International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH TO ADDRESS THE COMPLEXITY OF AGRIBUSINESS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
No full textAfrican countries have comparative advantages in terms of land and relatively cheap labour cost compared to western countries in the production and export of primary commodities. However, there are many challenges such as sustainability issues, and the danger of “silo mentality” (in which fixing one problem “here” simply shifts the problem “there”) and “organizational myopia” (in which a short term fix “now” gives rise to a much bigger problem to fix “later”) facing the agriculture sector. Since the democratic progresses of many African countries, there have been a number of interventions to overcome the challenges facing the agriculture industry but with little success. The problem still persists and many budgeted billions of dollars for the agriculture sector have already been spent. The agriculture industry is a complex system economically, socially, and environmentally thus dealing with problems in isolation fails to produce lasting results. A survey and literature reviews was conducted to gather the mental models of all stakeholders involved in addition to the challenges of the agricultural sectors within Africa. Their opinion concerning how the system works, barriers to success and the system drivers, and possible strategies (solutions) to overcome these problems was analysed. These results developed four system models for agribusiness sustainability using a “systems thinking” or integrated approach and tools such as casual loop diagrams and Bayesian Belief Network models. Casual loop modeling were used to determine the components and interactions between the policy, social, environmental and economic dimensions to provide insights into potential systems behavior and to facilitate leverage points and systemic intervention strategies that are required for sustainable development of the agriculture industry. The Bayesian Belief Network models reveal that farmer education, access to both seasonal production, access to information, quality seeds and cold storage facilities will help drive overall export performance by 8.2%, increasing market share by 11.7%, raising export volume by 22% and enhance farmer’s profit by 13.1%. This approach will enable and assist farmers, policymakers, researchers and donors to successfully manage the agriculture and food systems so as to strengthen food security, enhance rural livelihoods, and improve environmental sustainability in the context of the challenges arising from agriculture production in Africa. These will also help stakeholders and governments to anticipate the long-term consequences of their decisions and actions, as well as the unintended consequences of policies and strategies and avoid “silo mentality” and “organizational myopia”. This will further induce innovative agribusiness with an entrepreneurial approach and empower the youth to be successful agribusiness entrepreneurs through an innovative and systemic approach
A Life in Systems
No full textThe author’s career in systems began in 1971 at General Motors Research Laboratories, where he was told to replicate the Club of Rome model, and continues now as he edits the Elsevier journal Technological Forecasting & Social Change. Highlights included years working with Ilya Prigogine; graduating from Abe Charnes’ Center for Cybernetic Studies at Texas; visits to the Santa Fé Institute; and introducing information-theoretic methods to the management field (while arguing with Bayesians). The paper offers lessons learned and perspectives drawn over this span, with regard to computation, big data, and sustainability, as they pertain to the study and management of complex systems
SYSTEMATIC PLANNING FOR THE MEXICAN SATELLITE SYSTEM
No full textA systematic planning model for the Mexican satellite system consisting of the analysis of a domestic and international satellite system was diagnosed using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) it´s mission, vision, values and strategic objectives were proposed and the strategies raised by the following combinations of SWOT: SO, ST, WO and WT. Finally, the plan of action and the feasibility of carrying it out were proposed. Based on analysis and diagnosis one of the great strengths found in the country is the development of special scientific research, but it is isolated and therefore tends to establish humanist satellite companies to promote and preserve ecology and self-finance public and mixed wealth or private initiatives that systemically integrate basic and applied science among other companies which are engaged in the design, construction and launch of satellites with the purpose of contributing to technological development. This provides an efficient, fast, safe and cheap way to meet the demands of domestic and international users
Urban pioneering movement as an example of emergence and change
No full textThis article examines systemic change through a gradual, self-generating change that can lead to a paradigm shift, using urban pioneering movement in Helsinki as an example. The urban pioneering movement aims at transforming the urban culture through activities that generate more tolerant and open city with appreciation to citizen democracy. The movement works against controlled and regulated urban experience and aims at a paradigm shift on how the city is used and perceived. Urban pioneering movement has succeeded in its aims with approaches and maneuvers that may show promise especially in the context of the sustainability movement. The research that was conducted as a part of future learning environments study in Aalto University showed that the urban pioneers generate emergent culture in their environment and they do so by working as if there were two different environments that they need to affect. One of the environments is the visible urban cultural scene where the envisioned change would be taking place and the second is the invisible environment of rules and regulations that the urban pioneers have to work hard with in order to diminish and remove obstacles that slow down the transformation that they aim at. The transformation, when successful, happens as a snowball effect, generating increasingly more change towards the desired goals, until the system has gradually transformed also its values.  
