Toronto, Ontario
Duncan Street: From Queen Street West, looking due south, the CN Tower is illuminated, but not with the light show of the previous evening New Year’s Eve. Big flakes of snow starting falling, minutes after taking this shot. Return journey on bicycle covered by glove and coats in white. (Duncan Street south of Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20210101Massey Harris Park: Pushing silver button on blue stanchion under #JamesMcLeod (2006) “Evolution Unrolling” art canopy doesn’t start water feature, both due to winter season and pandemic restrictions. Overhead pattern evokes rope, chain and DNA, reflecting the times and cultures of the neighbourhood history with headquarters for farm equipment manufacturing. Park replaced one block of Crawford Street thoroughfare, as an affordance for residents of nearby apartments to meet and/or walk their dogs. (Massey Harris Park, King Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20210109Eastern Avenue at Leslie Street: Just before lunch, electrical power went out at the house. Reports of a two truck hitting an pole led to @TorontoHydro forecast of service restoration within 4 hours. Biked over to find lineman finishing off rewiring. Lights came back on 30 minutes before sunset. (Eastern Avenue at Leslie Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210115Riverdale Park West: Tree carved with owls on top, and raccoon inside, located just south of Riverdale Farm. In the open air, families together and friends socially distanced in clusters, despite the local attractions closed for pandemic lockdown mandated by the province. Horses visible in the pens at the periphery behind closed gates. (Riverdale Park West, Riverdale Park Road at Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210116Louis Kesten Lane: Extreme cold alert in the laneway behind our house, with snow lingering on the ground from 3 days ago. Bundled up for a walk in the fresh air, but not for very long. Optimistically, the forecast for a week from now could be for rain. (Louis Kesten Lane, Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20210129
Humber Bay Arch Bridge: Skim ice at the mouth of the Humber River gives way to open water flowing south into the bay by Sunnyside. The CN Tower in downtown Toronto is visible to the east. Clear weather saw many pedestrians enjoying fresh air, bundled up for below-freezing temperature. (Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Toronto, Ontario) 20210130
Towards a general theory of living systems, we should be looking beyond the singletons of a hierarchical level, i.e. (i) cell, (ii) organ, (iii) organism, (iv) group, (v) organization, (vi) community, (vii) society, and (viii) supranational level. In a scientific approach, James Grier Miller created a list of hypotheses. In the 1100+ page book, the […]
When exploring the meaning of Living Systems, it’s pretty hard to ignore the major works of James Grier Miller (1916–2002) with a book thus titled. In addition to the 1978 book Living Systems (of 1168 pages!) some additions were published in 1992 in Behavioral Science, the Journal of the Society for General Systems Research. Miller […]
For their community of systems practitioners, Systems and Complexity in Organisation (SCiO) UK invited a presentation at their Virtual Open Meeting in July. Presenting in a 45-minute slot, the slides at http://coevolving.com/commons/2022-07-11-doing-thinking-making-systems-changes were covered in 38 minutes, leaving time for a few questions and comments. The agenda mainly focused on “Doing”, with “Thinking” and “Making” […]
On the path towards a publication in 2023, this plenary talk for the International Society for the Systems Sciences 66th Annual Meeting came with a preamble. Slides were provided in advance at http://coevolving.com/commons/2022-07-08-appreciating-systems-changes, so that details might be later perused at leisure. Here is the agenda for the presentation: A. Rising interest in System(s) Change(s) […]
In which ways are systems changes different from changes? Extending the deep body of knowledge in the systems sciences, rhythmic shifts serve as a gateway for exploration. In a rigourous coevolving of inquiries into (i) doing (praxis), (ii) thinking (theoria), and (iii) making (theoria), a coherent systems approach is being recast and reified. An article […]
System thinking, starting from graduate studies, can be a continuing (if not lifelong) journey. In parallel to a professional career in strategic communications, Zaid Khan has the distinction having studyied systemic design in the OCADU SFI program (2016-2020), under the supervision of Peter Jones. He became a cofounder of the Systems Changes Learning Circle in […]
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 the history of science of systems thinking, Debora Hammond related the backgrounds and connections of the founder of the Society for General Systems Research, that is now the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Boulding (1956) plays a large role in framing two orientations towards “general systems theory”. Kenneth Boulding used to distinguish between […]
Geoffrey Vickers saw human systems as different, with moral character distinguishing from natural and manmade systems. Gregory Bateson, in a more general view of systems, saw morality as entering in systems processes.
In this review of a philosophical work written in Chinese, a comparison is made between Chinese philosophy centering on the body, in comparison to Western philosopy centered on the mind. (I found a reference to this book, tracing back from Keekok Lee (2017) Chapter 9, footnote 8.
The translation from English "systems thinking" to French "la pensée systémique" misses meaning. "Approche systémique" has lineage to "Conférences Macy", "General System Theory (Bertalanffy)" and "Gregory Bateson"
When one chooses a guiding philosophy of life -- and the modern world has chosen humanism -- one becomes responsible for all the consequences that flow from that choice. (David W. Ehrenfeld, 1981)
