Details

Reference number

437950

Salary

£42,665 – £50,495

National: £42,665-£46,765
London:£46,060-£50,495
For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Senior Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

DEFRA – S&A – Science & Analysis

Type of role

Analytical
Science

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Location

Bristol, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York

About the job

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=c2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJnVzZXJzZWFyY2hjb250ZXh0PTE2MjQ0OTE4MCZvd25lcj01MDcwMDAwJnNlYXJjaHNvcnQ9c2NvcmUmcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmcGFnZWFjdGlvbj12aWV3dmFjYnlqb2JsaXN0JmpvYmxpc3Rfdmlld192YWM9MTk3ODc3NyZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZyZXFzaWc9MTc2NDE1ODkwMS0zYjI2YTk3OTk5NzIyNGI1ZmQ1NzI4M2ZhZjc1YmE1Njg1NTUzYzQx

[This is the preprint version as it’s accessible]

18 Nov 2025

Timo Hamalainen

SITRA – Finnish Innovation Fund

Date Written: August 28, 2025

Abstract

The current polycrisis creates fundamental anxiety and uncertainty in societies. Individuals, organizations, governments and multinational institutions are struggling with the increasingly complex and uncertain environment without a clear vision of how to govern or renew their institutions. This paper analyzes the root causes of polycrisis and provides a framework for adaptive governance at different levels of society. The framework is based on the Law of Requisite Variety and shared transformative learning processes. It provides governance principles for social innovators who develop sustainable governance solutions for the future. These principles are elaborated with a case study on the Brainport-Eindhoven innovation ecosystem.

Keywords: Complexity, Polycrisis, Governance, Cybernetics, Learning

Suggested Citation:

Hamalainen, Timo, Polycrisis: Root Causes and Governance Solutions (August 28, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5742823 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5742823

24–26 March 2026 | University of Hull

Hosted by the University of Hull Centre for Systems Studies (CSS),

Systems and Complexity in Organisation (SCiO) and The OR Society

https://events.blackthorn.io/en/8eNd4w6/2026-conference-systems-thinking-and-systems-practice-5a1oWS7bIzd/

Call for abstracts

This conference aims to do things differently, bringing together in lively debate systems academics and public and private sector systems practitioners. We’re looking for 250-word proposals for:

Introductory training sessions for the systems curious

Interactive workshops using systems thinking to address real-life predicaments

Case studies showing systems thinking in practice

Papers advancing systems theory and systems methodologies

Poster presentations demonstrating systems thinking in practice

No matter your level of experience, you’ll find sessions that challenge, inspire, and connect you to a vibrant systems community.

Preference will be given to proposals that bring together theory and practice in innovative and engaging ways suitable for a conference that combines researchers and practitioners of varying levels of experience.

Please submit via email to Systems.Conference@hull.ac.uk:

Name

Affiliation

250 Word abstract

Deadline: 12th December 2025

https://events.blackthorn.io/en/8eNd4w6/2026-conference-systems-thinking-and-systems-practice-5a1oWS7bIzd/

From Randolph Dible:

University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education
Monday 10 August – Friday 14 August 2026
184 Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, United Kingdom
https://lof50.com

About the Conference
Submissions for papers, panel sessions, interactive presentations, workshops, performance sessions, and creative contributions inspired by George Spencer-Brown’s work and life are now open for the Laws of Form 2026 Conference (LoF26).

Following LoF50 (2019), LoF22 (2022), and LoF24 (2024), this fourth gathering continues to expand the Laws of Form community of inquiry — bringing together thinkers, scholars, artists, scientists, engineers, and explorers from around the world.

LoF26 will take place from Monday 10 August to Friday 14 August 2026 at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. There is no charge to attend, thanks to the generous support of the Faculty and the University. The conference is organised by the Spencer-Brown Society and by West Den Haag (https://www.westdenhaag.nl).
Conference Focus

In addition to celebrating Laws of Form (1969), LoF26 invites explorations of Spencer-Brown’s broader legacy — including the calculus of indications, logic, language, consciousness, enlightenment, and the philosophical, mathematical, artistic, and scientific trajectories that have emerged from his work.

