Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Jacksonville, Florida.
YTZ ferry. Landside terminal view of ferry to Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island. Runs every 15 minutes. This is my first time outbound from YTZ, as Air Canada only flies to Montreal from here. Porter Airlines dominates the terminal as its hubs. Free cafe in terminal is not Maple Leaf Lounge, but it’s more democratic. (Toronto) 20120103 1324Montreal Chinatown Gate Mural. Snowy January morning on Rene Levesque Blvd. Chinatown Gate with mural across the street, at St. Laurent entry (Montreal) 20120105 0845Rooftop pool in Montreal winter. Steaming indoor-outdoor pool at Hilton Bonaventure, in an early Montreal morning with temperature well below freezing. I probably haven’t been in this pool since the early 1990s, and then not with snow around it. No time on this trip for swimming. (Montreal, Quebec) 20120116 0928Jacksonville Landing on St. John’s River. Late afternoon January in northern Florida, with blue skies. Rock music playing, just a few tourists walking by with children. Welcome relief from winter, great weather offsets rebooked flight and leaving home early in the dark. Expect most of weekend indoors in meetings (Jacksonville, FL) 20120120 1650Florida Theatre, Gordon Lightfoot. In Jacksonville, FL, Gordon Lightfoot on tour for 13 days of 15. I was coincidentally in town for a conference, and snagged row 5 tickets with JMW 2 hours before show. Last time I saw Lightfoot was in Massey Hall in Toronto in the mid-1970s. Songs familiar, performance now performance of a 73-year old is different. Hard to find anyone in audience under age 40. (Jacksonville, FL) 20120122 2041JAX Art by Joe Segal. Sculptures of wood and aluminum mounted on wall of Jacksonville Airport art gallery, created by northern Florida artist Joe Segal. Displayed together as a collection, but actually tagged as independent pieces for sale. Gallery is located landside in airport, so non-travelers can view, but would have viewed longer with flight delay if venue was airside. (Jacksonville, FL) 20120123 1540Guaranteed Pure Milk bottle, Montreal. Rooftop art deco 1930s installation restored in 2009, 10 metres high, 6 tonnes of steel. Viewed from 11th floor window of the Cite du Commerce Electronique to the north. Preservation of whimsy demonstrates that Montreal doesn’t always take itself seriously (Montreal, Quebec) 20120125 0853Yael Bensoussan duo, Segal Centre. Vocals in French, plus guitar. Said she learned songs sung by her mother washing dishes. Introduced with alternate career as a second year medical student at U. of Montreal. Part of the Women of the World series at the Segal Centre, opening for Coral Egan (Montreal) 20120126 2007
Coral Egan, Segal Centre. Preview of “The Year He Drove Me Crazy” album for spring release, 3 years in making. New band, intimate venue with audience of about 150. Coral Egan performing as part of the Women of the World series at the Segal Centre (Montreal) 20120126 2052
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 […]
