Helsinki, Finland; Frankfurt Airport, Germany; Toronto, Ontario; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; Whitby, Ontario
Helsinki, Finland; Frankfurt Airport, Germany; Toronto, Ontario; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; Whitby, Ontario
Hakaniemi Market: Fishmonger filets pike-perch (kasvatettu siika), as I requested a whitefish for soup tomorrow. She and a passing customer recommended against the hauki (pike) which has many small bones. The advice of a professional is preferred since I’m less proficient varieties of fish, particularly when they’re named in Finnish. (Ekströms Fiskebod, Hakaniemi Market, Helsinki, Finland) 20160201Post-lecture dinner: Warm hospitality following pattern of preparing dinner in AS’s kitchen, coming up to Chinese New Year. Old friends and new acquaintances numbered 13 around the table this time. Menu favourites included vegetarian ma po tofu and stick dried bean curd (foo jook) and reconstituted dried shitake mushrooms brought in suitcase from Toronto. Switched seats before dessert to talk to more people at the long table. (Töölö, Helsinki, Finland) 20160202Cafe Tin Tin Tango: Meeting venue popular with coffee up front, laundromat in the back. Fortunately, no clothes were being cleaned while we had our research discussion, so we could sit near a power outlet. Had kaneli pulla (cinnamon buns) with herbal teas. Wifi is available for free 30 minutes at a time, so camping out for the day is monitored by servers. Lavatory was practically Japanese in the economy of space. (Cafe Tin Tin Tango, Toolo, Helsinki, Finland) 20160203Local tax office: Arrived just before 4:15pm when doors are closed, while government employees continue serving visitors inside. Alternative to 35% withholding for non-residents to Finland is to get a tax card and be calculated on the progressive rate. When income is low, having a tax card could pre-empt having to file a tax return available only in the Finnish or Swedish language in the next year. (Vero Skatt, Fennia-kortteli, Helsinki, Finland) 20160203Museokatu laneway: Apartment windows look out over open parking behind five storey buildings with commercial businesses that face the street on the other side. View west doesn’t provide much sunlight, and dusk is relatively early at this northern latitude. Having a three-metre day, grading student work for tomorrow’s lecture. (Hellsten Parliament Apartments, Museokatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20160204Kiasma: Art is free on first Friday night of the month at the Kiasma. The exhibition of “Demonstrating Minds: Disagreements in Contemporary Art” may reflect the prevailing pessimistic mood in the country. The long slow ramp up to the second floor is a famous feature designed by architect Stephen Holl. (Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland) 20160205
Despite the rainy day, Jennifer took us on a driving tour of Scarborough, Whitby and Pickering, in North Yorkshire.
Despite the rain on that Friday afternoon, Jennifer followed through with plans to take the visiting scholars north in Yorkshire to some historic towns. Driving from Hull on the inland highway past Driffield, our first stop was Scarborough Beach, on the south bay. The town centre is a little farther north.
Zooming in, the arcade attractions to this resort town are visible on the peninsula.
Just west of the beach, on the Esplanade, is one of the many resorts: The Ambassador Hotel. If the weather had been better, we might have ridden from the beach up to the top riding the cliff lifts (i.e. funiculars).
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 […]
