Critical Systems Heuristics
Critical System Heuristics was developed by Werner Ulrich
There are three pillars
Heuristics means literally ‘the art (or practice) of discovery’
A critical approach is required since there is no single right way to decide such issues; answers will depend on personal interests and views, value assumptions, and so on.
Systems thinking is relevant because all problem definitions, solution proposals, evaluations of outcomes, and so on, depend on prior judgments about the relevant ‘whole system’ to be looked at.
Critical Systems Heuristics provides a framework of questions about a program
including what is and what ought to be
its purpose and its source of legitimacy
and who are and who ought to be its intended beneficiaries.
Rather than asking 'what do you see in this situation?'
as in most evaluation approaches,
Critical Systems Heuristics inquires more deeply,
what are the underlying assumptions
values, power structures, knowledge bases,
and moral stances which affect how this situation
is perceived by different concerned parties?
CSH uses 12 boundary questions
each question is considered in two modes
an ideal mode what 'should' be
and a descriptive mode what 'is' making twenty-four questions in total.
The questions cover
SOURCES OF MOTIVATION SOURCES OF POWER
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE SOURCES OF LEGITIMATION