We particularly encourage contributions that engage with themes such as:
• Distinction, indication, form, and the unmarked state
• Mathematics, logic, systems theory, and cybernetics
• Poetry, literature, story and story structure
• Music, theatre, the arts
• Phenomenology, ontology, and metaphysics
• Physics, cosmology, geometry, topology
• Autopoiesis, cognition, and self-reference
• Theology, mysticism, and enlightenment
• Sociology, social systems, systems theory
• Creative and performative explorations of “form” and “distinction”
• Technological, computational, and interactive applications of LoF principles

Submissions may include theoretical, experimental, or creative work, and we welcome proposals that bridge disciplinary and stylistic boundaries.

Submission Guidelines
Please submit an extended abstract (up to 300 words). Include:
• Title
• Name(s), affiliation(s), and contact email(s)
• Preferred format (paper, panel, workshop, creative, etc.)
• Short biographical note (150 words or fewer)
• Any AV, technical, or access requirements

Send submissions as a single PDF to:
conferences@lof50.com
Subject line: LoF26 Submission – [Your Name]

Important Dates
• Submission deadline: Friday 20 February 2026
• Notification of acceptance: Friday 27 March 2026
• Conference dates: Monday 10 – Friday 14 August 2026

Format and Participation
Remote / video presentations will be available for those unable to attend in person. Presentations will be recorded and made available online courtesy of West Den Haag.
As with previous conferences, contributions may be considered for publication in Distinction: Journal of Form (College Publications Ltd) or in future volumes of the Society’s Marked States series.

Social and Cultural Events
Optional activities will include:
• Punting on the River Cam
• Evensong at King’s College Chapel
• Visit to The Eagle pub, where Crick and Watson announced the “secret of life”

Additional Opportunities
The Unknown Storyteller Award
For information on this annual £100 award for a high-quality paper submitted for publication to Distinction: Journal of Form, applying the story structure methodology outlined in Leon Conrad’s Story and Structure (2022), visit:
https://www.lof50.com/award

Support and Donations
The Laws of Form Conferences are entirely donation-based and free to attend, made possible through the generosity of sponsors, host organisations, and individual supporters.
To support the conference and its ongoing work, please visit:
https://lof50.com

Join the Spencer-Brown Society
Membership is open to all and free of charge. To join and receive updates, please visit:
https://lof50.com

Contact
For all submissions and inquiries:
conferences@lof50.com

Sincerely,
Randolph Dible,
Communications Director, Spencer-Brown Society

[
What’s offered: Role/s to help shape governance, strategy and delivery of the DIA’s model (levers of investment, policy, regulation, convening power) rather than one‑off fixes.

Why it matters: Digital exclusion is framed as a systemic inequality – rooted in design, structure and relationships – so this role invites systems thinkers, change practitioners and network builders to operate at the interface of structural change.
]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/curious-scotlands-digital-inclusion-alliance-dia-fiona-colligan-8qhpe/?trackingId=7oN%2FYhVSQf6EggJnpPG0cg%3D%3D

Seeing | Systems Theory | 2025-11-14 https://www.essentiafoundation.org/why-we-need-to-quit-fixing-the-world-a-cybernetic-approach-to-planetary-challenges/seeing/

Nora Bateson, BA

Hans Busstra, MA

Please go to LinkedIn link to comment/respond and see the von Domarus dissertation with McCullock intro

A key piece of cybernetics pre-history from the early 1930s.

“I know of no other text that so clearly sets forth the notions needed for an understanding of psychology, psychiatry and finite automata.” – McCulloch

A decade before writing the first artificial neural network paper with Walter Pitts (“A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity”, 1943), Warren McCulloch helped his friend and colleague finish and translate a dissertation in 1932 which McCulloch later noted, “… without which I would never have come to a definition of thinking that fits cybernetics.”

