Space of Challenges (SOC) Framework: Problems, Issues and Dilemmas in Sustainable Housing

Abstract

In pursuit of global sustainable value creation, the conceptual ambiguity inherent in sustainability poses a challenge for goal-seeking problem-solvers. This paper addresses this challenge by introducing a typology for distinguishing among nine types of sustainability challenges that could be faced in systemic intervention. To navigate the complexity and vagueness inherent in sustainability, the Space of Challenges (SOC) is utilized as a tool for second-order systems thinking, grounded in the fundamentals of critical systems thinking. The paper aims to support system thinkers seeking to organise a systemic intervention for improved sustainability performance of systems. The support is developed to contribute to the alignment of sustainability challenges with suitable systems methodologies in multimethodological systemic interventions. A typology is proposed to differentiate sustainability challenges, and then integrated with the Cynefin sense-making framework to categorise challenges as simple, complicated or complex. The Space of Challenges framework is then applied to a case of sustainable housing in East Africa exploring alternative binders in block-based building, to highlight the differences among the nine types of proposed sustainability challenges.