Towards A Sustainable Tourism Definition From Systems Science Perspective
No full textThe tourism system has as main components, social, economic and natural subsystems, which are linked together to give rise to tourism activities in particular contexts called destinations. Tourism to be regulated under a legal framework on protected areas, to offer interpretations regarding commercial activity and the natural protection, which at first seem contrary relations, arising from excessive use of natural and cultural resources to generate tourism services. However, under the perspective of these antagonistic, Systems Science can be considered as complementary. The purpose of this paper is to study the complexity of sustainability case study taking as a destination in the Mexican Caribbean, to highlight, through the Viable Systems Model, complementary relationships between economic development and natural care which converge in production of tourism services. This implies a holistic view that encompasses the subsystems (social, economic and natural) and the system above (sustainable tourism) described in the elements and relationships that make up the 5 sets of viable model
Life chances of children and young people in institutional care in Sri Lanka: A critical review of policy and governance with reference to case studies
No full textABSTRACT One in every two hundred children undergo alternative care in a children’s home in Sri Lanka, denied of basic human rights by being deprived of parental care and by being labelled orphaned, abandoned or destitute. These figures are problematic in a multi-religious and diversely cultured state where moral rhetoric abounds, but concerns need to be translated into practice. The need for institutional children’s care must be investigated, as does the ability of these organizations to provide a quality upbringing and life preparation for children. In this paper I address these contemporary issues through a critical review of the policy environment and the governance practices of these institutions with reference to specific case studies. My field study was carried out across all nine provinces in Sri Lanka, involving policy makers and service providers of institutionalized children. All nine commissioners of the provincial departments of probation and child care services were interviewed to collect information on policy implications and their role in the policy making process. All 298 probation officers, 287 child rights promotion officers, and matrons and wardens of all 416 children’s homes were included in a questionnaire census approach. Of these, approximately half responded. Thirty managers from different children’s homes were interviewed to ascertain information with regards to their service provision. My critical systemic approach in the field has identified many issues of policy implication and service provision across institutions charged with care of children and young people. This paper presents the initial findings regarding the quality of life and the enhancement of life chances of children in alternative care in Sri Lanka. Further, it will also give direction to policy makers and service providers on the provision of high quality child support. This takes into account their natural birth environments, their institutionalization period and subsequent reintegration. These guidelines can maximize the potential of these institutionalized children and is well suited to this year’s conference theme, “Curating the conditions for a thrivable planet” as the well-being of children and the planet are inextricably linked. A critical approach to maximizing the potential of institutionalized children will, in turn, enable them to positively contribute to the emerging “global eco-civilization”
OBSERVING MANAGERIAL DECISION-MAKING AND INFORMATION FLOW FROM WITHIN THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AN EMERGING ORGANIZATION: A LIVING SYSTEMS ACTION-RESEARCH PROJECT
No full textThe investigation looked at a not-for-profit (NFP) organization referred to as SELF, which consisted of three for-profit, socially involved corporations, each serving on the Board. The problem was conceived of as an information overload situation which impacts the quality of decision-making at the highest organizational level, given the variety of information that must be processed by the Board of Directors, for example, financial, social, technological, and qualitative. The research used Living Systems Theory (LST) to take an organismic point of view in order to capture multiple forms of information as the organization evolves and adapts. The LST frame provided categories to tag and map information flows at a cross-level analysis at the “Decider” level. The research study is based on action-research, which takes place in iterative cycles of action and reflection. The research subjects were active participants in the research design and execution. 
