Methods and Techniques of Complex Systems Science: An Overview Cosma Rohilla Shalizi (Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan) In this chapter, I review the main methods and techniques of complex systems science. As a first step, I distinguish among the broad patterns which recur across complex systems, the topics complex systems science commonly studies, the tools employed, and the foundational science of complex systems. The focus of this chapter is overwhelmingly on the third heading, that of tools. These in turn divide, roughly, into tools for analyzing data, tools for constructing and evaluating models, and tools for measuring complexity. I discuss the principles of statistical learning and model selection; time series analysis; cellular automata; agent-based models; the evaluation of complex-systems models; information theory; and ways of measuring complexity. Throughout, I give only rough outlines of techniques, so that readers, confronted with new problems, will have a sense of which ones might be suitable, and which ones definitely are not.

[nlin/0307015] Methods and Techniques of Complex Systems Science: An Overview

A history of the cybernetics movement in the United States S. Umpleby Published 2005

[PDF] A history of the cybernetics movement in the United States | Semantic Scholar

The Genealogy of Complexity 22 Dec 2021 10:09

The Genealogy of Complexity

The Genealogy of Complexity

22 Dec 2021 10:09

The construction of the universe is certainly very much easier to explain than is that of a plant. — Lichtenberg

Pinky: What are we going to do tonight, Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky — try to take over the world!

This is an outline for a book which I drafted in 2003. (The notes say they began 7 March but I kept working on it for a while that year and perhaps even the next.) This was, naturally, when I was a post-doc at the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems (after being a grad student and post-doc at SFI), and writing “Methods and Techniques of Complex Systems Science”. Since then, while I’ve mined ideas in it for some weblog posts (some of them linked to below), I’ve basically left it alone for 18 years, only to be reminded of it recently. Because an outline that’s old enough to vote is not one I am likely to get around to any time soon, I thought I might as well toss it out, in case someone else can make any use of it. Beyond adding those links, and correcting some obvious typos, I have made absolutely no attempt to bring my old outline up to date. Looking back, the biggest deficiency is that it doesn’t give enough attention to the genuinely interdisciplinary aspects of the movement, and how that came about. Also, yes, the networks stuff proved to be a success story!

I might take up this project at some future point — stranger things have happened — but no promises.

The preamble

In this book, I try to answer some questions about a curious phenomenon. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, a fairly large number of theoretical physicists, primarily trained in statistical mechanics, began to work on subjects which had traditionally been regarded as outside the domain of physics, generally under the rubric of “complex systems”. The most prominent targets of this disciplinary imperialism were evolutionary biology, financial markets and other areas of economics, and social networks, but there were also expeditions into social psychology, linguistics, information theory, neuroscience, immunology and organismal biology. In all these areas, the physicists proposed mathematical models, as one might expect of people exhaustively trained in mathematical modeling, but they systematically ignored the existing theories and models, in favor of new, simple models of the sort which had been familiar in statistical mechanics since the 1920s. Why did the physicists think this was a good idea? Why did they want to study complex systems, instead of the traditional topics of statistical physics? How were they able to make the switch? And, finally, did it do any good?

Self-exemplification: this is a study in the history and sociology of science by somebody with absolutely no credentials in the field, but who is (if I say so myself) a highly trained statistical physicist, specializing in complex systems, who spent five years as a graduate student and post-doc at the Santa Fe Institute, the organizational center of the movement described. Clearly, any pretense of disinterested neutrality would be laughable. But I try to be fair.

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The Genealogy of Complexity

“Swimming in the vast sea of systems change”: 5 Key Lessons Nurtured Through Basecamp Mairi Lowe Following Dec 9 · 8 min read In 2021 I completed the School of System Change Basecamp programme. I was delighted to speak with the School team to share how the course shifted my mindset to help me embrace complexity and move through self-doubt and overwhelm, plus how I put this mindset shift into practice through my Creative Director role at nonprofit Sustainable Fashion Scotland.

