Table of Contents
Systemics as a deterrent to ignorance
Abstract: Why systemics? Are systemics relevant any more? Are there alternatives and/or complements?
Keywords: systemics
Introduction: What problems do systemic approaches solve?
Pragmatic questions for systemicists include:
- What problems do systemic approaches solve?
- How are systemics applied, and what alternatives and/or complements exist?
- Are we asking too much from systemics?
(Outline the sections that follow)
Systemics is an enemy to ignorance
(College on Medical Ignorance)
Systemics represent a large body of knowledge, and complementary views have emerged
In modern times, the systems movement has been linked to the founding of the Society for General Systems Research.
Systemic thinking
Focus on interconnections between thing – system dynamics
Scenario planning is an alternative to systems thinking
Thinking about potential futures, including unlikely ones
Systemic methods
SSM, VSM
Project management is an alternative to systemic methods
Identify and mitigate risks
Systemic design
From social systems design through architecture and urban planning
Pattern languages are an alternative to systemic design
Christopher Alexander, through to Software Design Patterns
Systemic practice
Mostly about social change or changelessness
Organizational learning is an alternative to systemic practice
Communities of practice
Systems science
Isomorphisms
Interdisciplinary research is an alternative to systems science
Less a search for the truth than a bridge between the two
Systems philosophy
Back to the Greeks?
Postmodernism is an alternative to systems philosophy
Like sociotechnical systems to socioecological systems
Systemics represent "a" tool, not "the" tool
A signal that systemics is becoming a discipline is when it becomes the hammer looking for the nail.
Systemics helps to balance expansiveness and reductiveness
Reductionism is based on analysis, but over-emphasis on analysis results in brittleness or lack of robustness in a changing environment.
Expansiveness draws in the environment, to the point at which nothing can get done in a world with finite resources and finite time.
The battle should be with arrogance, not alternative approaches
Putting a label on something as “non-systemic” is arrogant in itself.
