The Viable System Model to Support Sustainable Self-Governance in Communities: Learning from Case Studies

While several authors suggest a complex systems approach to promote self-governance in social systems, not many have explained its meaning in the context of communities, and how it can provide support towards more endogenous ways of development. We introduce our approach to the Viable System Model (VSM) and the way it can be applied for supporting more viable and sustainable communities, self-governed and more capable of effectively implementing endogenous development strategies. Based on the way it supports individuals to develop their potential and to engage in deciding on their development options, we argue that this is an emancipatory systems approach. We first present a recent case study in a very poor community in New Giron, Santander, Colombia, led by a local university, where we followed VSM criteria to design a meta-systemic management organisation promoting community members’ self-organisation to co-design and implement innovative development initiatives. We also used the idea of a Regional Innovation System (RIS), which is intended to facilitate and nurture community’s development initiatives based on the development of local skills. We explain how the RIS framework contributes to clarify issues of self-governance when applying the VSM in a community aiming to improve their development skills, by suggesting mechanisms to facilitate social innovation. We show how the RIS & VSM inspired organisation helped the community to have access to knowledge and resources to effectively implement their initiatives to implement projects to fight poverty. We compare this case study with recent VSM applications in a similar region, to support sustainable self-governance in communities, by using an assessment framework inspired by VSM criteria, and critically reflect on the learning from each project. We finally argue how our way of understanding and applying the VSM as an emancipatory systems approach responds to previous criticisms of the VSM.