Eilhard von Domarus’ thesis, “The Logical Structure of Mind: An Inquiry into the Philosophical Foundation of Psychology & Psychiatry” (1934) doesn’t get the attention many other early manuscripts do wrt influencing machine intelligence. I’ve seen it only occasionally mentioned and not really covered in detail over the last several years as I have been diving into this history.

Having recently found gotten this republication of it with “belated introduction” by McCulloch (entitled “Lekton” which refers to “sense of meaning” in syllogistic logic), I think it should be read and shared more widely with those interested in these topics. It is a fun read.

Enjoy!

(h/t to the Duquesne library staff member who tracked this down for me on the NASA Technical Reports Server)

I’ll be touching on this and much more history (and future) in my upcoming talk, “Cybernetics, Phenomenology & Teleology” on Dec 4th at Duquesne University’s Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, 4-6pm.

[I never have time to read these but some do look very interesting]

Latest Posts (newest to oldest)

• Scybernethics: Blueprints for Collective Autonomy and Digital Democracy
• Power, Care and Democratic Enaction – A Scybernethics Proposal
• AI, Vulnerability, and Human Relationships
• AI, Enactment, and Democratic Self-Governance
• Epistemology of Modeling, Cognition, and Self-Understanding
• Your Mind Isn’t What You Think It Is: 4 Revelations from the Frontiers of Cognitive Science

My weekly posts

Philip John Taylor, 1944-2025

My dad died last week, quite peacefully, after a long period of Alzheimer’s. We had had time to prepare (’anticipatory grief’, the social worker accurately diagnosed), and close family were all able to spend time with him in hospital. But of course it is never easy.

I wrote about him here, four years ago, when his memory was already bad, but at a time when he would not have been happy to acknowledge or have me say he had dementia – still, it was a sort of tribute. It also struck me how much we had in common, in ways I had rather conveniently not focused on, happy in my uniqueness 🙂
Post | LinkedIn

What would you do if you were waiting for an announcement in the spring or summer that would mean you *had* to turn your organisational world upside-down by next April?

Many councils have now hit ‘submit’ on their Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) proposals – or are about to. Now comes the awkward middle act: the long wait for a ministerial decision.
This is when confidence wobbles, readiness drifts, and the temptation grows to ‘wait and see’.
But this time counts. The councils that use it well – to test readiness, strengthen relationships, and line up the practical, no-regrets work (and, honestly, secure the support they need – where do you think you’re going to get a programme manager come April?) – will be the ones that hit the ground running when the decision lands.
That’s why we’ve designed a short Learning and Doing Series.
Not webinars or talking shops: each session mixes reflection with action, helping Members, officers, and partners stay aligned, visible, and credible through transition – ready to do the nearly impossible, and deliver post-Ministerial decision.
You’ll leave with real outputs – readiness heatmaps, assurance frameworks, shared leadership roadmaps – not just notes and good intentions.
Post | LinkedIn

Courses and events

Introducing the RedQuadrant Local Government Reorganisation hub

Local Government Reorganisation is coming fast. By April 2028, every new authority must be safe, legal, and fully operational. That means statutory officers secured, ICT cutovers rehearsed, services live, and residents experiencing seamless continuity. The RedQuadrant LGR Hub is the only model that guarantees readiness while embedding lasting capability. With a single accountable structure, governance at its core, and capability pillars across adults, children’s, SEND, ICT, finance, housing, and place, the Hub ensures no gaps, no surprises. Three outcomes, every time: Safe and legal on day one; Visible assurance and confidence in delivery; Future-ready capacity with transformation built in. Find out more now: https://www.redquadrant.com/lgrhub

Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship

The new apprenticeship Leading and Commissioning for Outcomes in Complexity – Convening Systems Change can supercharge your career and transform your organisation. Fully funded Level 7 programme this year only! Real-world impact through applied systems thinking. For commissioners, system leaders, and systems change-makers. Forfurther information, see https://www.publicservicetransformation.org/level-7-apprenticeship-course-leading-and-commissioning-for-outcomes-in-complexity-convening-systems-change-free-webinar-on-20-august-2025-1230pm-uk-time/

