Reconciling the 'Global' and 'Local' by Using the Soft Systems Methodology: A Case of Building Trust Relationships in South Africa

摘要

A systems methodology has been presented for coping with globalization by analyzing a case of `building trust relationships' in a Ban in South Africa. The traditional interpretation of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) of Peter Checkland is reinterpreted drawing on the notions of "reality" and "actuality" as developed by the Japanese psychiatrist Bin Kimura. Through the application of this reinterpreted SSM in a bank in South Africa it is demonstrated that the accommodation that forms the basis of trust is actualized via the application of the methodology. The interplay between the real and the actual is the fundamental insight provided by the reinterpretation of the SSM. It is contended that it is this very dynamic that feature that forms the basis of the reconciliation between the "global" and" local". Furthermore, it is this process that implicitly facilitated the absorption of foreign cultures into the Japanese culture in ways that maintained the `local.' If this argument proves convincing it may form the basis of a whole new way of thinking about development and globalization in the age of mass modernization.