How to understand the relation between design and research is a longstanding question in design theory and practice. It is also a question in design pedagogy, especially in taught postgraduate programmes where students are expected to engage with and conduct research in formal ways, often for the first time. In this article, we discuss a curriculum that we have developed for introducing research literacy to taught postgraduate students in architecture and design disciplines. The curriculum draws both explicitly and implicitly on an analogy between designing and researching developed through the lens of cybernetics, a transdisciplinary field that relates to both design and science. When cybernetics has been invoked in the context of design, it has usually been as a form of explanatory theory, contributing to the theoretical foundations of design research and its relations with other disciplines. Our approach instead positions cybernetics as a mode of transdisciplinary engagement within students’ own learning where an unfamiliar topic (research) is approached through analogy to a familiar one (design). We begin by contextualizing the curriculum and introducing the rationale for this approach in the context of design research. We then summarize key moments in the curriculum and our observations of its impact in students’ work. We conclude by speculating on the extent to which enacted analogies such as the example presented here may be taken up in other practical situations, and the potential value of doing so in reformulating cybernetics in ways that are practiced (rather than abstract) and methodological (not just explanatory).
Stepping into Systems is our new introductory series to systems change, covering fundamental topics and concepts: What is Systems Change?; The Importance of Systemic Worldviews; and Working Systemically for Transformation. This series has been informed by practitioners from diverse lineages from around the globe to honour the multiplicity of systems practice, and has been created in partnership with Glider.
Our intention is to lay fertile ground for you to navigate the diverse field of systems change and increase your capacity to see the world with a systemic perspective.
This series is for you if you have been curious about systems change and don’t know where to start; if you are seeking a point of view that embraces rather than minimises complexity; and if you want to explore the ‘how’ of systems change rather than the ‘what’.
What are the Open Learning sessions?
We invite you to explore each video with us through three online sessions – one for each film. We’re hosting these alongside practitioners in the field to create space to learn in community, as well as hear from those with a deep systems practice. In hopes we can welcome many people from around the world, embedded in many different ways of knowing, we’re hosting across two timezones: Americas/Europe and Australia/New Zealand.
In each session, we’ll begin by watching the film and then head into a discussion on the concepts and themes that emerge. We’ll get to hear from practitioners in the field and leave space for a Q&A. We will also help you get started on the session’s accompanying worksheet and share resources to support you to apply the learnings to your own work.
[As well as coverage of Cybersyn, includes this fascinating snippet:
Looking closer at the attendee’s list of the 1980 Leipzig Autumn fair, the surprise guest was undoubtedly the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek. Contrary to his earlier statements and after his first flying visit through the GDR accompanied by Emilio Barrarecan and Frank Volkster, he let himself be carried away to the following statement: „Socialism is becoming a self-regulating system in the way I had once assumed markets to be. Socialist cybernetics thus establishes a harmonious order by itself.“ ]
Written by Alan Bellows • Non-Fiction • October 2012
Nineteen Seventy ThreeLong-Form/Podcast: Chile’s audacious 1970s-era plan to network and automate the country’s entire economy, hindered by political upheaval and CIA maneuvering.Written by Alan Bellows • Non-Fiction • October 2012
While we do not always use words, communicating what we want to an AI is a conversation — with ourselves as well as with it, a recurring loop with optional steps depending on the complexity of the situation and our request. Any given conversation of this type may include: (a) the human forming an intent, (b) the human expressing that intent as a command or utterance, (c) the AI performing one or more rounds of inference on that command to resolve ambiguities and/or requesting clarifications from the human, (d) the AI showing the inferred meaning of the command and/or its execution on current and future situations or data, (e) the human hopefully correctly recognizing whether the AI’s interpretation actually aligns with their intent. In the process, they may (f) update their model of the AI’s capabilities and characteristics, (g) update their model of the situations in which the AI is executing its interpretation of their intent, (h) confirm or refine their intent, and (i) revise their expression of their intent to the AI, where the loop repeats until the human is satisfied. With these critical cognitive and computational steps within this back-and-forth laid out as a framework, it is easier to anticipate where communication can fail, and design algorithms and interfaces that ameliorate those failure points.
Who we areSystems Beings Lab (SBL) is a collaborative research collective to facilitate and elevate various approaches to grapple with complexity. We bring process-oriented approaches to foster non-linear dynamics of un/learning, and allow space and time to explore the messes of paradoxes, contradictions, and multiples perspectives.
Systems thinking in local government: intervention design and adaptation in a community-based studyTiana Felmingham, Siobhan O’Halloran, Jaimie Poorter, Ebony Rhook, Cindy Needham, Joshua Hayward, Penny Fraser, Stephanie Kilpatrick, Deana Leahy & Steven Allender Health Research Policy and Systems volume 21, Article number: 90 (2023)
Exciting news 📢 We are pleased to announce Dr Mike C Jackson OBE as the Arnold Keynote Speaker on Day Two of ASEC 2023!
Michael is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hull and MD of Systems Research Ltd, Michael’s expertise spans civil service, academia, and consultancy. He’s a triple-crown accredited former Dean of Hull University Business School and a key figure in critical Systems Thinking.
Join us at ASEC 2023 to hear his invaluable insights! Book your spot at ASEC 2023 now: https://bit.ly/3ZKUCD1
Since systems thinking in education is a common topic in this group (and perhaps its cousin or sister interdisciplinary thinking is welcome as well), I thought to post this little article from 1896, which describes one way to approach it. The following is the introduction. “Concentration , or the correlation of studies, is only the extension of the principle of the relativity of knowledge which has been current in the world since the rise of a philosophy of the sciences. The assumption of the relativity of knowledge is denial that knowledge is absolute At the same time it is an assertion that each province of knowledge is related to all others, that all the departments of human knowledge form one articulated body of which the various branches of learning form mutually dependent parts.”
by Francis Irving on August 7, 2015
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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