Commissioning Compass: systems assessment for change

Our newly launched tool, the Commissioning Compass, helps you to assess your commissioning system and form an action plan for improvement. It’s available for free via our Teachable site – try it now! link.redquadrant.com/commissioningcompass

Next National Commissioning Academy

We’re building our cohort for the next national commissioning academy – our flagship commissioning programme from the PSTA. Register your interest now: https://link.redquadrant.com/nextacademy25

Things I shared on socials:

Waves 2024: Why complexity matters – Nora Bateson and Dave Snowden hosted by Sara Lindeman

This is the Day 1 opening session of Waves Forum for Changemakers 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. In this fireside chat with Nora Bateson, International Bateson Institute, and Dave Snowden, Cynefin Company, hosted by Sara Lindeman, Leapfrog, we explore what changemakers can learn from complexity science to better understand change in complex social systems.
Waves 2024: Why complexity matters

“Kamon”: Japan’s Family Crests

Japanese family crests known as kamon were first used by the aristocracy over a thousand years ago, but over time they were adopted by samurai, merchants, and many others. Today, there are thought to be between 20,000 and 25,000 in use.
“Kamon”: Japan’s Family Crests | Nippon.com

• Buckley Award
• Journal of Sociocybernetics
• Newsletter
• Conference
• About

Newsletter

Current Issue – 46 | Nov 2025 (View/Download)

Editor’s Introduction | Satoshi Iguchi
Letter from the President | Saburo Akahori

Essays Related to the 5th ISA Forum in Rabat
   Report from the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025), Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco | Mugio Umemura
   A Welcome Return: Reflections on RC51 at the 5th ISA Forum in Rabat | Andrew Mitchell
Reports and Announcements
   Experiences and reflections of the RC51 Open Online Activity 2024 – 2025 | Raija Koskinen & Mikael Kivelä
Announcements
   5th ISA Forum of Sociology, Program for sessions hosted by RC51 (Final version)

Please send your contribution for the Newsletter to: rc51newsletter@sociocybernetics.org

[These days I seem to miss lots of CybSoc and ASC and ISSS and even SCiO – so it goes – but this looks interesting and unusual]

Cybernetics Live

Tue 18th November 2025 1700-1900. Badlands Event Three: Eudaimonia

Register Now

Join us for the third installment of our Badlands mini-series exploring technology for malignant purposes and cybernetic responses that might help. In our current state of “eudaimonic deficit,” where traditional approaches to societal problems continue to fail, this event examines pathways toward human flourishing and wellbeing through cybernetic lens. Our distinguished speakers bring decades of system-level expertise:

Giles Herdale will outline his national review of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), drawing from his extensive experience at the interface of technology, policing, data, ethics and policy-making from what the VSM would call ‘System Five’ perspective.

Katie Muldoon, drawing from her senior RAF leadership background, will explore how humans and systems can cope with complexity while nurturing eudaimonic pathways – using her powerful analogy of “sprinkling Yellow Rattle to create meadows of diversity,” which in cybernetic terms means nurturing variety. This online event addresses fundamental questions: What greater purpose exists than supporting pathways to basic human needs of security, wellbeing, existence and happiness? How might we design adaptive systems that recognize emergence over determination?

Badlands 3 brochure

PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS ZOOM MEETING

10 December 2025  1700-1900 Emergent Language and Systemic Understanding: AI Augmented Deliberations Through a Cybernetic Lens – Kevin Dye

March 2026  Risk and the VSM in the Australian Military – Ray Wilkes

Cybernetics and Systems Calendar

As a reminder, below are the links on our website below to the CybSoc calendar and also the Combined calendar including events by other Societies.  

