Feedback-Guided Analysis as an Approach to Managing Sustainability in ASEAN Countries

Abstract

Innovation has been at the center of most science policies of the ASEAN countries, driven as they are by a greater concern for the competitive advantages that can come from science and technology. Related to these policies, although often treated separately, are policies on the environment and environmental education. What is missing, however, is a more comprehensive view of how both science and environmental policies influence and are influenced by the culture and well-being of the people in a particular country. This study attempts to fill in the blanks through feedback-guided analysis, particularly by using a cultural adaptation template introduced by Newell and Proust (2017b). It studies four subsystems and seven links, and shows how ASEAN science and environment policies, cultural paradigms, the state of ecosystems, and human health and well-being affect each other directly or indirectly. The cultural adaptation template indicates the need for a systems-thinking approach in managing innovation or the implementation of policy to ensure that well-meaning initiatives may not lead to unintended consequences.