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
While the term “theory of change” is often used by funders expecting an outcome of systems change for their investment, is there really a theory there? The November 2020 Systems Thinking Ontario session was an opportunity for Peter H. Jones (OCADU) and Ryan J. A. Murphy (Memorial U. of Newfoundland) to extend talks that they […]
For the third of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Kelly Okamura, Dan Eng and Joanne Dong led a Beacon Event for Global Change Days. This session was one in a series for global changemakers. Our expectation was that they would be hands-on practitioners, with relatively low familiarity with systems […]
For the second of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, we convened a session for the monthly Systems Thinking Ontario meeting. The focus of this workshop was a review of progress to date on methods by the scholarly team, informed by the adoption and use by the field team. The […]
For the first of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Zaid Khan led a session for the Relating Systems Thinking and Design RSD9 Symposium. Our team had developed a set of reference slides for the three workshops, from which content that would most resonate with the audience could be selected. […]
Two Major Research Projects (MRPs) — they might be called master’s theses elsewhere — by Zaid Khan and David Akermanis reflect the Systemic Design agenda within the OCADU program on Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI). To graduate, all SFI students complete an MRP. With many subjects and techniques covered during SFI studies, only a […]
While it’s important to appreciate the systems thinking foundations laid down by the Tavistock Institute and U. Pennsylvania Social Systems Science (S3, called S-cubed) program, practically all of the original researchers are no longer with us. Luminaries who have passed include Eric L. Trist (-1993), Fred E. Emery (-1997), and Russell L. Ackoff (-2009). This […]
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 ›
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›
The fifth way of knowing, as described by West Churchman, is a Singerian inquiring system. (This fifth way of knowing is more colloquially called Unbounded Systems Thinking in Mitroff and Linstone (1993)). The book On Purposeful Systems (Ackoff and Emery, 1972) was derived by Ackoff’s dissertation that was controversially coauthored with West Churchman. Purpose can […]
Understanding Process-Function Ecology by Ashwani Vasishth leads to luminaries in the systems sciences, including C. West Churchman, Eugene P. Odum and Timothy F.H. Allen.
As an irony, the 2020 book, The Innovation Delusion by #LeeVinsel @STS_News + #AndrewLRussell @RussellProf shouldn’t be seen as an innovation, but an encouragement to join @The_Maintainers where an ongoing thought network can continue. The subtitle “How Our Obsession with the New has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most” recognizes actual innovation, as distinct from […]
An online social network reproduces content partially based on algorithms, and partially based on the judgements made by human beings. Either may be viewed as positive or negative. > The trade-offs came into focus this month [November 2020], when Facebook engineers and data scientists posted the results of a series of experiments called “P(Bad for […]
Social Systems Science graduate students in 1970s-1980s with #RussellAckoff, #EricTrist + #HasanOzbehkhan at U. Pennsylvania Wharton School were assigned the Penguin paperback #SystemsThinking reader edited by #FredEEmery, with updated editions evolving contents.
Resurfacing 1968 Buckley, “Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist: A Sourcebook” for interests in #SystemsThinking #SocioCybernetics #GeneralSystemsTheory #OrganizationScience . Republication in 2017 hardcopy may be more complete.
