Relationships & ImplicationsMight it be a good idea to know what you’re in the midst of?Gene Bellinger

Relationships & Implications – by Gene Bellinger

Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, 1994, signed by B. Nicolescu, E. Morin and L. de Freitas

The Charter of Transdisciplinarity | Inters.org

The Charter of Transdisciplinarity

Basarab Nicolescu

1994

Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, 1994, signed by B. Nicolescu, E. Morin and L. de Freitas

The “Charter of Transdisciplinarity” offered here appears as the first appendix to Nicolescu’s Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity (2002). Actually, however, the Charter has been adopted at the First World Congress of Transdisciplinarity, held in 1994. In the author’s view, “transdisciplinarity” defines a space for synthesis “across, between and beyond” disciplines. It is worth noting the deep anthropological import of transdisciplinarity (evident throughout the Charter), as well as the values of rigour, opening and tolerance mentioned in Article 14. Nicolescu’s promotion of transdisciplinarity is still in progress at present.

Preamble

Whereas, the present proliferation of academic and nonacademic disciplines is leading to an exponential increase of knowledge which makes a global view of the human being impossible;

Whereas, only a form of intelligence capable of grasping the cosmic dimension of the present conflicts is able to confront the complexity of our world and the present challenge of the spiritual and material self-destruction of the human species;

Whereas, life on earth is seriously threatened by the triumph of a techno-science that obeys only the terrible logic of efficacy of efficacy’s sake;

Whereas, the present rupture between increasingly quantitative knowledge and increasingly impoverished inner identity is leading to the rise of a new brand of obscurantism with incalculable social and personal consequences;

Whereas, an historically unprecedented growth of knowledge is increasing the inequality between those who have and those who do not, thus engendering increasing inequality within and between the different nations of our planet;

Whereas, at the same time, hope is the counterpart of all the afore-mentioned challenges, a hope that this extraordinary development of knowledge could eventually lead to an evolution not unlike the development of primates into human beings;

Therefore, in consideration of all the above, the participants of the First World Congress of Transdisciplinarity (Convento da Arrábida, Portugal, November 2-7, 1994) have adopted the present Charter, which comprises the fundamental principles of the community of transdisciplinary researchers, and constitutes a personal moral commitment, without any legal or institutional constraint, on the part of everyone who signs this Charter .

Article 1:

Any attempt to reduce the human being by formally defining what a human being is and subjecting the human being to reductive analyses within a framework of formal structures, no matter what they are, is incompatible with the transdisciplinary vision.

Article 2:

The recognition of the existence of different levels of reality governed by different types of logic is inherent in the transdisciplinary attitude. Any attempt to reduce reality to a single level governed by a single form of logic does not lie within the scope of Transdisciplinarity.

Article 3:

Transdisciplinarity complements disciplinary approaches. It occasions the emergence of new data and new interactions from out of the encounter between disciplines. It offers us a new vision of nature and reality. Transdisciplinarity does not strive for mastery of several disciplines but aims to open all disciplines to that which they share and to that which lies beyond them.

Article 4:

The keystone of Transdisciplinarity is the semantic and practical unification of the meanings that traverse and lie beyond different disciplines. It presupposes an open-minded rationality by re-examining the concepts of “definition” and “objectivity.” An excess of formalism, rigidity of definitions and a claim to total objectivity, entailing the exclusion of the subject, can only have a life-negating effect.

Article 5:

The transdisciplinary vision is resolutely open insofar as it goes beyond the field of the exact sciences and demands their dialogue and their reconciliation with the humanities and the social sciences as well as with art, literature, poetry and spiritual experience.

Article 6:

In comparison with interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity is multireferential and multidimensional. While taking account of the various approaches to time and history, transdisciplinarity does not exclude a transhistorical horizon.

Article 7:

Transdisciplinarity constitutes neither a new religion, nor a new philosophy, nor a new metaphysics, nor a science of sciences.

Article 8:

The dignity of the human being is of both planetary and cosmic dimensions. The appearance of human beings on Earth is one of the stages in the history of the Universe. The recognition of the Earth as our home is one of the imperatives of transdisciplinarity. Every human being is entitled to a nationality, but as an inhabitant of the Earth is also a transnational being. The acknowledgement by international law of this twofold belonging, to a nation and to the Earth, is one of the goals of transdisciplinary research.

Article 9:

Transdisciplinarity leads to an open attitude towards myths and religions, and also towards those who respect them in a transdisciplinary spirit.

Article 10:

No single culture is privileged over any other culture. The transdisciplinary approach is inherently transcultural.

Article 11:

Authentic education cannot value abstraction over other forms of knowledge. It must teach contextual, concrete and global approaches. Transdisciplinary education revalues the role of intuition, imagination, sensibility and the body in the transmission of knowledge.

Article 12:

The development of a transdisciplinary economy is based on the postulate that the economy must serve the human being and not the reverse.

Article 13:

The transdisciplinary ethic rejects any attitude that refuses dialogue and discussion, regardless of whether the origin of this attitude is ideological, scientistic, religious, economic, political or philosophical. Shared knowledge should lead to a shared understanding based on an absolute respect for the collective and individual Otherness united by our common life on one and the same Earth.

