Toronto, Ontario; Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Music from Sam Martin and the Haggard spilling out on Augusta Street from Graffiti’s Bar in Kensington Market (Toronto, Saturday) 20100605 1730Project Bookmark Canada reading about the Prince Edward Viaduct, from In The Skin Of The Lion by Michael Ondaatje, east of the Don River where Bloor Street East becomes Danforth Avenue (Toronto, Monday) 20100608 1815Leuty Lifeguard Station on the Eastern Beaches, with sailboats on Lake Ontario in the distance (Toronto, Thursday) 20100610 1830Niagara Falls from the Fallsview lookout (Niagara Falls, Tuesday) 20100615 1600Pre-G20 traffic jam includes police on bicycles, as well as automotive vehicles. Walking is fastest, at King Street westbound at University Avenue (Saturday, Toronto) 20100619 1600East Lynn Park Farmers Market on Danforth Avenue west of Main Street runs 3 pm to 7 pm on Thursday. Another hidden feature of Toronto, on my bike ride without a destination (Toronto) 20100624 1800Smashed windows at American Apparel and pedestrians taking over Yonge Street north of Dundas Street. Presumably G20 protesters working their way east from Queen’s Park (Toronto, Saturday) 20100626 1700John Hagel @jhagel and Omar El Akkad @omarelakkad on The Power of Pull at the Design Exchange, starting the conversation with The Shift Index (Toronto, Monday) 20100628 1700
Elizabeth Shepherd @eshepherdmusic at the Square in the Shops at Don Mills, as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. I haven’t been at this mall since the late 1980s, when Don Mills Centre was all inside. Pedalling up to Lawrence Ave. was easier on road bike (Don Mills, Friday) 20100702 1900
We had an opportunity for a weekend visit with G.A. Swanson shortly before he passed on.
When G.A. Swanson released the news that he would soon been passing on, a group of us quickly scheduled for a visit. Convening at the Nashville airport, Jennifer flew in from the UK, I flew in from Toronto, and Gary drove down from Kentucky. We rode together to Cookeville. Paulette had been visiting G.A. to help out, and hosted us with a welcome in a show of southern hospitality.
I first met G.A. at the 1998 ISSS meeting in Atlanta, which I’ve cited to many as the single best educational experience of my life. G.A. had encouraged me, as well as Jennifer and Gary, to become more and more involved in the systems community over the years.
We spent the evening catching up on news, and reminiscing. In his home, the photographs and souvenirs of world travels suggested not only a man who was known internationally, but who might also have been a Southern rebel in his youth. The next morning, we moved a few things around to take G.A.’s car to the university.
We helped G.A. finish cleaning out his office. He had sent in his last paper for publication, and said that he wouldn’t be needing any more references. In the inner room were years of books not only on systems research, but also on accounting.
We found our way over to the Design Festa Gallery, and wandered around the Harajuku area.
Having reoriented myself from Takeshita dori, we crossed Meiji Street to a landmark I remember — the Birkenstock Store. It’s in a flat iron shape, with the street forking off.
The fork on the east side is Harajuku Street. I remember walking down this stretch and thinking that the buildings didn’t seem very interesting.
One or two intersections up, looking to the right, is a strange building at the end of the street.
Design Festa Gallery always amuses me, with the nearly-random pipes on the front facade of the building.
Since I’ve been to the gallery before, I decided to start on the upper floors for a change. The murals on the stairwell walls are entertaining.
A slight misdirection in the Harajuku district led us to a Sunday morning flea market.
On the Sunday morning before catching the train to Narita Airport, Marianne and I returned to the Harajuku district. I thought that I knew the way to Design Festa Gallery, but my memory was faulty. From the train station, we walked north past Takeshita Dori, and then east. When we started up a slight incline, I figured that we were in the wrong place, and should turn south. This led us through a residential area in Jingumae. The lane we had picked might permit the occasional car, but seemed mostly for pedestrians.
On this street was a large temple or church. Christian?
As we continued, we found a small torii, marking the entry to a common space or park.
Sunday morning seems to have been flea market day in this neighbourhood.
We were lucky to see the Meiji Jingu (Shinto Shrine) by Harajuku station, with the coincidence of seeing a wedding procession in progress.
I’ve been to the Harajuku district on every trip to Tokyo, and somehow managed to arrive at the Meiji Jingu at times when the gates are closed. This time, Marianne and I found the gates to the garden open.
I guess that Saturday afternoon is a good bet for families to visit the gardens.
As we entered the gardens walking north, I enjoyed the view of the brook to the side.
The park honours the Emperor Meji who passed away in 1912, and is interred in Kyoto. The view of the long, tree-covered walk is impressive.
The Meiji period was seen as enlightened one, when the emperor enjoyed western food and took wine with it. Wineries in Bourgogne, France, consecrated these barrels in the emperor’s honour. Continue reading “2009/02/28 Meiji Jingu, Shinto Shrine, Tokyo“
As the book on Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 was taking shape in March 2023, I was invited not only to serve as an editor, but also to contribute as an author. The edited volume is the final deliverable for the In4act project centered at the KTU School of Economics and Business in Kaunas, Lithuania […]
Beyond city-building as urban planning is the idea of a Music City. This sees development of cultural life across a wide variety of arts, alongside economic benefits brought to the region. At the 119th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in March 2024, socio-cultural designer Adam Hogan and musician-designer Ziyan Hossain joined moderator Zaid Khan in conversation. […]
Having reached year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey, the Systems Changes Learning Circle is (again) convening monthly Dialogues on Social Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Starting up in 2019, the Circle was convening regularly in the Climate Ventures space at 192 Spadina Avenue. The pandemic interrupted in-person meetings, and the […]
EQ Lab runs Dialogic Drinks, “the kind of philosophical discussion you have in a coffee shop or bar”, twice per week. Wtih this group interested loosely in questions on leadership, I was invited to host an online session on March 12 (evening in Hong Kong and Singapore, really early in Toronto) and on March 14-15 […]
At the 118th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in February 2024, behavioral scientist Cameron D. Norman and design strategist Tara Campbell were invitied for a conversation guided by Zaid Khan. The panelists are both alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU. Some time ago, they had conducted a research project on evaluation […]
An article on “sciencing and philosophizing”, coauthored by Gary S. Metcalf and myself, has been published in the Journal of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the ISSS 2023 Kruger Park conference in South Africa, last July. There’s a version cacned on the Coevolving Commons. This article started in a series of conversations […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
