Toronto, Ontario
Kensington Market: Sleepy Saturday afternoon in market that would normally be packed with shoppers, if not tourists. Lineups outside the few essential services reminiscent of a visit to Russia in the 1970s; people don’t expect to be in a hurry. Bicycling around town maintains physical distance, with only light vehicle traffic. (Baldwin Street, Kensington Market, Toronto, Ontario) 20190404Danforth Village: Long stretch of sidewalk with almost no pedestrians, on a late pre-holiday afternoon with social isolation. On this main street towards the east end, storefronts are wider than in the city centre, so walks seem longer. Maybe one in ten businesses was open, and few had customers. Pedalling bicycle with light traffic on street. (Danforth Avenue, west of Coxwell Avenue, Danforth Village, Toronto, Ontario) 20200409Riverside neighbourhood: Touchup on hairline, since all of our sons have decided to self-barber. The chair and clippers were already in place, since I prefer to NOT cut my own hair in a mirror, and DY agreed to learn the tools for me. She’s primarily the one who would have an opinion on my hair style. I’m just happy that my head is cooler. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20200412King Street West at Peter Street: Encountered the first raised transit stop platform in town, where bicyclists and pedestrians take turns through a narrow lane previously a parking space. On Easter Sunday, streetcars paused only momentarily, with few passengers boarding. Only pedestrians of note were lined up outside the pharmacy, with respectable distances between them. (King Street West at Peter Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20200412Underpass Park: Public space unoccupied, with yellow tape not only on playground equipment, but also benches, to discourage social gatherings. Citizens mostly respecting physical distancing directions to stay at home. Dogs out walking their masters, who may get more exercise than others who aren’t leaving the house. (Underpass Park, Lower River Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190419Distillery District: Unadorned and unilluminated as in @tolightfest, the #SymbolicPeace scupture by #StudioRosenblatt was first installed in early 2019. Laser cut, cold rolled steel celebrating diversity in the community stands silent on a bright afternoon where a normally teeming plaza is now deserted. Art galleries are closed, so more permanent outdoor sites have to be sought. (Gristmill Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20200422New Century Plaza: Saturday 1pm in Chinese mall in Markham reveals gates up at non-essential businesses. Came to pick up replacement contact lens from optometrist. Transaction, started on phone, completed mostly by talking through a locked glass door. I was invited in, asked to use hand sanitizer, used pen for signatures, and was then reminded to sanitize on the way out. Terse service consistent with 14-minute drive up DVP/404 from Lakeshore Drive to Steeles Avenue. (New Century Plaza, Ferrier Street, Markham, Ontario) 20200425
Don Roadway: Roadblock southbound into the Portlands now blocked to vehicular traffic, with ongoing construction. Don Roadway is being rebuilt to a higher elevation, so that major rainfalls flooding the Keating Channel won’t spill over into the lands on the east side of the road. It’s a dull afternoon for bicycling. (Don Roadway, Portlands, Toronto, Ontario) 20200430
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
The International Society for General Systems Research formed circa 1956 became the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 1988. In 1985, Bela H. Banathy organized the annual meeting on the theme of “Systems Inquiring”. Proceedings normally are published in the year following. In 1987, John A. Dillon summarized Banathy’s perspective in the yearbook, General […]
For five immersive days, a team of six researchers had the opporunity to collaborate on ideas on rhythmic shifts (mostly based on Systems Changes Learning) and anticipatory systems (in the legacy of Robert Rosen). The 2024 Banathy Conversation was organized by the Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute, facilitated by Susu Nousala, Gary S. Metcalf, and […]
Systems Processes Theory has been under development for many decades, led by Len Troncale, a past president of the International Society for the Ssytems Sciences. Many have found getting a grip on the science to be a demanding task, both in scope and in depth. Over many decades, Lynn Rasmussen was a collaborator, refining and […]
The Socio-Technical Systems (STS) perspective, dating back to the studies of Eric L. Trist and Fred E. Emery, was on the reading list of organizational behaviour classes in my undergraduate and master’s degree programs. It wasn’t until 15 years later, when I got involved with the systems sciences and David L. Hawk, that the Socio-Ecological […]
Civic Tech can be described as projects using technology “for the public good“. Civic Tech may be related to, but different from Gov Tech. For the May 2024 Systems Thinking Onrtario, we had two knowledgeable guests in conversation. Dorothy Eng, executive director of Code for Canada since 2021, related her professional journey from engineering to […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
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 ›
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