“Swimming in the vast sea of systems change”: 5 Key Lessons Nurtured Through Basecamp | by Mairi Lowe | School of System Change | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Systems thinking, transition and the city: a dérive Summary of a talk Philippe Vandenbroeck Dec 7

Systems thinking, transition and the city: a dérive | by Philippe Vandenbroeck | Dec, 2021 | Medium

STiP@50 Celebrations – OpenLearn – Open University

STiP@50 Celebrations

Updated Tuesday, 14th December 2021

STiP@50 celebrates fifty years of distance learning at The Open Univeristy along with Systems Thinking. Find out more about systems thinking in practice with these podcasts and videos. 

What is STiP@50?

STiP@50 celebrates the unique coupling, in 1971, between the provision of Supported Open and Distance Learning as developed at the OU since 1969, with tertiary level teaching of systems thinking in the UK and beyond.  2021 marked the 50^th anniversary of the founding of  a new academic department – the Systems Department. Under the leadership of a newly appointed first Professor of Systems, John Beishon (1930-2001), a group of Systems thinking practitioners (STPs) collaborated to design and then present a new undergraduate module (the first of many) called Systems Behaviour (T241). Through various organisational and operational changes over that time the name, personnel and educational offerings of this group of systems practitioners have changed with the current incarnation being the  ASTiP (Applied Systems Thinking in Practice) group in the School of Engineering and Innovation. The life and contribution of John Beishon to establishing the nature and scope of this systems thinking and practice is celebrated through an occasional lecture series called the John Beishon Memorial Lecture (see Summary overview of Memorial Lectures in Open University ASTiP, 2021) while a short history of OU systems thinking – Systems Thinking at the Open University: 50-year celebration (OU Systems @50) is available to download (Ison, 2021).

STiP@50 Celebrations Updated Tuesday, 14th December 2021

STiP@50 Celebrations – OpenLearn – Open University

Systems Thinking in Practice Hub Welcome! Check out our fantastic range of FREE resources on systems thinking in practice.

Systems Thinking Hub – OpenLearn – Open University

The Systems Convening approach: how to bridge professional and patient experiences through communities Join Isabel Ho, one of the case studies in the Systems Convening Manual, as she shares her personal and professional experiences in healthcare. Get Involved Communities of Practice Leadership Development Programme Supporting Q Connections Q Visits Q Exchange Network Weaving: learning series Journals and Learning Resources QI Connect WebEx series Upcoming events Past events Your events Add your event Live streaming and webinar tools Resources Your resources Add your resource Supporting local learning 27 Jan 2022 13:00 – 14:00

The Systems Convening approach: how to bridge professional and patient experiences through communities | Q Community

THIS IS HOW #WEGOVERN By Resonance Network  05 Mar 2021

This is How #WeGovern – NetworkWeaver

THIS IS HOW #WEGOVERN

By Resonance Network  05 Mar 2021

Last year, we witnessed the near collapse of our collective systems—the systems that should be sustaining us when we need them most.

And the truth is, they’ve been failing us for generations. Today, amid a global pandemic, sustained violence against Black lives, brazen attacks by white supremacists, climate catastrophe, and pervasive economic injustice–we can see what Black and Indigenous folx have been saying for generations: these systems were not designed for us.

It is time they were.

We Govern is a roadmap for that creation. This foundational set of agreements were written by a group of predominantly Black, Indigenous, people of color across the US, to guide how we make the decisions that impact all of us–including how we choose to live together, use our resources, and build systems rooted in radical care.

It is an invitation to redefine governance.

Governance is the process by which we determine the norms and rules that guide everyday life and behavior, and we—all of us—have a role in it. Whether it’s through our personal lives as parents, friends, neighbors, caregivers, and stewards; or in our work as leaders and decision-makers—the choices we make each day determine our emergent future. 

