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Systems Thinking Ontario – 2021-10-18

2021-10-18

October 18 (the third Monday of the month, dodging Canadian Thanksgiving) is the 94th meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration will be on Eventbrite at https://ee-st.eventbrite.ca.

Ecological Economics and Systems Thinking

For this session, Katie Kish and David Mallery will lead a discussion on Ecological Economics in two parts.

(1) Where is Ecological Economics going with Systems Thinking?

In the “Critical Pluralism” paper (see below), the newest generation of EE scholars is portrayed as taking a regenerative approach to research and learning. This is best navigated with critical pluralistic approaches well-developed in systems thinking. The shift might be better supported through a wider set of systems tools, which might also have complementary effects on systems methodologies.

(2) What could a 30-year research agenda for Ecological Economics be?

The “Paying Attention” paper (see below), is one in a special section of “Ecological Economics: The next 30 years”.

Katie has been working for the Global Footprint Network, that uses big data to produce the Ecological Footprint Accounts. Applying this data on individual and group behaviour change raises questions on the role and ethics associated with big data.

The special section of the journal aims to find synergies between existing work and how to evaluate matters that have urgency and importance. Katie welcomes discussion on any of these papers, and is providing access to a private cache (to those without access to a university library).

Biographies:

• Katie Kish is the Senior Development Officer for the Footprint Data Foundation through the York Footprint Initiative and lecturer of Ecological Economics at the Haida Gwaii Institute, UBC. Her career has largely focused on capacity building for the international ecological economics community and training emerging scholars on the effective use of systems methodologies.
• David Mallery is currently an instructor in the Ecological Economics course at York University. He is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Environment and Urban Change, examining the epistemological predicaments associated with mainstream quantitative methodologies informing environmental and economic policy.

Venue:

• The link for a Zoom conference will be sent upon preregistration.
• Unfortunately, due to the pandemic OCADU, sLab (Strategic Innovation Lab), 205 Richmond Street West, Room 410 is not available!

Suggested pre-reading:

Topic 1:

• Kish, Katie, David Mallery, Gabriel Yahya Haage, R. Melgar-Melgar, M. Burke, C. Orr, N. L. Smolyar, S. Sanniti, and J. Larson. 2021. “Fostering Critical Pluralism with Systems Theory, Methods, and Heuristics.” Ecological Economics 189 (November): 107171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107171. (cached on academia.edu )

Topic 2:

• Kish, Kaitlin. 2020. “Paying Attention: Big Data and Social Advertising as Barriers to Ecological Change.” Sustainability 12 (24): 10589. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410589. (cached on academia.edu )
• Farley, Joshua, and Kaitlin Kish. 2021. “Ecological Economics: The next 30 Years.” Ecological Economics 190 (December): 107211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107211. (special section in private cache, released on registration on Eventbrite).

Registration on Eventbrite includes links to the cache of journal articles.

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Bloggers are encouraged to write about their learning and experiences at the meeting. Links will be added to this page.

source and booking link via:

Systems Thinking Ontario – 2021-10-18

The Fifteen Fundamental Properties Pages 144-235 of Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order Volume One: The Phenomenon of Life contain a theory of beauty as perceived by humans, conveyed in fifteen “fundamental properties.” Not every property occurs in every beautiful object, but in very beautiful buildings and objects, many of these properties are usually apparent, baked into the logic, structure, and detail. Here I will briefly explain the fifteen fundamental properties, with reference to an early 20th century ivory dog netsuke and a Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture.

The Fifteen Fundamental Properties – Carcinisation

DRS 2022 25th June — 3rd July We have recently lived through extraordinary times where design in many forms has been necessary to counter the enormous problems we have faced and continue to face in our conflicting coexistence. How has the discipline of design research responded? Can design and design research bring the insights and methods needed to transform conflict into collaboration? Join us in Bilbao for DRS2022, a hybrid conference with unique participation opportunities and a showcase for the best in design research. Whatever your orientation to design research we encourage you to participate, to show the true diversity and potential of our discipline. DRS2022 is hosted by the city of Bilbao in association with the University of the Basque Country (Universidad del País Vasco) and the wider ecosystem of local academic and design institutions. In 2014 Bilbao became a member of the UNESCO City of Design network. As such, it hosts a permanent Design and Creativity Council with a mission to promote design-oriented urban policies and to integrate goals related to the cultural and creative industries into local development plans. Bilbao recently joined the Global Destination Sustainability Index with a commitment to meet specific guidelines for the development of more sustainable conferences. DRS2022 is also hosted online in a hybrid mode, with opportunities for new interactions between the place-based and online conferences. The extended conference format will give you the chance to experience the energy and creativity of Bilbao wherever you choose to participate from.

DRS 2022 Bilbao · DRS 2022

via Ben Sweeting

Tracks include:

Systems and Transitions

• Rethinking design for a complex world: the systems track
• Meta-Design in the complexity of global challenges

Social Design and Co-Design

• Creating connections: Social research of, for, and with design
• Designing Proximities
• Practice research in social design as a form of inquiry

Policy and Governance

• Special Interest Group in Policy and Governance (PoGoSIG): Design for Policy and Governance: New Technologies, New Methodologies
• Uncertainty and Incompleteness in the Design of Public Policy and Administration

https://www.drs2022.org/theme-tracks/

Thalys has been in the news this week – because its proposed merger with Eurostar is supposedly back on… … so it’s time to examine why a rent seeking monopolist firm like Thalys can even exist on the Brussels-Paris route

(2) Jon Worth on Twitter: “Well… it’s complicated. And how do I explain complicated stuff? With a diagram of course! You’re going to need a high resolution version of this! Find that here: https://t.co/9VCYfA81vD https://t.co/2Xa8bh95zq” / Twitter

