The purpose of the interviews was to get an overview of how the existing policy process is thinking about these issues--the conceptual frameworks that are in use.
To view this mural:
1. Download the climate policy mural by clicking here.
2. Download the International Future Forum report by clicking here.
3. Open the mural in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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Zoom. You can zoom to any part of this map by using the icon with the number and percent (125%) in the lower left hand corner of the Adobe Acrobat page and click the up arrow to zoom in and down arrow to zoom out.
What this info-mural shows
This info-mural synthesizes visually a number of interviews with fifteen senior UK civil servants and outside experts about the challenges of dealing effectively with the issues of energy security and climate change through to 2050. It metaphorically displays the constraints expressed by the interviewees as a huge labyrinth—and the uncertainties as a huge cloud—through which policies must proceed in order to result in the possible good outcomes identified (on which there was substantial agreement). It also depicts the enabling conditions interviewees identified as supportive of achieving the good outcomes. Overall it seeks to mirror the view of the policy process offered by those operating within it.
What it does not show
The logic of this mural is metaphorical. It does not show literal paths that a specific policy or group of policies must take in order to navigate the labyrinth. Indeed, part of the power of the metaphor is to suggest that almost any policy proposal is bound to run into obstacles sooner or later—if we maintain the present level of thinking. As one interviewee put it: “This is a messy, difficult problem. Even if we had a group of independent, freethinking, thoughtful people with no egos it would still raise bloody difficult dilemmas.”
Benefits
Our substantial experience developing and using visual analytics shows that visual methods have substantially affected public policy analysis, formulation, and implementation in four principal ways:
(1) rendering concepts and relationships visually often reveals that vital data has been overlooked, inadequately correlated, or never collected in the first place;
(2) large displays (even mural-size displays) enable problem solvers to see both the detail and the big picture simultaneously, thereby improving the evaluation of policy implications and consequences tradeoffs;
(3) diverse groups, including remote groups, have been able to reach a working consensus faster using visual analytics to record meetings rather than traditional text-based minutes. This has also aided international working because visual language is often more effective than text in at least calling attention to, if not helping to resolve, cross-language ambiguities;
(4) visual representation of group processes and thinking regarding complex issues enables whole pictures to be shared relatively easily with others outside the group, e.g., with other issue stakeholder. Together with structured group processes, visualizations can be a powerful option identification, negotiation and consensus- building tool.
Our Partner: The International Futures Forum
International Futures Forum (IFF) exists to find better ways to tackle complex, seemingly intractable issues in order to promote more effective action. It is an organization dedicated to learning how to take more effective action in a complex world we no longer understand very well and don’t seem to be able to control very effectively.
Dimensions
Labyrinth Mural: Approximately 3 x 12 feet
Approximately 250 text elements
Approximately 125 visual elements
Client:
International Futures Forum, UK Government
Project Team:
Robert E. Horn, visiting scholar, Stanford University and President, MacroVU, Inc. and Graham Leicester, President, International Futures Forum, St. Andrews, UK.
Status
Version 1.0
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No Public Exhibits Available
This project concerned the interaction between two complex policy issues. In October 2004 the UK government published an international energy strategy designed to address the challenge of maintaining secure global energy supplies and mitigating the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change. The lead department responsible for pursuing the strategy internationally, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Environment), engaged IFF to help them articulate and communicate the complexities of the international strategy to others, within and beyond government in the hope that this will promote a higher quality of dialogue around these issues as a result.
Collaborating with the IFF, we developed a suite of knowledge maps representing elements of the international strategy relating to climate change and energy security. IFF’s longer term ambitions are to use visual language as a tool in pursuing a more productive and effective international dialogue around these looming issues.
Copyright 2008 R. E. Horn