“Social” Multicriteria Evaluation: Methodological Foundations and Operational Consequences Giuseppe Munda Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Dept. of Economics and Economic History Ed. B Bellaterra (Barcelona) Spain e_mail:

Structure of the talk Why Social Multicriteria Evaluation (SMCE)? How such an approach should be developed? Conclusions

Complexity is an inherent property of natural and social systems addressed ignored

COMPLEXITY COMPLEX SYSTEMS CANNOT BE CAPTURED BY A SINGLE DIMENTION/PERSPECTIVE

Complexity: the ontological dimension the existence of different levels and scales at which a hierarchical system can be analyzed implies the unavoidable existence of non-equivalent descriptions of it

Complexity: the epistemological dimension

EMERGENT COMPLEXITY Different dimensions Different values and perspectives hard and topologies soft

"The issue is not whether it is only the marketplace that can determine value, for economists have long debated other means of valuation; our concern is with the assumption that in any dialogue, all valuations or "numeraires" should be reducible to a single one-dimension standard". (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994, p. 198)

Academic Science Professional Consultancy Post Normal Science Post Normal Science Uncertainty Decision Stakes facts are uncertain values in dispute stakes high decisions urgent facts are uncertain values in dispute stakes high decisions urgent S. Funtowicz, J. Ravetz

Strong comparability Weak commensurability Strong commensurability Weak comparability incommensurability

TECHNICAL INCOMMENSURABILITY SOCIAL INCOMMENSURABILITY NAIADE 2 matrices

Multi-, inter-, trans-disciplinarity? Multi-: each expert takes his part Inter-: methodological choices are discussed across the disciplines –Informing the others about object matter –Criticism, reflexivity Trans-: What is it?....

Consequences: 1) MULTIDISCIPLINARITY

Consequence: 2) PARTICIPATIVE TECHNIQUES In-Depth Interviews Focus Groups Questionnaires Institutional Analysis

VALSE: Structure of the Troina Case Study

Objectives and Methodology of DIAFANIS 1.Why a conflict exists? 2.Which alternatives exist? 3.Which system dimensions can be affected? 4.How alternatives can be evaluated? 5.What means transparency? Step 1: Evaluation of alternatives 1. Alternatives Generation Historical analysis A1A2 An Alternatives Citizen Participa tion Institution. analysis Step 2: Diffusion of results 1.Existence of multiple values 2. School visits 3. Citizens meetings4. International Symposium Technical and Social Rankings 3. MCE Algorithm Criteria Selection Alternatives Evaluation Citizen Participation Mixed Information Data Collection and Participation EconomicalSocialEnvironmental 2. Information Structuring System Dimensions and Hierarchical Scales International, National, Regional, Local

Consequences: 3) ETHICS MATTERS

Weights in a social framework Political Democracy Economic Democracy Sustainability Precautionary Principle

Consequence: 4)THE AXIOMATIZATION ISSUE K. Arrow, H. Raynaud (1986): “Social choice and multicriterion decision making”

Desirable Properties for SMCE Aggregation Conventions

The idea of social incommensurability implies: Multicriteria methods must be as simple as possible to guarantee transparency. Weights in this framework are clearly meaningful only as importance coefficients and not as trade-off. As a consequence, complete compensability cannot be implemented. Sensitivity and robustness analysis have to check the consequences on the final ranking of only some clear ethical positions and not of all the possible combinations of weights. Conflict analysis procedures explicitly looking for social compromises should integrate a SMCE exercise. In a policy framework, to have a ranking of all the alternatives is more useful than just to select one alternative only; this implies that dominated alternatives cannot be excluded a priori.

From the idea of technical incommensurability: Partial or complete non-compensability is an essential consistency requirement. Indifference and preference thresholds should be explicitly taken into account. Mixed information of the widest type should be addressed in a consistent way. Simplicity, meaning the use of as less parameters as possible, is a very desirable property. The hierarchical dimension of a policy problem should be explicitly considered.

Table 1. Example of evaluation of some multicriteria methods according to proposed desirable properties for SMCE

Is SMCE relevant for the study of Sustainability?

Yang: ECONOMICS GDP

Yin: ECOLOGY

QUALITY OF PRODUCT PROCEDURAL RATIONALITY LEARNING HOLARCHIES QUALITY OF “SOCIAL” PROCESS PARTICIPATION TRANSPARENCY MULTI/INTER-DISCIPLINARITY ETHICS RESPONSIBILITY CONSISTENCY

Social Multicriteria Evaluation MCDM (technocratic) MCDA (technocratic) non-algorithmic MCE (loss of the algorithmic component) Participative MCE (loss of the algorithmic component) Social MCE (how to integrate mathematical tools with social processes)

MCDM MCDA MCDM MCDA PMCE SMCE