Tweet thread:

Diagrams via: https://jonworth.eu/ThalysDiagram/

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Alexander Bogdanov For more information, please see here. Submission Deadline: 15 January 2022 Please note all special issue papers must be submitted through the ScholarOne site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/srbs

Systems Research and Behavioral Science – Wiley Online Library

SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE-BIENNALE
09-10 DECEMBER 2021

СИСТЕМНЫЙ МИР АЛЕКСАНДРА АЛЕКСАНДРОВИЧА БОГДАНОВА НАУЧНО-ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ-БИЕННАЛЕ 09–10 ДЕКАБРЯ 2021 ГОДА

Системный мир А.А. Богданова | Всероссийская научно-практическая конференция

Blog from Gene Bellinger

https://systemswiki.substack.com/

Stanford Report, February 16, 2006 Noted cognitive scientist asserts that analogy is (almost) the whole enchilada BY BARBARA PALMER

Noted cognitive scientist asserts that analogy is (almost) the whole enchilada

Paper Analogy as the Core of Cognition

(Previously published in: The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science, Dedre Gentner, Keith J. Holyoak, and Boicho N. Kokinov (eds.).
Cambridge MA: The MIT Press/Bradford Book, 2001, pp. 499-538.)

Click to access Hofstadter%20-%20Analogy%20as%20the%20Core%20of%20Cognition.pdf

Lecture at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8m7lFQ3njk

Ritual, Sanctity, and Cybernetics Roy A. Rappaport American Anthropologist New Series, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Feb., 1971), pp. 59-76 (18 pages) Published By: Wiley

Ritual, Sanctity, and Cybernetics on JSTOR

POSITIONAL TRANSDUCTION: AN ALTERNATIVE TO CODE MARK T. NADIR Pages 191-227 | Received 01 Nov 1984, Published online: 03 Apr 2007 Download citation https://doi.org/10.1080/01969728508927766   References Citations Metrics Reprints & Permissions Get access Abstract A new method of transducing information into digitized form is described. This method does not result in any form of code, nor does it bear any resemblance to code. In this new system of information digitization the only data that appears on the transmission medium are the addresses of the multiplicity of receptors being addressed. The methodology is compatible witJi digital technology. This method (positional transduction) very markedly alters the characteristics of the systems wherein it is employed (in favorable ways). Unlike code that has one basic form, positional transduction can (and does) assume a multitude of differenl forms, which share a common characteristic. The systems resulting from employment of the described technology can be made self-routing, automatically multiplexing, parallel processing—or all three. Several of the multiplicity of ways in which positional transduction might be employed are described. Part I of the article is devoted to describing ways of employing positional transduction. The descriptions are illustrated with communications examples. In Part II, a calculator system is briefly described, which leads to a computational system. The article concludes with a description of the salient features of a computer whose hardware is “software wired.”

POSITIONAL TRANSDUCTION: AN ALTERNATIVE TO CODE: Cybernetics and Systems: Vol 16, No 2-3

https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/06/23/167538/the-many-careers-of-jay-forrester/

The Many Careers of Jay Forrester

Computing pioneer Jay Forrester, SM ’45, developed magnetic-core memory. Then he founded the field of system dynamics. Those are just two of his varied pursuits.by 

• Peter Dizikesarchive page

June 23, 2015

It is a late March day in Massachusetts. The sky is clear, but the air is frigid and the wind fierce. Looking outside, Jay Forrester, SM ’45, turns to glimpse the swaying treetops. He knows all about the power of wind. As a teenager, he harnessed it to bring electricity to his family’s ranch in Nebraska.

A precocious tinkerer, Forrester studied electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska. He arrived at MIT as a graduate student in 1939 and never left, staying on as researcher, professor, and now professor emeritus. He has been at MIT for more than half the time that has passed since the Institute opened its doors.

Yet Forrester’s 76-year MIT tenure is even more notable for its breadth than its duration. He helped develop digital computing. He oversaw the creation of a national air defense system and helped launch MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Then he joined what is now the MIT Sloan School of Management and founded the field of system dynamics, which examines complex business, economic, and environmental systems—and the unexpected feedback effects human activity creates within them. “I’ve had several careers,” says Forrester, who turns 97 in July. “Starting with ranch hand.”

continues at source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/06/23/167538/the-many-careers-of-jay-forrester/

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Exploring practical systems change: why are we not learning all the lessons we could about fire safety? – the once-chosen path

Exploring practical systems change: why are we not learning all the lessons we could about fire safety?

antlerboy – Benjamin P TaylorUncategorized  October 3, 2021 4 Minutes

“Institutions established to serve the public can over time, become insular and increasingly focussed on self-preservation. Against this, a changing world posing new risks and opportunities, an absence of competition or change catalysts, and limited public input can then create a growing gap between what is, and what could be. When the gap and cost become intolerable it is time to act. This describes the current situation of reliance on a professional response model for fires. It is now time to disrupt the current model by amplifying the public voice and creating a space for innovation.”

David Wales

Why is this – and what can we do about it? Your thoughts would be welcome in the comments – and there’s an opportunity to participate:

• Practice your thinking about system transformation
• Monday 25 October 16:30-17:30 UK time
• Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctd–qrT8iGtELOsPqYrlJbpdGDVjLiHuk 

continues in source:

Exploring practical systems change: why are we not learning all the lessons we could about fire safety? – the once-chosen path

Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters

Book: £18.99 (including free P&P within the UK)

Gill Kernick

Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation By Josep M. Coll Copyright Year 2021

Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable