Abstract
Scientism so pervades our society that its methodological arm, the research approach, is assumed to be de rigeur for establishing policies and solving problems. Using the research approach, modern disciplinary developments created many techniques, such as operations research/management science/systems analysis (OR/MS/SA), ostensibly for finding solutions to pressing organizational and societal problems.
This paper's emphasis on scientism and the research approach is deliberate - these concepts are the “Weltanschauung” of OR/MS/SA, the major “systems concepts” available. Their analysis, modeling of what exists, quantification, and reductionism are assumed to be the beauty of their logic and their only rationality. Public planning also assumes that analysis, modeling, quantification, and reductionism are the fundamental parts of problem solving and policy setting. This paper shows how this research approach and the unstated assumption that it must be used when establishing policies or solving problems now loom as the problems, and may be the biggest stumbling blocks to finding the good solutions society needs.
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Adapted from the author's forthcoming book, “The Planning and Design Professions: An Operational Theory,” New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1981.
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Nadler, G. Relating systems concepts and public planning. Policy Sci 12, 283–299 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138157
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138157