1. “Social” Multicriteria Evaluation: Methodological Foundations and Operational Consequences
Giuseppe Munda
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Dept. of Economics and Economic History
Ed. B
08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
e_mail:

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

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

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

5. 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

7. Complexity: the epistemological dimension

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

9. "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)

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

11. incommensurability Weak comparability Strong comparability
Weak commensurability
Strong commensurability
Weak comparability
incommensurability

12. TECHNICAL INCOMMENSURABILITY SOCIAL INCOMMENSURABILITY
NAIADE
2 matrices

13. 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? ....

14. Consequences: 1) MULTIDISCIPLINARITY

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

17. VALSE: Structure of the Troina Case Study

18. Data Collection and Participation
Objectives and Methodology of DIAFANIS
Step 1: Evaluation of alternatives
1. Alternatives Generation
Historical
analysis A1 A2 An
Alternatives
Citizen
Participation
Institution.
Why a conflict exists?
Which alternatives exist?
Which system dimensions can be affected?
How alternatives can be evaluated?
What means transparency?
Data Collection and Participation
Economical
Social
Environmental
2. Information Structuring
System Dimensions and Hierarchical Scales
International, National, Regional, Local
3. MCE Algorithm
Criteria
Selection
Alternatives
Evaluation
Citizen
Participation
Mixed Information
Step 2: Diffusion of results
Existence of
multiple values
2. School visits
3. Citizens meetings
4. International
Symposium
Technical and
Social Rankings

19. Consequences: 3) ETHICS MATTERS

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

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

22. Desirable Properties for SMCE Aggregation Conventions

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

26. Is SMCE relevant for the study of Sustainability?

27. Yang: ECONOMICS
GDP

28. Yin: ECOLOGY

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

30. 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)

31. SMCE
MCDM
MCDA
PMCE
MCDM
MCDA