Toronto, Ontario
Perfect Chinese Restaurant: New Year’s dinner to hear about father’s 40-day trip to Asia. One son absent in the U.S., but not the usual one. Normalcy from holiday season should return next week. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20180101Lifelabs: A series of waiting rooms for medical labs and clinics all in on morning is better than making multiple trips. Following through on previously-scheduled appointments was manageable with Uber rides, crutches and a found wheelchair at the hospital. (Lifelabs, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180102Bissell Building: UToronto iSchool students self-organizing into teams who will lead presentation-facilitation in the Systems Thinking, Systems Design Information Workshop running for 6 weeks. Started lecture with student reading the syllabus on their phones and computers, due to AV issues with equipment in the room. (Bissell Building, St. George Street, University of Toronto) 20180110St. Michael’s Hospital: Switched to air cast from plaster splint after 19 days. Doctor said the Achilles tendon seems to be healing well, but can’t give strong diagnosis until next appointment, 31 days away. Changing from totally non-weight-bearing to being able to balance on toe. Can removed air cast for showers at night, but will be sleeping with two wedge inserts as treatment. The air chambers aren’t to be pumped up until wedges are removed. (St. Michael’s Hospital, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180115UToronto iSchool: Object Process Methodology presentation-facilitation led by UToronto iSchool students who described themselves as far from engineering types. Stepped through slides, then showed prepared example in Opcat software downloaded from Technion. They then further engaged the class by leading collaborative live modelling of a making a snowman. Showing the methods side in the Systems Thinking, Systems Design course. (UToronto iSchool, Bissell Building) 20170117
OCADU: Strong turnout for @sophiesanniti on Behaviour Change for Climate Change, Systems Thinking Ontario 53rd monthly meeting, first of the year. Early research into Terror Management Theory, derived from Ernest Becker (1973) Denial of Death. (Lambert Lounge, OCADU, McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20170117UToronto iSchool: Idealized Design presentation-facilitation by UToronto iSchool students, with detailed review of Interactive Planning. Classic Ackoff story of “the telephone system of the United States was destroyed last night”. (UToronto iSchool, Bissell Building) 20180124UToronto iSchool: Soft Systems Methodology presentation-facilitation by UToronto iSchool students, teasing with Bitcoin story. Breakout groups tried developing rich pictures, trying out methods is different from learning about theory. (UToronto iSchool, Bissell Building) 20180124SystemsThinkingTO: History of systems @sregoczei #SystemsThinkingTO @DerailleurAgile moderating. Chart includes Ludwig von Bertalanffy as father of general systems theory, ISSS past presidents Kenneth Boulding, Anatol Rapoport, Ilya Prigogine. Meetup group hadn’t appreciated Toronto is a hub of systems research in the world, extended welcome to visit at Systems Thinking Ontario. (LoyaltyOne, King Street East, Toronto) 20170126Hogtown Vegan: Dinner was meatless, but western comfort food may only be slightly healthier. Unchicken soy had texture of meat, cheese on nachos had a convincing feel. Gluten-free menu available as an extra step. Indulged on desserts that we normally can’t enjoy. (Hogtown Vegan, Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180127Bad Dog Comedy Theatre: Theatresports final competition, Odin’s Song won Globehead trophy in fourth year of trying, celebrated by being impaled to return to Asgard. Family event, small venue, improvised performances a test of quick wits. (Bad Dog Comedy Theatre, Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20170127UToronto iSchool: Viable System Model presentation-facilitation by UToronto iSchool students. Exercise mapping Systems 1 to 5 with a city government example, puzzling through some distinctions made in the original case study. (UToronto iSchool, Bissell Building) 20180131UToronto iSchool: Resilience in Social Ecological Systems presentation-facilitation by UToronto iSchool students. Scripted participatory theatre with students around a riverbank set playing Nepalese residents, cows, dogs and doctors from Martin Bunch’s 2016 SRBS article on zoonotic disease. (UToronto iSchool, Bissell Building) 20180131
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
