Name: Viable Sustainable Missions (2VSM): Toward Recursive Governance for Systemic Sustainability
Start: 2025-07-04T16:00:00+0100
End: 2025-07-04T17:00:00+0100

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Friday July 4, 2025 16:00 - 17:00 BST

MBS Room 3

This paper conceptualizes the integration of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) with Mariana Mazzucato’s Mission-Oriented Innovation framework, generating the notion of Viable Sustainable Missions (2VSM) for effective sustainability governance.
The paper draws on systems thinking (organizational cybernetics) and innovation economics to construct a conceptual framework that combines recursive governance, mission-led strategy, and the effect of street bureaucracies in sustainability delivery. It analyses the Brazilian “One Million Cisterns” program as an empirical (counter) case.
The study shows that sustainability missions fail without viability mechanisms such as feedback, contextual adaptability, and learning systems. The “One million Cisterns” case highlights structural weaknesses in recursive feedback, inadequate system learning (S4), and the absence of monitoring/auditing (System 3*), especially across regional and municipal levels, highlighting the impact of street bureaucracies in the design, implementation, and systemic overview of national sustainability initiatives.
This paper introduces the concept of Viable Sustainable Missions (2VSM) and proposes a layered governance model that links (participative)top-down strategic intent with bottom-up delivery, grounded in recursive systems and contextual learning, developing further Espinosa & Walker’s proposed application of VSM in sustainability. The contribution lies in advancing both mission economy and cybernetic governance for applied sustainability research.

Presenters

Pedro Pablo Cardoso

Honorary Lecturer / Programe Director, university of Exeter / De Montfort University

Consultant, academic and researcher in the use of complexity in Management; he was a senior lecturer at Leeds Becket university, Cranfield University, and currently an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Exeter, and Programe Director at the De Montfort University (Cambodia... Read More →

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa

Professor, Universidad Federal de Para

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa graduated in Social Sciences, and has a master degree in Development Planning and a Ph.D. in Political Science. She is currently a teacher/researcher at Center of Amazonian Studies/NAEA linked to the Postgraduate Program in Sustainable Development of the Humid... Read More →

Friday July 4, 2025 16:00 - 17:00 BST
MBS Room 3 Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) The University of Manchester Booth Street West Manchester M15 6PB, England, United Kingdom

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Metaphorum2025

Pedro Pablo Cardoso

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa

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Metaphorum2025

Pedro Pablo Cardoso

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa

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