New York City; Corning, NY; Toronto, Ontario.
NYC skyline north from 42nd Street. Sunset soon over Manhattan, view from 20th floor apartment in Hells Kitchen. Surprisingly easy access into NYC on a lazy summer weekend. (New York City) 20140802Innovation Stage, Corning Museum of Glass. Expert glassblower working at high speed, with commentators on English and Mandarin. Corning Museum deserves more time than our visit today will allow. (Corning, NY) 20140804Fountains at Massey College. Natural cooling on a warm August late afternoon at the U of Toronto, outside the Junior Common Room at Massey College. A quiet place to meet, if invited. (Toronto) 20140808Free sample lineup. Mob in front of @Sabra foods truck @ToTheDanforth, but dips all gone late Sunday afternoon, just offering pita chips. Festival stretches east of Pape, bike is best way there. (Toronto, Sunday) 20140810Table or bench? In Little India, outdoor furniture by sidewalk provided by restaurant, either as low tables or high benches. Short stools underneath add to options. Early before dinner rush. (Toronto) 20140813Gates to nowhere. Short drive to precipitous drop down east bank of Don Valley, south of Mount Stephen St., east of Blackburn St. Nearby signs say Hydro One replacing equipment at Gerrard Transformer Station. Empty space close to downtown Toronto. 20140818Trompe d’oeil mural. Not a back door into a garden on the west side of Bleeker Street south of Wellesley Street, but instead some brightness on the long brick wall of Fudger House. Paint is fading, could use a retouch. (Toronto) 20140822Fountains at Edward Gardens. Annual ritual repeated for the 29th time, renewing the promise again. Busy Sunday with wedding parties, our sons away on their own lives. (Don Mills) 20140824Mural on O’Keefe Lane. Colourful bridge joining Ed Mirvish Theatre entrance on Yonge Street and former Pantages Theatre on Victoria Street. Dumpsters not so scenic, steps south of Yonge-Dundas Square. (Toronto) 20140828
Art on a clothesline. Wind Warriors photographs with oversized clothespins beside children’s garden at Princess Park One of the Stories from the Esplanade, part of the Contact Festival (Toronto) 20140830
The book Ecological Limits to Development: Living with the Sustainable Development Goals, published in 2002 by Routledge, was released as open access in 2023 by Taylor-Francis for readers who don’t have access to a university library. For the March edition of Systems Thinking Ontario, we were honoured to celebrate the release with editor-coauthors Kaitlin Kish […]
A special issue on “Sustainable, Smart and Systemic Design Post-Anthropocene: Through a Transdisciplinary Lens” in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics edited by Marie Davidová, Susu Nousala, and Thomas J. Marlowe has been released. In that issue, the journey of the Systems Changes Learning Circle from 2019 through 2022 is reviewed. The editorial team, […]
In the ISSS 2022 Plenary talk, the first 25 minutes were a blast through (a) the rising interest in system(s) change(s); (b) appreciative systems (Vickers); (c1) the philosophy of architectural design; (c2) the philosophy of ecological anthropology; (c3) the philosophy of Classical Chinese Medicine; (c4) the philosophy of rhythms; and (d) methods of multiparadigm inquiry, […]
The theme for the February online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was sparked from the discussion from the January session on Root Metaphor and World Hypotheses. What does it mean to have a theory? How does sensemaking contribute to this? Gary Metcalf volunteered to guide a conversation on these topics. Two prereadings were to serve […]
Philosophy underlies the distinction in the three volumes of the Tavistock Anthology: founded on the World Hypotheses of Stephen C. Pepper, the Socio-Psychological Systems Perspective and the Socio-Technical Systems Perspectives are based on Organicism, while the Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective is based on Contextualism. This thread on contextualism can be traced from the association between E.C. […]
Researching the philosophical foundations of systems theory to understand the meanings of “causal texture, contextualism, contextural” from the Tavistock legacy led to philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. The philosophical lineage and contributions of Pepper were the focus for the January online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario. A deep reading of Pepper’s work (over a month!) was […]
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 ›
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 […]
After 90 minutes on phone and online chat with WesternUnion, the existence of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland is denied, so I can’t send money from Canada. TicinoTurismo should be unhappy. The IT developers at Western Union should be dissatisfied that customer support agents aren’t sending them legitimate bug reports I initially tried the […]
An online version of a special issue of Paunch (1980) on "Root Metaphor: The Live Thought of Stephen C. Pepper" has been preserved on the internet Archive