THIS IS HOW #WEGOVERN By Resonance Network  05 Mar 2021

This is How #WeGovern – NetworkWeaver

An emerging practice
explored

Download our Systems-shifting design report | Design Council

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Systems Shifting Design

Guide
19/10/2021Download PDF

System Shifting Design (October 2021) sets out emerging practice observed from designers who are working to deliberately and generatively to create new systems of health, wellbeing, homes and community. These designers are choosing to take this new approach rather than looking to improve on current systems. Developed over 18 months, Design Council and The Point People brought together 38 designers working at the cutting edge of their practice to explore what ‘next practice’ around systemic design looks like, and how the design system itself might need to change to allow more designers to work in this way.  

Systems Shifting Design Guide 19/10/2021

Download our Systems-shifting design report | Design Council

https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/expertise/strategy/talks

A little know concept, Requisite Variety, from Cybernetics packs a lot of punch as one of the most important laws of the Universe. It is a very powerful thinking tool, that you should be familiar with. This video guarantees that you will start observing how the world around you is shaped by Requisite Variety. When that happens, you will be on your way of thinking like a Cybernetician. SHOW LESS

Requisite Variety with BEER – YouTube

Introduction to Part III

In August I set out to draw out the themes from insights garnered from over a decade of focus on developing strategies and experiments to influence change towards regenerative environmental and social futures, in the context of complex challenges.

You can read Part I : The ‘so what’ of complexity which focused on the character of things we’d do differently if we embrace complexity, rather than trying to control or fight against it.

Part II pulled apart the broad principles of how I approach complex challenges.

This third and final part of the series (for now), aims to address some specific practices that I use when approaching the design of initiatives which seek to influence change.

https://www.samrye.xyz/fieldnote-the-so-what-of-complexity-part-iii/

Beyond boxes and arrows. A collection of visual modeling… | by Tomomi Sasaki | Service Design Advent Calendar | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Beyond boxes and arrows

Tomomi SasakiFollowingDec 13 · 5 min read

Visual modelling languages and notation systems from the arts

We’re past the half-way mark. As we enter day 13 of the Eclectic Service Design Advent Calendar, we are delighted to host the incredible Tomomi Sasaki

. Tomomi is a strategic designer, community leader, instructor, researcher and facilitator. She splits her time between Tokyo and Paris. I always enjoy her perspectives and her beautifully curious demeanour. So was overjoyed when I saw this post. I hope you enjoy her share today.

Some people collect Pokemon cards. I collect elephant figurines. I also collect models and frameworks, and on this occasion of joining the Eclectic Service Design Advent Calendar, I’ve pulled out a couple of visual modelling languages and notation systems from a side drawer of that collection.

Beyond boxes and arrows Tomomi Sasaki

Beyond boxes and arrows. A collection of visual modeling… | by Tomomi Sasaki | Service Design Advent Calendar | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Breaking reoffending cycles in the criminal justice system Mapping causal factors, leverage points and funding flows

Breaking reoffending cycles in the criminal justice system – NPC

Breaking reoffending cycles in the criminal justice system

Mapping causal factors, leverage points and funding flows

Home » Breaking reoffending cycles in the criminal justice system

The criminal justice system is immensely complex. It encompasses many vast institutions and subsystems—the court system, the prison system, the probation system—and it interconnects with many other issues that the charity and voluntary sector seeks to tackle, such as homelessness and mental health. From our previous research, Beyond Bars 2019, we know that this complexity in the system, as well as policy turbulence and structural issues, can cause uncertainty for funders around how to use their resources effectively.

Our systems map and report

We have therefore created a systems map of the key factors that influence reoffending rates for people in the criminal justice system, with the aim of identifying places that practitioners and funders can intervene to bring about long-term change in the system. We’ve identified 20 ‘leverage points’ where changes would reduce reoffending. Onto this map, we have also layered an analysis of where, within this system, funding to charity sector organisations is going. Progress on reoffending depends on a greater understanding of how the criminal justice system works.

Our systems map and our funding analysis have enabled us to identify some key recommendations for funders and government. You can learn more about these recommendations and what our systems mapping uncovered in our accompanying report here. You can view and learn more about our systems map at the bottom of this page.

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Breaking reoffending cycles in the criminal justice system – NPC