Article 14:

Rigor, opening and tolerance are the fundamental characteristics of the transdisciplinary attitude and vision. Rigor in argument, taking into account of all existing data, is the best defense against possible distortions. Opening involves an acceptance of the unknown, the unexpected and the unpredictable. Tolerance implies acknowledging the right to ideas and truths opposed to our own.

Final Article:

The present Charter of Transdisciplinarity was adopted by the participants of the first World Congress of Transdisciplinarity, with no claim to any authority other than that of their own work and activity.

In accordance with procedures to be agreed upon by transdisciplinary-minded persons of all countries, this Charter is open to the signature of anyone who is interested in promoting progressive national, international and transnational measures to ensure the application of these Articles in everyday life.

Convento de Arrábida, November 6, 1994

Editorial Committee: Lima de Freitas, Edgar Morin, Basarab Nicolescu

B. Nicolescu, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, translated by K. Claire Voss (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), pp. 147-152.

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Systems Thinking for Creative and Flexible Practice

Systems Research and Behavioral Science – Wiley Online Library

Special Issue Call for Papers: Systems East & West 2.0

For more information, please see here.

Submission Deadline: 28 February 2022

Please note all special issue papers must be submitted through the ScholarOne site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/srbs

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Call for Papers: Special Issue on Alexander Bogdanov

For more information, please see here.

Submission Deadline: 30 April 2022

Please note all special issue papers must be submitted through the ScholarOne site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/srbs

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Call for Papers: Special Issue on Systems Thinking for Creative and Flexible Practice

For more information, please see here.

Submission Deadline: 31 August 2022

Please note all special issue papers must be submitted through the ScholarOne site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/srbs

Haven’t come across this before (the site was set up, I think, in November 2021). Comes across as very ‘sales-y’ and there are certainly some books in the ‘top 35’ that I wouldn’t choose – quite interesting.

35 Greatest Systems Thinking Books of All Time

• dateFebruary 17, 2022

35 Greatest Systems Thinking Books of All Time

Why isn’t my systems change initiative making an impact?

https://bryanlindsley.com/the-fail-list/

Systems Thinking Training: How to make more impact

• February 15,2022

Systems Thinking Training: How to make more impact

No-Bullshit Systems Change: all you need in just 10 min

• February 8, 2022

No-Bullshit Systems Change: all you need in just 10 min

How To Solve Complex Problems

• February 1, 2022

How To Solve Complex Problems

Our Systems Change Frameworks We at The Systems Sanctuary teach and train people who want to create the conditions for systemic change. We use many frameworks and tools to do this. Here are some of the frameworks we have created ourselves (along with a few favorites created by others).

Our frameworks — The Systems Sanctuary

book free via

SCiO UK Virtual Open Meeting – March 2022 | SCiO

SCiO organises Open Meetings to provide opportunities for practitioners to learn and develop new practice, to build relationships, networks hear about skills, tools, practice and experiences. This virtual session will be held on Zoom, the details of which will be confirmed nearer the time.

There will be two sessions during this open meeting.

This meeting replaces a provisional F2F event, moved back online due to Covid – it will NOT be held in London as originally planned.

Designing Freedom Together

Roger Duck and Jane Searles will share their recent experience of creating conditions to enable exploration of transformational systemic change. The work involved the collaborative development of a visionary whole system transition architecture. The specific context was regional transport, but the … Read more

Jane Searles

Roger Duck

The Grammar of Systems

Patrick will talk about his new book ‘The Grammar of Systems’ which is in two parts: the ‘Grammar’ describing 33 Systems Laws and Principles and how to use them; and ‘How to think like a Systems Thinker’ which goes through 9 thought patterns involved in systems thinking. In the session we’ll loo… Read more

Patrick Hoverstadt

SCiO UK Virtual Open Meeting – March 2022 Mon 21 March 2022 18:30–20:30  GMT Event type: Open Meeting Organiser(s): SCiO UK Event access: All welcome Book now SCiO UK Virtual Open Meeting – March 2022 Virtual Open Meeting: A series of presentations of general interest to Systems & Complexity in Organisation’s members and others.

SCiO UK Virtual Open Meeting – March 2022 | SCiO

I’m including this here mostly because I was absolutely blown away by this conversation, and I want more people to listen to it. It’s four hours, sorry.

And it isn’t really ‘systems thinking’ per se. But the effortlessness with which they – especially the guest, Shrayan Bhattacharya – shift between the ‘topics’ of economy, art, movies, taste, sexism, society, economy, change, joy, sexuality, politics, and so on – almost as if they weren’t actually ‘topics’ at all, but one interrelated weaving of lives – is beautiful and very appropriate. And it’s hella metamodern (to coin a phrase), it’s about fandom and trivia and media mix and the collective journey and the female gaze on the economy. It’s quite brilliant.

10 Jan 2022 Episode 259: The Loneliness of the Indian Woman Indian women are lonely in the bedroom, lonely in the kitchen, lonely in the workplace. Shrayana Bhattacharya joins Amit Varma in episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the interior and exterior lives of these unseen millions.

