Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, BC.
St. Michaels Cemetery from 95 St. Clair Avenue West. Landlocked Catholic cemetery from 1854, near Deer Park. Gates from Yonge Street locked, land is visible from the north side via parking lot off 95 St. Clair West. West and south sides are bordered by residential homes, children and dogs playing in the southwest corner, behind sign that prohibits recreation. Should graves be forgotten by locking visitors out? (Toronto) 20110901 1848Ryerson U Quad. Quadrangle facing southwest inside Kerr Hall at Ryerson University. A quiet spot before Labour Day, surely to be overrun by undergrads next week. Banking towers in the background (Toronto) 20110903 1655Driftwood Drive downhill. Biked up steep hill after following Don River north on the west bank. Route past the Police Department canine unit. Definitely bicycling as exercise, could choose other routes that don’t require huffing and puffing. Driftwood Drive put me back on the east side of town. (Toronto) 20110906 1849Orchard View Blvd market. Touring bike to Northern District Library on Orchard View Blvd., missed on first pass with street blocked for market. Temporary public space with farmers market on Thursdays until October. Looked at book in library, but didn’t check it out. Market was just packing up at 7 p.m. (Toronto) 20110908 1910Cabbagetown Festival. Neighbourhood crowd scene looking south on Parliament Street, north of Winchester Street in the annual Cabbagetown Festival. Unlike summer festivals, didn’t seem like out-of-town tourists. Local businesses, small tents with community organizations, side street lawns selling odds and ends. www.cabbagetownfestival.org/ (Toronto) 20110910 1828YVR Flying Traveller. Fiberglass artwork of passenger with luggage running through airport terminals by Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent doesn’t reflect reality in Vancouver International Airport domestic terminal. Landing here, the west coast laid back style was evident as soon as we touched down. (Vancouver) 20110912 1600Approaching Vancouver via Seabus. Business travel luxury to return from North Vancouver via Seabus. Much faster than riding in car north over Lions Gate Bridge, and then west through construction on Marine Drive. (Vancouver, BC) 20110913 1525Pacific Cod, Sole, Halibut. Full sized fresh fish on ice at the Lonsdale Quay Market, North Vancouver. Seafood envy for tourists from inland homes. 20110914 1611Dundas Square fountains. Dancing fountains at plaza on a sunny fall afternoon when no formal events have been scheduled. Tourists stop to have their photos taken. Busker hawks his skills to draw a crowd. A chance for bicycling without coat, forecast is rain over next few days. (Toronto) 20110922 1826St. Matthews Church, Riverdale. Toured St. Matthews Anglican Church. Built in 1890, original church first one east of Don River in 1876. Congregation peaked at 400, now 75. On tree-lined First Ave., west of Broadview Ave. Riverdale Historical Society guide said long history of poor funding means building almost the same as when constructed, bricks donated by 11 local companies, laid with red bricks facade over rubble brick walls. Could be a good downtown location for a wedding. www.stmatthews-riverdale.com/ (Toronto) 20110924 1250St James Cemetery Ross marker. Durable grave marker from 1871, John Ross, Canadian senator. Inscription clearly legible. At St. James Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Toronto still in operation, opened in 1844 for people in Upper Canada of the Anglican faith (Toronto) 20110925 18:01 See photo of inscription.Outer Harbour Marina. Poorly maintained lighthouse at mouth of Outer Harbour Marina. This peninsula is shorter than for Tommy Thompson Park (Leslie Street Spit) just beyond, practically swimming distance across. Marina is for small pleasure craft, so larger investment in infrastructure probably isn’t justified. Peninsula is available for film shoots. (Toronto) 20110926 1733
Flemish Beauty Pears. Local Ontario Flemish Beauty Pears in season. Mislabelled as Barletts, I recognized them on sight. Sentimental fall ritual for me. (Foodland on Danforth, Toronto) 20110928 1836
For five immersive days, a team of six researchers had the opporunity to collaborate on ideas on rhythmic shifts (mostly based on Systems Changes Learning) and anticipatory systems (in the legacy of Robert Rosen). The 2024 Banathy Conversation was organized by the Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute, facilitated by Susu Nousala, Gary S. Metcalf, and […]
Systems Processes Theory has been under development for many decades, led by Len Troncale, a past president of the International Society for the Ssytems Sciences. Many have found getting a grip on the science to be a demanding task, both in scope and in depth. Over many decades, Lynn Rasmussen was a collaborator, refining and […]
The Socio-Technical Systems (STS) perspective, dating back to the studies of Eric L. Trist and Fred E. Emery, was on the reading list of organizational behaviour classes in my undergraduate and master’s degree programs. It wasn’t until 15 years later, when I got involved with the systems sciences and David L. Hawk, that the Socio-Ecological […]
Civic Tech can be described as projects using technology “for the public good“. Civic Tech may be related to, but different from Gov Tech. For the May 2024 Systems Thinking Onrtario, we had two knowledgeable guests in conversation. Dorothy Eng, executive director of Code for Canada since 2021, related her professional journey from engineering to […]
On my May trip through the UK, I accepted an offer to lead an Expert-Led Session at the University of Hull. I had previously been a Research Fellow of the Centre for Systems Studies, but haven’t travelled to the Hull for some years. As we worked out the arrangements, I found out that the seminar […]
I’ve been checking on the breadth of some personal research on systems thinkers. (The list is incomplete, and may orient more towards systems scientists). Searching on Scopus gives an h-Index that counts scholarly references (with a boost, for the first person on the list who received a Nobel prize in chemistry). The list below is […]
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 ›
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
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 […]
