Biography
Dr Martin Reynolds received his BSc (Hons) in Liberal Studies in Science at the University of Manchester in 1978, and later his PhD in International Development at the Institute for International Development Policy and Management (IDPM) at the University of Manchester in 1998. In the interim he taught Science at senior secondary schools in London and in Botswana. In 1999 he worked with Gerald Midgley on a postdoctoral research project at Hull University exploring the use of systems thinking for environmental management.
He joined the Open University in December 2000. Currently Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) and Qualifications Director for the postgraduate programme in STiP. His research and teaching interests are shown below.
Research
Research and scholarship activities are primarily focused on applying critical systems thinking (CST) in relation to evaluation practices, managing the environment, business administration, and international development. Current and past activities include involvement with: US AID support for collaboration with partners in southern Africa to explore cooperative wetland management in Limpopo Basin; European funding to support Parliamentary involvement with developmental evaluation; ESRC – supported work in using critical systems heuristics for community wetland management in Guyana; EPSRC – supported work on critical systems thinking for energy security; EU funding for supporting Social Learning in Water Management (SLIM); and promoting continual professional development with Systems thinking and evaluation – designing and facilitating a series of workshops through auspices of American Evaluation Association and European Evaluation Association, including work with GIZ (in Germany) SDC (in Switzerland) and SLeVA (in Sri Lanka) and UKES (in UK). He is a co-founding member of the Open Systems Research Group which in 2013 regrouped to become the current Applied Systems Thinking in Practice (ASTiP) Network.
Teaching
Martin is currently module team chair of TD866 Environmental Responsibility: ethics, policy and action and TU811 Thinking strategically: systems tools for managing change. He is module team member and contributing author for BB847 Management Beyond the Mainstream (part of MBA programme) and T891 Making Environmental Decisions (which is replacing T863 Environmental Decision Making: A systems approach). He was previously Chair for T306 Managing Complexity: A systems approach, and module team member and author for TU872 Institutional Development: conflicts, values and meanings.
Dr Martin Reynolds
Post: Senior Lecturer in Systems
Department: Engineering And Innovation
E-Mail: martin.reynolds @ open.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 654894
Fax: 01908 652140
