Toronto, Ontario; Austin, Texas; Katy, Texas, Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Fairfield, Iowa; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Montreal, Quebec; Paris, France.
Maple Leaf Lounge. Relaxed start of trip to Austin, saw Margaret Atwood at breakfast. Trip became complicated as late flight to Chicago would miss connection. Long line, but phone call revealed seats available via Newark. Rushed to commuter gates. (Toronto) 20141203Stubbs Bar-B-Q, Austin, TX. Young Tongue, opening act on a quiet Wednesday night in the Red River district, north of 6th Street. We arrived in Austin a few hours ago, having been waylaid by a missed connection. (Austin, Texas) 20141303County Line Bbq. Beef ribs, fatty beef brisket, half pound of pulled pork, as lunch for family of five. Order for 3 enough, would have been ridiculous to call for 5 plates. (Austin, Texas) 20141204Party sushi. Family from Toronto and California convening foot lunch in Katy, Texas, one day before wedding celebration. Split off women to bridal shower, men to sightseeing at museums in Central Houston and Rice University. More family still arriving. (Katy, Texas) 20141205Windsor Parks Lakes. Pavilion at east end of man-made lake in gated subdivision at the western periphery of Houston. Cool, cloudy day, but warm enough to be bicycling along winding roads around two storey houses. (Houston, Texas) 20141206Family wedding celebration. Niece is first of generation to be married. Post dinner dancing reveals a variety of skills amongst cousins not previously observed in other contexts. (Katy, Texas) 20141206
IAH Terminal C, security check. At Bush Airport, TSA Pre does not even provide bins, as laptops stay in luggage. Somehow discomforted by convenience, as I know that laptop on top of tablet should be impenetrable to x-rays. AHI and me to C gate for Chicago, him in slow lane through security. NPI was on different bus to B gate for commuter plane to Columbus. (Houston, Texas) 20141207After School Matters installation. Stained glass umbrellas overhead, and windows to both sides of corridor between Terminal 1 and 2. Designed by schoolchildren in 2008 as acrylic and hand drawings, reproduced as skylines along the path. (Chicago O’Hare) 20141207Cattle grazing. On the farm, not many distractions from writing. Hunting season, but deer know how to hide. (Iowa) 20141208Bookstore pizza. Relaxed lunch by main square in town. Sat in the spirituality book section while enjoying the half of the thin crust pizza that didn’t have cheese on it. A break from another day of writing on the computer. (Revelations Cafe, Fairfield, Iowa) 20141210Eastern Iowa Airport, pier C. Non-coniferous trees in white and blue signify holiday season has arrived. Added to the hall of flags on the bridge from landside to airside C gates. Low stress airport with most traffic back and forth to Chicago O’Hare, so few distractions for passengers waiting to depart. (Cedar Rapids CID, Iowa) 20141213Danforth Ave. w. of Woodington. Bundled up for bicycling at freezing point, trolling dollar stores for inflatable neck pillows to sleep in upright position on flight to Europe next week. Filled neck pillows now easier to find than inflatable ones. Slow bicycling up hills northbound on a dreary afternoon. (Toronto) 20141218Red bean soup. A better alternative to a birthday cake made with dairy products that I couldn’t eat, sweet soup for dessert at the end of a family Chinese meal. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Scarborough, Ontario) 20141224Stainless steel elk. Sculpture by Mathieu Isabelle 2013 “The Great One” in front of duty free store in the airport terminal on a Christmas Day. Changing planes for an overnight flight to Roissy Charles de Gaulle, Paris, France (Montreal Trudeau Airport) 20141225CDG information. Clerk at information booth said RER B train outage today, recommended Roissybus to Opera. RDI very tired, I listened to music for 3 hours lying down on courtesy upgrade by Air Canada. (Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France) 20141226College de France gates. Research education founded 1530, across the street from the older Sorbonne, in the Latin Quarter 5th arrondissement. Statue of Claude Bernard (1813-1878) who first decribed “milieu intérieur”, now known as ” homeostasis”. Late afternoon following morning arrival at Charles De Gaulle airport, so RDI falling asleep at almost every opportunity. We should both feel better after a good night’s sleep (Paris, France) 20141226Pont Neuf. Love locks on the Lovers Bridge seem sparser, as maintenance workers have been removing them frequently to lighten the load on the span. Strolling over the Seine and back many times with PO and BY. (Pont Neuf, Paris, France) 20141227Eiffel Tower. Unexpected Paris landmark in frame, from the Palais de Tokyo plaza overlooking the Passerelle Debillly arch crossing the Seine. Had a late Sunday start by sleeping in on second day, enduring long lines at the Foundation Louis Vuitton art museum designed by Frank Gehry, then quick stop at Musee D’art Moderne. (Paris, France) 20141228Fondation Cartier pour l’art comtemporain. Unexpected joy at complicated two-room installation taking entire first floor, with “Musings on a Glass Box” 2014 Diller Scofidio + Renfro (designers), and David Lang and Jody Elff (sounds), explained during 6:30 p.m. tour (en francais). The receiving room has huge