Wsr Decisions for a Sustainable Future

Sustainable development decisions are seen by the Oriental WSR approach as participation processes conditioned and shaped by a dynamic web of wuli (relation with the world), shili (relation with the mind) and renli (relation with others). On the one hand, lis are interwoven with each other; the study of one cannot be isolated from that of the other. On the other hand, lis are rich, diverse and heterogeneous; the management of the interplay of lis should not be reduced to the terms of a particular li only. Decision-makers, managers and citizens have to manage the bubbling lis through a spiral learning process, a process of knowing wuli, sensing shili, and caring for renli that is underlain by a li-task matrix. Those tasks are presented as understanding desires, investigating conditions, formulating objectives, selecting models, executing proposals, and evaluating performance, with coordinating relations embedded in the full decisionmaking process. As a practical management approach, WSR has been used in China in sustainable development projects such as regional social-economic development strategy planning, rationalization of power station location in metropolises, disaster monitoring and analysis, water resources management, and decision support systems. As modern systems approaches to management are preoccupied by western cultural traditions, the Oriental WSR with its unique cultural imprints will enrich and improve humankind’s ability towards integrated decisions and policies.