Toronto, Ontario; Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Wuhan, China; Alexandria, Virginia; Washington, DC
Toronto, Ontario; Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Wuhan, China; Alexandria, Virginia; Washington, DC
Chinese Visa Application Service Centre: Submitted invitation letter from Wuhan U. Tech at prebooked appointment. Clerk corrected category as non-business, and said not multiple entry, but double entry same price as single entry. Tuesday drop-off, Friday pick-up as normal service. Receptionist noted I had forgotten to copy face page on passport, so photocopier in corner is $0.40. (Chinese Visa Application Service Center, University Avenue, Toronto) 20160301School of the Environment: Martin Bunch from York U. guest lecture at U. Toronto on Ecosystems Approaches originating from James Kay, evolved into EcoHealth approach with community health in coupled social-ecological systems. Presented on three cases, in Kathmandu Nepal; Chennai India; and Credit Valley Conservation Authority in Southern Ontario. I’ve lectured in Martin’s systems thinking class, sometimes it’s better to hear a formal talk to appreciate the work of a researcher. (University of Toronto School of the Environment) 20160302The Real Jerk: Family lunch relaxed on a weekday, with sister-in-law visiting with baby. She requested some food not Middle Eastern, as she’s been living in Israel. Curried goat was popular amongst us, jerk pork was extra spicy, and the beef roti was more substantial than an appetizer to be shared by all of us. (The Real Jerk, Gerrard Street East at Carlaw Avenue, Toronto) 20160303AC005 YYZ-HND: Flight delay of 2 hours to 3:45pm had me falling asleep in Maple Leaf Lounge, as I stayed awake and worked through last night. Mechanical problems means will arrive in Tokyo after sunset, so body schedule will probably be confused. New release movies haven’t changed since last flight, so I’m spending too much time on long hauls. (Air Canada 005, Toronto Pearson to Tokyo Haneda) 20160309Aeon Market Granpark: End-of-day clearance take-out sushi in Tokyo supermarket is better than some restaurant food on other side of ocean. Large display of Florida navel oranges is twice the price of local varieties. Full service supermarket is in basement of complex across the street from usual hotel in Shibaura district. Flight to Haneda was delayed by 2 hours, so friends went for dinner without me. (Aeon Market Granpark, Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo) 20160310Duo Music Exchange: Piano-driven instrument rock by Schroeder Headz had audience bouncing in time, and waving right hands. Pianist Shunsuke Watanabe had extended pattern between songs, entertaining audience with humour. Japanese audience was more subdued with opening act ADAM At. Venue had excellent sound, no seats. We didn’t stay for third band on bill, Sono Sukimakara. (Duo Music Exchange, Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo) 20160311
Excursion to Hvitträsk, the home/studio of architect Eliel Saarinen, and childhood home of Eero, who grew up around his father’s work. Kirsti and Jari pointed out the traditional Finnish touches in the home, interesting of the light of the father creating in a more traditional style while the son developed the modernism. The exhibits showed a number of unrealized plans, which makes we wonder about the relationship between architects and clients in years before I was born. After touring the house, we walked down to the lake, where Kirsti was searching for Finnish chanterelles. (Kirkkonummi, Finland) 20101003 1230Montreal waterfront along the St. Lawrence River, viewed from the Ile Sainte Helene. Sightseeing detour, telling our sons about their grandfather bringing us to Expo 67 when we were children (Montreal, Saturday) 2010100 1830Chinese herb ingredients for decoctions for three days to battle excess heat due to travel fatigue. Recognized ginger root, everything else looks like twigs and leaves. Boil in 3 cups of water for 40 minutes. Apothecary suggested not eating chicken for three days (Toronto, Sunday) 20101017 1530Sunday brunch buffet at Taverna Cretekou, relaxed Mediterranean atmosphere, bouzoukis on the speakers, family of three generations speaking French at the next table. I am just passing through on the way to meet Kent, enjoying a low stress roast lamb sandwich (Alexandria, Virginia, Sunday) 20101024 1300Abingdon Plantation, on the National Register of Historic Places, is an enclosed grassy mound that includes a ruin, found in between the rental car garage and Terminal B of Reagan National Airport in Washington DC. Millions of people pass nearby, but how many would care to stop for even a moment, to look at the plaque? Is this the American appreciation of history? (Washington, DC) 20101026 1330
Dulles, Virginia; Fairfax, Virginia; Washington, DC; Dallas, Texas; Toronto, Ontario.
Tarmac baggage pickup from gateside checkin at Washington Dulles airport. How quaint. Followed by long walk through pier, escalator up and down, train to terminal, walk to last baggage carousel and then outside to rental car pickup. IAD makes JFK and O’Hare seem intimate (Dulles, Virginia, Wednesday) 20100816 1730Banks of ventilation hoods over BBQ grills signal a serious community of Korean foodies. I opted to have my galbi cooked in the kitchen. MeeGa resto (Fairfax, VA, Wednesday) 20100816 1930Rockers with a view east onto the Potomac River, beyond the runways. From ‘historic’ terminal A of Reagan National Airport (Washington, DC, Friday) 20100820 1615Urban rail in downtown Dallas. It occurred to me that I have been to the area frequently, but never really down in the city core, and always in a car. Times change, and energy costs will continue to rise, so this is part of the future (Dallas, Texas, Friday) 20100827 0845
Shoegazing music from Aphasia band from Taiwan. Sunday night at obscure Duffy’s Tavern means small audience compared to Saturday night at Harbourfront or Monday night at Lee’s Palace. Great sound and performance seemed to lower my blood pressure. http://myspace.com/aphasiatw (Toronto, Sunday) 20100829 2130
Chinatown is centrally located in Washington, and a short walk down to the federal buildings and the Canadian Embassy.
If I have a choice of hotel locations when I’m on business travel, I prefer one next to a Chinese “duck hanging in the window” rice-and-noodles joint. The menu is predictable, and these places survive on repeat business. In Washington, DC, one of the corporate negotiated hotels happens to be next to Chinatown, and a key Metrorail station at Gallery Place. I took the subway from the airport. Coming up from the subway platform, it seems as though the station designers took the Chinese neighbourhood theme seriously.
Chinatown in DC isn’t more than a few blocks long. There’s probably fewer than ten Chinese restaurants there.
The randomness of locations for business travel allowed me to see the Adams Morgan district of Washington, DC.
Since my territory in the day job is North America, it seems that I’m assigned to a different city every two months. In addition, with corporate-negotiated rates, the chosen hotel is sometimes in unobvious locations. For October, I spent a few days in the Adams Morgan district of Washington, DC. The General George McClelland statue is at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue NW and Columbia Road NW.
The area has a lot of embassies. Walking north up Connecticut Avenue NW, there’s a bridge spanning a ravine.
Within the Systems Thinking Ontario community, we were fortunate to have Nenad Rava step up to explain how the Sustainable Development Goals came to be, and relate them to systems change. This May session of Systems Thinking Ontario was a quick follow-on for the March edition on Ecological Limits to Development: Living with the SDGs. […]
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. […]
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 ›
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 ›
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 […]
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 […]
