Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Thornhill, Ontario; Frankfurt, Germany; Helsinki, Finland
Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Thornhill, Ontario; Frankfurt, Germany; Helsinki, Finland
New Year’s dinner: Family starting off year together, before dispersing on diverse paths ahead. Lobster, Peking duck, plus lots of variety with 9 at table. Christmas was quiet, now enjoying the time together. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160101St. Lawrence Market: Shopping for good bread and liverwurst on a late Friday afternoon with outdoor temperature above freezing. Bakeries mostly depleted, packaged for end of day. Eastern European meat store on lower floor. Bike route is flatter going west-east than climbing up the hill northbound to Danforth Greektown. (St. Lawrence Market, Toronto) 20160108Cayne’s: Selected dark roasted decaf pod for free sample coffee from machine in store. Declined on extra flavourings. Afternoon of driving around Thornhill and Markham for small errands. Not the best date for a long-married couple, but still gives us time together to talk. (Cayne’s Super Housewares, Thornhill, Ontario) 20160114New Bilan: Somalian lunch with friendly chef. Short menu of 5 meat and fish choices, ordered one of each, enjoyed as a group: goat meat, chicken steak, chicken stew, king fish, beef stew. Chicken soup with spices had us guessing flavours. Five platters came with rice, we ordered chipatti bread extra, arriving hot to the the table. Casual restaurant not frequented by tourists slightly east of downtown, unconventional choice for Sunday lunch (New Bilan Restaurant, Dundas Street East, Toronto) 20160117Francesca Bakery: Italian hot table on Friday 4:30 p.m. rather depleted, with pasta gone. Decided against calamari, chose veal sandwich and arancini (where the rice balls were hard to discern under zesty tomato sauce). Had ridden with friend out of downtown early to preempt traffic, this venue is close to McCowan transit station for my return back downtown. (Francesca Bakery, McCowan Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160122Absolute Bakery: Wider selection of breads in front window of neighbourhood bakery, pies and pastries in the cases behind. Chose rye bread for a change, will return for multigrain on another trip. Weather 6 degrees C and cloudy, no snow on the ground meant opportunity for bicycling on a mild Toronto day. Continuing pattern of sampling non-artisanal bakers around town. (Absolute Bakery, Parliament Street, Cabbagetown, Toronto, Ontario) 20160126First Nations School: Canoe on dry land, in front of mosaic spelling Gzaagigoo Nookmis Rose on easel planter. Translation guess: We love you (Gzaagigoo) Grandmother (Nookmis) Rose. First Nations School has junior and senior primary students in building co-sited with Dundas Public School. Multiculturalism mixes aboriginals with new immigrants on the playground. (First Nations School, Dundas Street East, Toronto) 20160127Nino D’Aversa: Racks of bread less busy than larger hot table buffet and espresso bar care areas. This brand is delivered to our local grocery store downtown, but the selection isn’t always there. Took home a loaf of ciabatta unsliced to judge freshness. Was in the neighbourhood, so a modest tour of cuisine nearby. (Nino D’Aversa Bakery, Glen Cameron Drive, Thornhill, Ontario) 20160128Pearson Terminal 1: : Express speedwalk seems slower and longer today, en route to Helsinki foot 3 weeks. Seats on flight to Frankfurt not full today. Weather at destination if expected to be about the same as at home. (Toronto Pearson Airport, Terminal 1) 20160130Frankfurt Airport Terminal A: Mobile installation in atrium of popular hub for flights across Europe. Now morning daylight, arrival was dark on overnight trans-Atlantic leg. On time schedule and loose connection have enough time for shower and leisurely breakfast in Senator Lounge. Stiffness and dull headache chills be treated, but first have to sit on another plane for a free hours. (Frankfurt Airport, Terminal A, Germany) 20160131
Hellsten Parliament: Arrived at Helsinki apartment for 3-week stay. Smaller room, just the basics for me. Teaching 2 days per week, a few other meetings, but lots of opportunities to visit with friends. (Museokatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20160131
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 […]