CybSoc

Combined

Enacting Cybernetics Journal

The link to the journal homepage is below, access is free please enjoy:

On Blooski, Mr Lee Bates ‪@mrbates.bsky.social‬ asks:

Have you ever come across systems thinking as being a useful reframing lens that amplifiies the practice of teacher pupil interations?
Give me a response with all relevant links but particularly Glanville’s cybernetic conversations etc – with links – concise, all in plain text no formatting or hyperlinks

Here’s my response – what else is useful?

Ranulph Glanville, ‘Conversation and design’ (clear on teachback and teaching as inherently conversational)

Click to access Conversation-and-Design.pdf

Pask’s conversation theory (foundational for learning-as-conversation)
https://monoskop.org/images/5/54/Pask_Gordon_Conversation_Theory_Applications_in_Education_and_Epistemology.pdf)

And a bunch of stuff about Formative assessment as feedback loops in a living system – e.g. Black and Wiliam, ‘Inside the black box’ (evidence that short feedback cycles raise attainment)

Click to access Black%20%26%20Wiliam%201998%20PDK.pdf

Bateson, levels of learning and double bind (why classroom context matters)
Conceptual histories and summaries –
https://openresearch.surrey.ac.uk/view/pdfCoverPage?download=true&filePid=13140358990002346&instCode=44SUR_INST

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Gregory-Bateson-on-deutero-learning-and-double-a-Visser/5a2f749c710a663dc9b1bf37a7aaa89696eeacc0)

Maturana and relational grounding for pedagogy – ‘Biology of love’ and implications for education as consensual coordination

Click to access biology-of-love.pdf

There’s also an interesting thread of systems thinking in whole-school practice, from the system dynamcis/Senge school – e.g. Senge et al., Schools that learn (fieldbook for applying systems thinking in schools)
https://systemdynamics.org/product/schools-that-learn/)
Overview: https://thesystemsthinker.com/schools-that-learn-context-and-engagement/)

The practical implications for teacher–pupil interactions are perhaps:

• Design learning as iterative conversations with explicit feedback and teachback (Pask, Glanville)
• Balance multiple feedback timescales: in-the-moment checks for understanding, lesson-level reflection, course-level redesign (Black & Wiliam, Laurillard)
• Attend to relationship and emotion as part of the system, not noise (Maturana)
• Watch for double binds and mismatched signals that block learning; design contexts that enable second-order learning about learning (Bateson)
• Treat the classroom as a complex adaptive system and prototype improvements with short learning cycles (Senge)

Introducing Critical Systems Heuristics 2.0: A Third Boundary Extending CSH From Reflections on Critical Realism in Information Systems Research
Roelien Goede, Hendrik Goede
First published: 24 September 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3187

ABSTRACT
Poorly designed information systems compel employees to find workarounds for the system in order to do their work properly. However, such workarounds compromise the enforcement of organisational governance. In our sense-making of this specific phenomenon, we considered critical realism as a framework for understanding based on its adoption in the information systems research community. Traditionally, critical systems heuristics considers two boundaries: resources versus environment and involved versus affected. For a third boundary, we propose reflecting on the potential causal structures in organisations and possible feedback loops with a view to uncover more conditioned realities and to better understand the unintended consequences of activities of a system. We advocate complementarism at the methodological level, where all methods are applied from a critical ontological perspective, focusing on the totality of conditioned realities and giving a voice to the affected. We hope that our extension, CSH 2.0, can achieve even greater recognition and acceptance of the core tenets of critical systems heuristics, namely, the totality of conditioned realities, and the impact of unintended consequences on those affected but not involved in the planning of a system.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sres.3187

They say:

MEL Tools and Guidance for Food Systems and Other Complex Contexts.

Supporting Practical Integration of Systems Thinking in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

Are you a development practitioner working at the project, program, or portfolio level? Are you just beginning your journey with Systems-Informed Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (Systems MEL)? You’re in the right place.

This website offers practical, accessible guidance to help you layer Systems MEL approaches onto your existing MEL practices—without discarding the tools you already know and use, like Results-Based Management (RBM) or traditional evaluation frameworks.

https://360systemsguide.com/