monitor panels suspended so observers ride a reclined shop creeper on wheels to view the images of the ceiling projected from the moving bucket in the transmitting room. (Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France) 20141228 (Ballade pour une boîte de verre)CDG. Checked in at 11:58 for 13:00 flight. Got lost on way to bus to Gare du Nord, got taxi to station. Left RDI at Gare du Nord. Frustrated at RER elevators out of service, gates that won’t read tickets. On to Montreal for connection. (Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris France) 20141229New generation camera. Returned to store for Canon G7X after visit yesterday for S120. Old S90 not as reliable recently, decided to jump to larger sensor in new compact camera body. Fine details in selecting between a variety of technology options. (Downtown Camera, Toronto) 20141231
Sushi on New Year’s Eve. Quiet family dinner, with sons preparing raw salmon on vinegared rice in a professional style. Buying sushi-grade fish from Bill’s Lobster in Chinatown beats having to deal with the crowds on a popular holiday event. Sons may find friends to celebrate, parent more likely to catch up on sleep. (Toronto) 20141231
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 order to move forward, the Systems Changes Learning Circle has taken a step backwards to appreciate the scholarly work that has come before us. This has included the Socio-Psychological Systems, Socio-Technical Systems and Socio-Ecological Systems perspective, from the postwar Tavistock Institute for Human Relations. The deep dive on “Causal texture, contextualism, contextural” takes us […]
For those who haven’t read the 1965 Emery and Trist article, its seems as though my colleague Doug McDavid was foresighted enough to blog a summary in 2016! His words have always welcomed here, as Doug was a cofounder of this web site. At the time of writing, the target audience for this piece was […]
In the famous 1965 Emery and Trist article, the terms “causal texture” and “contextual environment” haven’t been entirely clear to me. With specific meanings in the systems thinking literature, looking up definitions in the dictionary generally isn’t helpful. Diving into the history of the uses of the words provides some insight. 1. Causal texture 2. […]
Towards appreciating “action learning”, the history of open systems thinking and pioneering work in organization science, the influence of Action Learning Group — in the Faculty of Environment Studies founded in 1968 at York University (Toronto) — deserves to be resurfaced. 1. Trist in Canada 2. Environmental studies, and contextualism in organizational-change 3. Action learning, […]
The news that Doug McDavid — my friend, colleague, and one of the original cofounders of the Coevolving Innovations web site in 2006 — had passed, first came through mutual IBM contacts. More details subsequently showed up on LinkedIn from Mike McClintock. Doug left us on May 9, while working at his desk, likely in […]
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 ›
Social ecology and environmental psychology described @dstokols @Social_Ecology , interviewed by @katiepatrick . References #WilliamsJames on attention. Book on Social Ecology in the Digital Age released in 2018.Read more ›
Concerns on #personaldata should be reframed as interpersonal, says @sheldrake , less the nodes and more the edge connections. “I want to take back control” superficial, @hartzog says control doesn’t scale. Agency is about negotiation in the world, more rhizomatic…Read more ›
Doing science should be wayfinding (pathfinding), says #TimIngold , gaining grounding in the art of paying attention, towards research as the pursuit of truth. Truth is more than objective facts, where science and art are embraced with materials, so that we can see the quality inside the natural world as it forms, rather than as […]
We should be more vigourous, says @MazzucatoM , in debating differences between value extraction and value creation, and between profits and rents. Lecture at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford U., January 2019Read more ›
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.
Proponents of #SystemsThinking often espouse holism to counter over-emphasis on reductionism. Reading some definitions from an encyclopedia positions one in the context of the other (François 2004).
Saying “it doesn’t matter” or “it matters” is a common expression in everyday English. For scholarly work, I want to “keep using that word“, while ensuring it means what I want it to mean. The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition, March 2001) has three entries for “matter”. The first two entries for a noun. The […]
It's been challenging to find sources that specifically define two-word phrases -- i.e. "systemic change", "systematic change", "systems change" -- as opposed to loosely inferring reductively from one-word definitions in recombination. MartinReynolds @OpenUniversity clarifies uses of the phrases, with a critical eye into motives for choosing a specific label, as well as associated risks and […]
The term "environmental" can be mixed up with "ecological", when the meanings are different. We can look at the encyclopedia definitions (François 2004), and then compare the two in terms of applied science (i.e. engineering with (#TimothyFHAllen @MarioGiampietro and #AmandaMLittle, 2003).
