Paquet Gilles - Unusual Suspects: Essays on Social Learning

Gilles Paquet

Unusual Suspects

Essays on Social Learning Disabilities

| Collaborative Decentred Metagovernance Series

T his series of books is designed to define cumulatively the contours of collaborative decentred metagovernance. At this time, there is still no canonical version of this paradigm: it is en mergence . This series intends to be one of many construction sites to experiment with various dimensions of an effective and practical version of this new approach.

Metagovernance is the art of combining different forms or styles of governance, experimented with in the private, public and social sectors, to ensure effective coordination when power, resources and information are widely distributed, and the governing is of necessity decentred and collaborative.

The series invites conceptual and practical contributions focused on different issue domains, policy fields, causes clbres , functional processes, etc. to the extent that they contribute to sharpening the new apparatus associated with collaborative decentred metagovernance.

In the last few decades, there has been a need felt for a more sophisticated understanding of the governing of the private, public and social sectors: for less compartmentalization among sectors that have much in common; and for new conceptual tools to suggest new relevant questions and new ways to carry out the business of governing, by creatively recombining the tools of governance that have proven successful in all these sectors. These efforts have generated experiments that have been sufficiently rich and wide-ranging in the various laboratories to warrant efforts to pull together what we know at this stage.

The seventh book in the series probes some of the important reasons why social learning disabilities plague the Canadian socio-economy and in particular the public sector. It draws attention to the lack of critical thinking, crippled epistemologies, mental prisons, lack of affectio societatis , excessive politeness, political correctness, failure to confront, unreasonable accommodation and intellectual laziness as not unimportant parts of the problem. The depth of the Canadian malaise and potential ways out of this situation are explored.

Interested parties are invited to join the Chautauqua.

Editorial Board

Other titles published by Invenire are listed at the end of this book.

Gilles Paquet

Unusual Suspects

Essays on Social Learning Disabilities

Invenire

Ottawa, Canada

2014

Invenire 2014

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Paquet, Gilles, 1936-, author

Unusual suspects: essays on social learning disabilities

/ by Gilles Paquet.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-927465-14-1 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-927465-15-8 (html)

1. Public administration--Philosophy. 2. Public

administration--Psychological aspects. 3. Public administration-

Canada. 4. Social learning. I. Title.

JF1351.P279 2014 351.01'1 C2014-903798-8

C2014-903799-6

Invenire would like to gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support for this series by the Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa.

All rights reserved. This book may not be copied or stored in any information retrieval system, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Published by Invenire

P.O. Box 87001

Ottawa, Canada K2P 1X0

www.invenire.ca

Cover design by Sandy Lynch

Layout and design by Sandy Lynch

Printed in Canada by Imprimerie Gauvin

Distributed by:

Commoners Publishing

631 Tubman Cr.

Ottawa, Canada K1V 8L6

Tel.: 613-523-2444

Fax: 888-613-0329

sales@commonerspublishing.com

www.commonerspublishing.com

Politeness is a way of not talking. When we are being

polite, we say what we think we should say

Politeness maintains the status quo.

Adam Kahane

| Table of Contents

Introduction On Social Learning Disabilities

Preamble1

A new twist to the entitlement mentality4

Unfinished business: an attack on the

pneumopathological7

The general line of argument9

Acknowledgements10

Part I On Liberating Learning

Chapter 1On Critical Thinking19

Preamble19

Defining critical thinking20

Critical description for critical thinking23

Exorcizing mental prisons to avoid

crippling epistemologies25

Preventing asocial and unethical conduct

and outcomes30

Triangulation I: to undo harms31

Triangulation II: to design new alternatives34

Conclusion37

Chapter 2 On Inquiring

Introduction43

Inquiring into the practice of administration46

Delta knowledge47

Professional practice, transduction and

connoisseurship50

The social practitioner as inquirer and explorer53

Conflicting frames and circumscribed settings56

Delta knowledge and exploration capabilities57

Conclusion59

Part II On Exorcizing Pathologies

Chapter 3 On Quantophrenia

Introduction69

Crippling epistemologies and policy pseudo-sciences70

Words of caution about the quantophrenic cosmology73

The danger of an overly sanitized stylization

of the public policy process75

The seduction of quantophrenia76

The quagmire of performance evaluation77

The crippling potentialities of quantophrenia78

Uniformization in the face of pluralism and change79

Steering effects79

Management Accountability Framework (MAF)

as an innocuous illustration80

The unintended costs of quantophrenia81

The ergonomics of the public policy process:

focus on affordances82

Conclusion85

Chapter 4 On Disloyalty

Introduction91

Loyalty and disloyalty as different nebulas91

Some basic points91

Shades of disloyalty96

Setting and source of our hypothesis98

Is disloyalty increasing?101

Disloyalty as akin to the underground

economy phenomenon104

Analytical framework105

Disloyalty is growing: some conjectures108

Some things to keep in mind108

Mechanisms at work110

In praise of anecdotal evidence113

Four clarifying vignettes116

The virtue of dissent117

Whistle-blowing120

Affectio societatis 121

The myth of the state clergy122

Conclusion125

Part III On The Canadian Scene

Chapter 5 On The Canadian Malaise

Introduction133

A sample of sources of concern135

Why such cognitive-dissonance-cum-inertia?138

Culture of entitlement138

The demise of critical thinking140

Cult of atonement141

Political correctness142

Failure to confront142

Unreasonable accommodation143

A perfect quiet cultural capitulation143

What to do?148

Conclusion151

Chapter 6 On Tom Courchene as Savanturier

Introduction157

Canadian economics and a prudent heretic157

Une connaissance charnelle of the Canadian socio-economy 159

Quebec and Ontario160

Community of the Canadas, First Nations

province, and a state of mind162

Auspices, futuribles and the viewpoint from a crane 165

The new frontier for a market populist167

Conclusion169

Conclusion On Synthesis and Reasonableness

Preamble173

Blending of perspectives in a chaotic age176

Synthesis as conduit, and reasonableness

as guidepost178

Four challenges182

Coda185

Sources191

Introduction

| On Social Learning Disabilities

avoir raison nest jamais une satisfaction