ecopolicy®

On the basis of the Malik Sensitivity Model®
after Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Frederic Vester

It is the most highly developed tool for the creation of control cycles in complex systems. Traditional models control the flow of energy and materials. This tool, however, makes a much more important dimension visible, namely what the system makes out of the elements – the interdependency.

ecopolicy® in the Town of Tulln – Students Advise Politicians

The town of Tulln became the first pilot community in December 2011 to establish financial capacities for forward-looking projects using Malik Syntegration®. The youth of Tulln were involved on behalf of their town. Following Syntegration and teaching training, a total of almost 1,000 students from five different schools in Tulln played ecopolicy. The best 25 were given the opportunity to work with the Malik Sensitivity Model® and present their results to local politicians. Examples of topics were the attractiveness of Tulln for today’s youth and in 2022, leisure and sporting opportunities, outdoor opportunities in Tulln, and school education.

Mayor Eisenschenk said that “ecopolicy and this type of thinking are the best investment for protecting our youth against one-side, populist thinking and further developing our society.”

» More on Syntegration in Lower Austria


ecopolicyade®, the Interconnected Thinking Olympics

The ecopolicyade®, the “interconnected thinking Olympics”, is based on the computer simulation game ecopolicy by biocyberneticist Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Frederic Vester, who made it possible for the first time in the world to experience the abstract cybernetics of complex systems.

In the ecopolicyade student competition, teams of two or three from the between the ages of twelve and seventeen compete against each other to find out who can best govern a fictitious state in the strategy game ecopolicy. The players manage the state by investing in eight life areas. They need to keep politics, production, environmental pollution, quality of life, land development, population growth, public information and population development in balance.

The ecopolicyade, initiated by German teacher Hans-Werner Hansen of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, was first held in this state in 2005. By 2012, the competition was being held throughout the whole of Germany. Since 2010, Malik has also been launching the ecopolicyade on an international stage.

ecopolicy/ecopolicyade on YouTube (German and English)