How to incorporate conflicting opinions?

[Emily BondankParticipant]

When there are conflicting opinions on the underlying dynamics of the model, would the solution be to create different models for the different opinions?

[Emily BondankParticipant]

Steven Gray just said at the Participatory Modeling Field School 2019 (paraphrased) — EMBRACE THE DIVERSITY. Plot out the separate conflicting models and show the diversity of knowledge and ways of thinking. Then think about the cultural agreement regarding the topic. It could spark important conversations that could move decision making forward.

[Alexey VoinovKeymaster]

Isn’t it going to depend upon the nature of the conflict? Are we really talking about entirely conflicting models, or maybe the conflict is about a few variables, or processes, or parameters? Maybe the differences are not that dramatically serious, and you could simply run some sensitivity tests to see how far the differences will take us.

[David CrookallParticipant]

Maybe:
Most situations that we attempt to model are conflictual in some way.
So it may be useful to distinguish between:

– system conflicts: conflicts in the system that we are modelling and that are thus incorporated as part of the process of mapping ‘reality’ into a model – the system conflict is represented in the model

– modelling or model conflicts: conflicts that designers, stakeholders, modellers, et al develop among themselves regarding any given model or set of models, and thus could concern the represented ‘reality’, the process of mapping, the design of the model, etc

of course, the second type of conflict may arise over the first type — do we then have a conflict of conflicts? 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  David Crookall.

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