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
Two years after submitting an academic manuscript and responding to double-blind reviews, “Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption” has now been published in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior (IJOTB) as earlycite. The article has a DOI (Document Object Identifier), and should be streamed with an official volume and issue number soon. The […]
The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person. The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers. Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking. Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 […]
The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008. While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished […]
In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind. Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses […]
For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied. The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the […]
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 […]
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 ›
In 2024, WordPress Studio was released, making installation on a local computer simpler. The instructions were modified from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, by Daniel Kossmann, “How to install WordPress Studio in Ubuntu Linux” | Jun 15, 2024 at https://www.danielkossmann.com/how-to-install-wordpress-studio-ubuntu-linux/ I already had NVM installed, but in Terminal, with the result “command not found”. In the […]
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 […]
