this in the cell where the row and column intersect, along with the relevant institutional and/or knowledge components that influence it. We then trace pathways of linked interactions through the matrix, which show causal mechanisms in the system.
The third step is to identify interveners – actors that can modify components and/or interactions in the system – and to create an “intervention matrix” that shows which components and interactions they can influence and how. In the book, we do this by examining how interveners in the past have both intentionally and unintentionally affected all five human, technical, environmental, institutional, and knowledge components as well as interactions among these components for all five mercury systems, with mixed implications for human well-being.
The fourth step involves drawing insights from the analysis conducted during the first three steps. In the book, we focus on insights of particular relevance to three distinct audiences. First, we address issues relating to systems analysis for sustainability, of interest especially to those who study complex adaptive systems more generally. Second, we address issues of concern to researchers who are interested in how sustainability is defined and dynamics of sustainability transitions. Third, we examine topics of policy-making and management of particular interest to scholars who study governance for sustainability.
We will provide more details on the insights we draw from across the five mercury systems when we discuss issues related to chapters 8 and 9 in future blog posts!