Episode 259: The Loneliness of the Indian Woman | The Seen and the Unseen

IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH BY UTILIZING A SYSTEMS CHANGE LENS

https://jphmpdirect.com/2022/02/15/improving-public-health-by-utilizing-a-systems-change-lens/

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Lloyd F. Novick

JPHMP Editor-in-chief Lloyd Novick speaks with Kristina Y. Risley and Christina R. Welter about best practices for enacting change at different levels while describing the factors, processes, skills, and tools required for leading complex change. 

We live in an increasingly complex world. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening racial, health, and social inequities have only accentuated this complexity. More than a traditional behavioral change approach is needed to address systemic challenges. Creating genuine, effective, equitable, and lasting change in our systems and institutions requires that we expand who we involve and how we think to ask questions that get to the root of problems and lead to solutions that work for everyone — especially those who are most impacted by our systems.

Written for public health practitioners and partners, Leading Systems Change in Public Health: A Field Guide for Practitioners provides an inclusive process and framework with tools for implementing change that leads to transformation. This comprehensive resource translates academic and practice experiences into a roadmap that is approachable and easy to use, regardless of where you or your institution are on the journey to change. Leading Systems Change also features real-life public health systems change initiatives that apply concepts explored in the book.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with two of the book’s editors, Kristina Risley and Christina Welter. 

Kristina Risley

Kristina Y. Risley, DrPH, CPCC, is an Executive and Leadership Coach with Kris Risley Coaching. She has served the public health field in this role since being certified with the Co-Active Coaching Institute in 2004. Dr. Risley earned her DrPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also has a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology; she has a sincere interest in the intersection of human and public health workforce development.

Christina Welter

Christina R. Welter, DrPH, MPH is a nationally recognized policy practitioner, visionary leader, and practice-based researcher committed to helping organizations and communities co-create equity-centered systems change. She is the Director of the Doctorate in Public Health Leadership Program and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health. Dr. Welter’s scholarship focuses on mixed-method participatory action research and evaluation approaches to understand and address the structural determinants of health; facilitate learning, leadership development, and power building for structural change; and drive policy and systems change toward racial and economic justice.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022 What Causes Complexity? Mun-Wai Hosted by Mun-Wai

What Causes Complexity? | Meetup

Explaining behaviour through the sequence of changes that occurred over the course of evolution, with an example of how basic feedback control of interaction was elaborated during vertebrate evolution to give rise to the functional architecture of the mammalian brain.

Time for Action: Reaching for a Better Understanding of the Dynamics of Cognition Open Access Published: 03 June 2019 Resynthesizing behavior through phylogenetic refinement Paul Cisek 

Resynthesizing behavior through phylogenetic refinement | SpringerLink

Abstract

This article proposes that biologically plausible theories of behavior can be constructed by following a method of “phylogenetic refinement,” whereby they are progressively elaborated from simple to complex according to phylogenetic data on the sequence of changes that occurred over the course of evolution. It is argued that sufficient data exist to make this approach possible, and that the result can more effectively delineate the true biological categories of neurophysiological mechanisms than do approaches based on definitions of putative functions inherited from psychological traditions. As an example, the approach is used to sketch a theoretical framework of how basic feedback control of interaction with the world was elaborated during vertebrate evolution, to give rise to the functional architecture of the mammalian brain. The results provide a conceptual taxonomy of mechanisms that naturally map to neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data and that offer a context for defining putative functions that, it is argued, are better grounded in biology than are some of the traditional concepts of cognitive science.

A global gathering for systems innovators…  Si Conference  London PAST CONFERENCE What  Si London Conference will be a unique 2 day event bringing together a diverse community of systems thinkers, systems changers and innovators When The event will take place in person in London UK, for two full days on May Friday 13th and Saturday 14th, 2022

Systems Innovation Platform

The 6 tensions between design and management / David Dunne / Circle #06 Service Design Show

The 6 tensions between design and management / David Dunne / Circle #06 by Service Design Show

Nice gentle systems thinking in the above.

The Service Design show has had some very good guests recently, see

FEB 20 Thinking Transversally by American Society for Cybernetics

Thinking Transversally Tickets, Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite

source:

Competence in Complexity

Competence in Complexity

The Competence in Complexity programme offers a year-long process for participants to develop their 21st century competencies and to demonstrate them in practice in effective, transformative action.  Download: details of next Programme May 2022 – May 2023 The programme is hosted in our online Atelier space, a dedicated virtual space for participants to connect, converse, share and access materials, resources and insights and to remain ‘on campus’ throughout in a dedicated community of practice.   All workshops in the programme are conducted online to allow for international participation.   The curriculum is designed around three modules (see graphic).  Each is designed to be a valuable and rounded experience in itself.  We recommend, however, that participants take the full programme in order to gain maximum benefit from a supported learning environment designed for slow, substantial growth and development over the course of a full year.

more info: Competence in Complexity

Competence in Complexity

pdf:

Click to access INVITATION_Competence_in_Complexity_Programme_Spring_2022_full.pdf