Gary Evans

Reclaiming Emancipation in Critical Systems Thinking: Using the Double Viable System Model to Identify the Central Game

Critical Systems Thinking (CST) was originally developed to support emancipation in situations characterised by power asymmetries and conflicting interests. However, Critical Systems Practice (CSP) is frequently implemented from the perspective of the dominant organisation seeking improvement. In situations of organisational hypocrisy, where official rhetoric differs from organisational reality, this creates a paradox: interventions intended to support emancipation may instead strengthen the viability of the very structures that marginalised groups seek to challenge. This paper argues that Critical Systems Intervention (CSI) can address this limitation through integration with the Double Viable System Model (2×VSM). Whereas conventional applications of the Viable System Model often focus on an organisation and its environment, the 2×VSM conceptualises problematic situations as interactions between viable systems. This makes it possible to distinguish between dominant and marginalised systems and to analyse their relationship as a strategic game. Building on Stafford Beer’s cybernetic tradition and game-theoretical modelling, CSI uses the 2×VSM to identify the central game underlying a problematic situation and to maintain focus on the interests of those affected by structural constraints. The approach is illustrated through a case study showing how the combined use of CSI and the 2×VSM reveals intervention opportunities that are difficult to identify within conventional CSP. The paper concludes that the 2×VSM provides a cybernetic foundation that enables CSI to remain closer to the original emancipatory commitments of CST while strengthening the analysis of organisational viability, conflict, and change.