Panarchy and Ecocycle

Changes across levels

Laura Wagner and Moritz Mähr

License and attribution

The structures and illustrations used in this session are adapted under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 from the original work of Keith McCandless, Henri Lipmanowicz and Nancy White found at www.liberatingstructures.com and the Liberating Structures Fieldbook (2026). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

These slides are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The diagrams are original drawings. The deck uses no Liberating Structures icons.

Read the attribution briefly. It is a license condition, and it tells participants where to learn more.

Learning question

What changes across interconnected levels would make generative AI use in academic research more responsible?

This is the default challenge. Use the version that the group agreed on before lunch.

1. Levels change at different speeds

• Small, local levels change fast: a project can change next week.
• Large levels change slowly: a university, an industry, or a law changes over years.
• Panarchy helps a group “identify opportunities and obstacles for spreading ideas at multiple levels”.

Liberating Structures, Panarchy; Holling (2001) on the adaptive cycle.

Use the image of nested dolls: zoom in, zoom out.

2. Influence runs both ways

• Ideas and experiments can spread upwards.
• Resources, rules, and memory flow downwards.
• A fast level often waits for a slow one. A slow level often ignores a fast one.

3. Discover your own levels

An illustration, not a template:

individual research project → research group or department → university and research sector → model vendors and industry → regulation and society

Say clearly: the group finds its own levels. Some groups add funders, publishers, or disciplines.

The Panarchy chart

Original diagram, adapted from Liberating Structures Panarchy. CC BY-SA 4.0.

A short case

Hypothetical example

A department wants researchers to disclose their use of generative AI.

• Project level: researchers have no template and do not know what to write.
• Department level: a template would take one afternoon, but nobody owns it.
• University level: the licensed chatbot has no documented training data, so a disclosure stays vague.
• Vendor level: the vendor gains from vagueness.

Leverage: the department writes the template (fast), and asks the university to add documentation to the next procurement (slow).

This example is invented for teaching.

Panarchy: 120 minutes and a break

Steps	Minutes	What happens
1	5	Frame the challenge
2–5	35	Identify influences, sort them into levels, compare, build one chart
6–7	25	Diagnose neglected levels and uneven resources, share diagnoses
8	30	Afternoon break
9–10	25	Find opportunities and barriers across levels, share them
11–12	25	Vote for three priorities, commit to actions with 1-2-4-All
13	5	Arrange the follow-up

The durations of the working steps follow Liberating Structures. Step labels adapted.

The facilitator guide gives the spoken prompt for each step. Keep this slide visible during the session. Before the vote in step 11, record each objection about consent, rights, or a burden on one group. The vote does not settle it.

1-2-4-All

• 1 minute alone: what can I do in the next month?
• 2 minutes in pairs: share and sharpen.
• 4 minutes in fours: find actions that fit together, and allies across levels.
• All: each group shares its strongest action.

Ecocycle: a 30-minute adaptation

The full Ecocycle Planning takes about 90 minutes. This is a shortened adaptation. Original diagram, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Phases and traps

Phase or trap	Meaning
Birth	A new idea or experiment
Maturity	An established, productive practice
Creative destruction	Letting go, which frees resources
Renewal	Reflection and exploration before the next birth
Rigidity trap	Holding on to a practice that no longer works
Scarcity trap	Not investing enough in new ideas

Activity: Ecocycle · 30 minutes

1. Hear the four phases. (5 min)
2. Place the priority initiatives on the Ecocycle. (5 min)
3. Find the initiatives in the scarcity trap and in the rigidity trap. (10 min)
4. Propose a move for each trapped initiative. (5 min)
5. Record concrete next steps on the action plan. (5 min)

Do not call this a full Ecocycle workshop. Keep the five steps short and strict.

Expected output

• A shared Panarchy chart with levels and annotations.
• Three priorities, with action owners and a review point.
• An Ecocycle diagnosis with the traps and the proposed moves.
• Your own next action on the action plan.

Sources

• Liberating Structures: Panarchy and Ecocycle Planning.
• McCandless and White (2026): The Liberating Structures Fieldbook.
• Holling (2001): Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems.

Takeaway

Responsible use is not only a personal choice. Find the level where a change is feasible, and the allies at the levels above and below.

Slides: CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted from Liberating Structures.

Transition to the clinic: “Now each of you applies the day to your own research use.”