From Bertalanffy to Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
No full textWhen Bertalanffy advocated a new scientific discipline called general system theory, this generalist mode of understanding was to be based on the isomorphism of laws, principles, and models in the different sciences, and on structural uniformities (isomorphies) in the subject matters of those sciences. There is a conceptual shift in Bertalanffy’s work from the logico-mathematical mode to a deeper more complex understanding. There is a corresponding shift in the understanding of isomorphies from the isomorphy of laws and principles to the isomorphy of qualities of real systems. The recognition of isomorphies in real situations and systems has resulted in the creation of the modern generalist mode of understanding and from there the development of discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity. This paper gives an introduction to this form of transdisciplinarity, and explains how this mode of understanding naturally develops a universal transdisciplinary language
STRETCHING THE CONCEPT OF BOUNDARY IN BOUNDARY CRITIQUE
No full textThe way in which boundary is marked around an issue, determines the way in which we understand, approach and intervene in such an issue. Stretching the way in which we understand the concept of boundary can expand our understanding of how to approach interventions in themselves. This paper proposes to contribute to understanding of boundary in Boundary Critique in two ways. First, by showing that those bounds can be understood as flexible and changing with every interaction of the actors. Second by showing that what is left outside of the limit defines the meaning of what is inside. The arguments draw from philosophy and pragmatics of language
ABSOLUTE RELATIVITY: THE 5TH DIMENSION.
No full text General Systems is a theory of absolute relativity. Its aim is to describe all the isomorphisms, invariances and conservation laws of the Universe – 3 concepts that mean the same: an immortal reality that keeps reproducing self similar forms in space and self similar events/cycles in time.Relativity showed all systems are invariant to motions in space. But physical invariance is only one of the 5 invariances of the Universe. When we widen the concept of invariance to ‘self-similarity’ - a more general term - the Universe remains invariant to motion but also becomes: - Invariant to changes of ‘in/form/ation’ (topological invariance), shown in the existence of only 3 topologies in a 4-dimensional Universe, which correspond to the 3 formal functions of all systems, the energetic membrane or sphere, the toroid body that exchanges energy and information with the hyperbolic, informative, central zero point of the system.And derived from the invariance of those essential parameters of reality, motion and form, its complex combinations:- Invariance of the 4 actions that combine energy (e) and in/form/ation (i): energy feeding, information processing, reproduction of both (exi) and social evolution, of parts into wholes, origin of the 4th invariance: - Invariance of scale which define a 5th, fractal, scalar dimension made of growing scales of size and self-organization that evolve reality from the smallest particles into the complex organisms and galaxies of the upper scales.- And invariance of time frequencies, which determine the causality laws of the Universe and life-death cycles of all systems of the Universe, among them the invariance of 3 time ages of life and the parallel 3 states of matter in physical systems.Formalism of absolute relativity.Topology, Fractal, non-Euclidean Geometries, and ternary logic, further evolved by this author (definition of the first four non-Euclidean postulates and the paradoxical logic of information) become the formal tools to study those invariances represented by a feed-back, fractal generator equation.The 5 invariances of the Universe, motion & energy (E), form or information (i), its combined actions, its cyclical time frequency or quantization, ∑E, ∏I, and their self-similarity through discontinuous space-time scales (i can be formalized with a feed-back equation, the Fractal Generator of the Universe - Max. ∑ Ei-1 ∏ Ti - which maximizes them, under the restrictions of the Non-Euclidean, Non- Aristotelian mathematical and logic laws that describe each invariance.The fractal generator represents many things: the principle of conservation of energy and information; the complementary structure of all systems made of energy fields/bodies and informative heads/particles, the actions all systems enact to improve their chances of survival by maximizing their invariances; while its maximal points become the topological forms, ages and allowed states of all biological and physical systems: Max. E (sphere, energetic youth, gas); Max. ExI -> E=I, (toroid, reproductive age, liquid) and Max. I (zero point, 3rd informative age, solid). Since all stable systems are a combination of the 3 topologies that maximize the fractal generator and all existences a motion in time through its 3 maximal points, while all failed mutations and unstable particles are incomplete sets or ‘vibrational modes’ created around them. Reason why I call the Fractal Generator, the Equation of Exi=stence - an algorithm, constantly run by the Universe that generates all its living and non-living systems in space and its ages/states of time and matter. In this conference we introduce the 5 invariances and the fractal generator, showing how they create in its maximal points the species of all sciences across the 5th dimension of fractal scales of space-time