Busy with family visits and celebrations in first half of month. Return to quiet time in second half of month.
Toronto, Ontario
Bakery Lane: Canada Day urban pseudo-lumberjack trimming back the neighbour’s tree growing over our garage. Way overdue for maintenance, debris from many years had become soil in the eavestroughs, rich with earthworms. Elders now more cautious about taking on risky activities. (Bakery Lane, Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20230701Aki Studio: Improv @Toronto_Fringe @mahjongmafiacomedy with @hello.anson #AllOurParentsAreAsian, interviewing on life history for content without scripts. Stories of Thai father Malaysian mother working in restaurant with English as common language, expressing love through food. Second act was based on prompts of secrets hidden away from Asian parents, back-to-back scenes with rapid dialogue. (Aki Studio, Daniels Spectrum, Dundas Astreet East, Toronto, Ontario) 20220711Godspeed Brewery: Couple to be joined officially in about 2 hours, in fun pose for photographer with brothers and cousins from California, Texas, Virginia, British Columbia. Lighting and available space was better in the parking lot than inside the brewery. The large Ing and Yee families participated in the traditional Chinese tea ceremony before other guests arrived. (Godspeed Brewery, Coxwell Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20230715Godspeed Brewery: Bride and groom entering the tank room of the brewery, to ascend the stairs and meet the officiant to take their vows. Relaxed venue for a marital ceremony, reception offered smoked fish, oysters, sausages and charcurerie to accompany Czech-style beers, sake and iced tea. Brief speeches and dancing into the night, with performance of break dancing from the crew members, as well as a toddler showing up the elders. (Godspeed Brewery, Coxwell Avenue, Toronto, Onrtario) 20230715King Spadina District: Family dinner with special recognition for successful PhD dissertation defence earlier in the week. Reflection on 6 years living in Toronto, will be moving to Hong Kong for a professorship in a few weeks. Watched newly transferred videos of childhood cottage visits, as well as delivery in the hospital at childbirth. (King Spadina district, Toronto, Ontario) 20230726Jimmie Simpson Park: Afternoon meetup with @cdnorman, since he walks past my street practically every day. Catch-up conversation for OCADU-affiliated faculty who haven’t been on campus so much recently. Last occasion on the same bench was almost 3 years ago, physically-distanced with pandemic disruption, we really should meet more frequently. (Jimmie Simpson Park, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20230727
Kew Beach: Overenthusiastic passerby captures nonsharp image of walk on boardwalk at dusk. Visitors from Finland enjoying Toronto, except a warm day for us is a hot day for them. Happy that they’ve felt comfortable in our city, they said there’s more urban walking neighbourhoods than in Montreal. (Kew Beach, Toronto, Ontario) 20230728
As the book on Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 was taking shape in March 2023, I was invited not only to serve as an editor, but also to contribute as an author. The edited volume is the final deliverable for the In4act project centered at the KTU School of Economics and Business in Kaunas, Lithuania […]
Beyond city-building as urban planning is the idea of a Music City. This sees development of cultural life across a wide variety of arts, alongside economic benefits brought to the region. At the 119th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in March 2024, socio-cultural designer Adam Hogan and musician-designer Ziyan Hossain joined moderator Zaid Khan in conversation. […]
Having reached year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey, the Systems Changes Learning Circle is (again) convening monthly Dialogues on Social Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Starting up in 2019, the Circle was convening regularly in the Climate Ventures space at 192 Spadina Avenue. The pandemic interrupted in-person meetings, and the […]
EQ Lab runs Dialogic Drinks, “the kind of philosophical discussion you have in a coffee shop or bar”, twice per week. Wtih this group interested loosely in questions on leadership, I was invited to host an online session on March 12 (evening in Hong Kong and Singapore, really early in Toronto) and on March 14-15 […]
At the 118th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in February 2024, behavioral scientist Cameron D. Norman and design strategist Tara Campbell were invitied for a conversation guided by Zaid Khan. The panelists are both alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU. Some time ago, they had conducted a research project on evaluation […]
An article on “sciencing and philosophizing”, coauthored by Gary S. Metcalf and myself, has been published in the Journal of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the ISSS 2023 Kruger Park conference in South Africa, last July. There’s a version cacned on the Coevolving Commons. This article started in a series of conversations […]
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 ›
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 […]
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 […]
