Mississauga, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario
Heartland neighbourhood: Annual Superbowl ritual featuring hamburgers grilled outside, cold but not blizzard conditions this year. Broke vegan regime as indulgence with family. Larger attendance of millennials this year, some boomer regulars cancelled last minute due to colds. (Heartland neighbourhood, Mississauaga, Ontario) 20200202Celebration of Life: Leaving long message at memorial for a friend who passed away in October. DY was a few years ahead of Mary at the same primary and high schools in Vancouver, and only got to know her through PY in Toronto. Honoured by her relatives flying into for the occasion, and coworkers relating stories of adventurous career in documentaries and journalism. (90 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20200208Riverside neighbourhood: Sparkler means no candles to blow out. Departing from usual cake to accommodate preferences, donuts are less sweet, and the banana bread is even less. Packaging says plant-based, gluten-free, peanut-free, nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free and sesame-free, leaving us wondering what ingredients could potentially still be on the list. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20200211Factory Theatre: Coming down from tiered set for bows, #ftLadySunrise @FactoryToronto update by @magicalmudge to 2005 Vancouver sees societal similarities to #CaoYu original 1936 Chinese-language play set in Shanghai. Shallow, dislikeable female characters made even less sympathetic as competitive amongst themselves, with no men cast in the production. Quite a contrast to the conventional portrayal of Asian women as passive and graceful. (Factory Theatre, Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20200218Riverside neighbourhood: Professional delivery of a new refrigerator, and old one hauled away, at home. Deliveryman had tape measure to check entry, asked for a hammer, and then removed door to accommodate width. We had cleared hallway, EKI and I took a few extra moments to finishing emptying contents, mostly onto our back deck in a Canadian winter day before freezing. Evokes memories of myself doing refrigerator deliveries for Kent Tv in Gravenhurst, in the 1970s. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20200219Woodbine Beach: Art installation of recycled sailcloth stuffed with straw #NoodleFeed @iheartblob attracts children @winterstations on a clear, bright day above the freezing point. Some took off their boots, others jumped with them on. First bicycling day in a while, wind felt heavy travelling east and then back west. (Woodbine Beach, Toronto, Ontario) 20200223SystemsThinkingTO: Relaunch of #SystemsThinking TO @acojoaca @CatarinavM_TO meetup, guiding conversation through #GarethMorgan #ImagesOfOrganization handout http://coevolving.com/commons/20200225-stto-imagesoforganization towards reframing metaphors. Fishbowl for 15-minutes, then breakout into small groups, ending with debriefings. Participant reported enjoying opportunity for dialogue, collectively making sense of ideas. Closed out session with plans for next monthly meeting, format will evolve with experience. (SystemsThinkingTO, Loyalty One, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20200225 photo by CatvM
Very Fine Seafood Cuisine: Sister coming to town reserved time for family dinner. Ten courses with Peking duck, multiple fish dishes, and vegan selections. Joking about fusion tendencies, cranberries with duck, roasted potatoes with beef, lobster deep fried. Other local family out of town, otherwise we would have needed two banquet tables. (Very Fine Seafood Cuisine, Milliken Boulevard, Scarborough, Ontario) 20200229
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 […]
The first Systems Thinking Ontario session for 2023 is scheduled for January 9, on “Root Metaphors and World Hypotheses”. This is philosophical content, for which a guided tour and discussion will be better than attempting a solo reading of the World Hypotheses wiki on the Open Learning Commons. Upon announcing the session on social media, […]
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
