International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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The rules we live by
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This paper explores the role of the law in marginalization and identity formation. The focus of the study is Bulgaria and its 2016 legislation prohibiting the face-veil. My discussions of the ban with Muslim participants revealed four perspectives on it, and these are related to each other systemically: they are connected in a marginalization dynamic. However, evidence from the reflections of my participants suggests that these perspectives and the marginalization dynamic did not exist (at least in this systemically-interrelated form) prior to the face veil ban. A ban on identity expression is, of course, a legal act. Thus, we need to theorize the systemic process by which identity-regulating legislation is produced, bringing about or intensifying marginalization. As an example of this process, I discuss the rise to prominence of a nationalist party in Bulgaria, whose key members lobbied for the ban and subsequently gained electoral support to institutionalize it.
I aim to move the debate about theories of identity beyond the micro-level of social groups by situating the individual in a social system where the State has the legitimacy to reinforce some moral interpretations and simultaneously undermine others via use of the law. I aim to remedy the disconnect between institutional communications and the people who produce them by bringing in the human experience of legislation against the backdrop of identity.
In theorizing the relationship between identity formation and the law, I argue that the discipline of anthropology has plenty to offer the formation of a systemic perspective on identity and its regulation. This regulation is enacted by a State that tends to moralise social issues, especially those that are perceived as dangerous. I draw upon Mary Douglas’s theory of risk, as well as her ideas on institutional design and the interactions between individuals and the State. The early ideas of Douglas informed Midgley’s systemic theory of marginalization, and I believe that her later works can enhance this marginalization theory by situating marginalization processes in relation to an institutional and legal context.
 
Reflections on Energy, Information, and Fields from Psychoanalytic and Systems Theoretical Perspectives
No full textThe story of energy as a focus of psychoanalysis began with Freud, whose conceptualization was further developed by C.G. Jung. The human psyche, as Jung came to understand it, is enlivened by energy that draws people toward people, objects, ideas, and activities, forming and re-forming us through the ways it flows and the contents it carries.
Two levels of human system are addressed here. This article will examine how psychological energy forms the experience of individuals. In analytical psychology, psychological energy is observed to carry information about both conscious and unconscious states of a person’s psyche as it engages with itself and its environment. This article will also examine how psychological energy forms the experience of groups. It acts as a force that travels through space and time, creating specific, qualitatively linked human behaviors, tensions, constraints, frustrations, and potentials that Jung and others conceive of as psychological fields.
The concept of energy as a property of psychological systems makes useful contributions to our understanding of the human experience. Though rarely conscious, psychological energy nonetheless impacts the phenomenological experience of human individuals and groups, who cope with it in a variety of ways (some generative and some destructive). Psychological energy slows, stops, and speeds up, each having identifiable impact on the personal and collective psyche. Finally, an important thesis in psychoanalytic thought is that the means through which energy moves through and within human systems can change, thus psychic energy plays an important role in psychological transformation. 
ISSS Annual Meeting Online 2022 Forward
No full textEvery field of endeavor with publication venues periodically reflect on the advancements in that field that had been made over the prior decade. The underlying assumption is that the field progresses with new discoveries or innovations. In the sciences as well as in application practice fields we look for those discoveries and innovations that propel the field forward, make the body of knowledge more useful and lead to yet more discoveries. Perhaps it is time for the systems community to reflect on advances that have been made in systems science and systems practice as part of our efforts to understand how the ISSS is now, or can be in the future, impacting the world for the better
Turning lemons into lemonade. The practice of using instant messaging for teaching programming
No full textThe world we live in is complex such that only data-driven innovators who, are able to: (a) push boundaries; (b) acknowledge the ‘science’ (for continuous learning, critique learning, self-organization, inter-connection/dependence); and (c) practice the ‘art’ (to pragmatize diversity, openness, connectivism) of the unimaginable (admittance of emergent phenomenon) can survive.
In educational settings, complexities exist in various forms, which includes the ‘haves’ and ‘haves not’: e.g., access to/not to the study content and environment. In developed countries, teaching/learning tools like learning management systems (LMS) are used by students, a privilege that does not exist to schools/colleges students in most developing countries; especially those whose parents have low incomes. Older mobile phones are the only technology available to the students because of their capabilities (e.g., manageable costs and ubiquitous). Although the prospects of using mobile phones with applications such as instant messaging (IM) in education exist; due to complexities (i.e., organizational; individual; micro, macro, and meso forms); most millennium learners who have access to IM, do not use it for learning.
The aim of this paper therefore is to present a study that shows how to make a difference; to emancipate the affected/involved (students, teachers) in achieving the seemingly impossible through using IM for teaching in order to reach their full potential as learners/teachers. This paper reports on the preparatory literature review done to develop guidelines for using IM in computing training from a critical systems perspective, through the ideas of Werner Ulrich, based on Kant’s work on conditioned realities. Koehler and Mishra’s technological pedagogical content knowledge framework (TPACK) is applied to elucidate different types of perspectives (in form of technical, pedagogical, and content boundaries), essential in dealing with the complex educational ecosystem.
Sequentially (from widest view to a narrow), through TPACK the first phase of the technological knowledge of the study (TK); as the main boundary, is discoursed in accordance with ‘conditioned realties’ of the ‘art’ and ‘science’ of HCI to produce initial guidelines for developing software. Due to the critical systems’ idea of an environment; a pragmatic review of the initially produced HCI guidelines is done with regards to IM restrictions/affordances; for the development of the initial guidelines in relation to HCI and refinement thereof for IM.
The second phase the study’s pedagogical knowledge (PK) is provided through a detailed theoretical review of literature on education and programming education. The discussed intersection of the TK and PK of the study is centered on the understandings of the affordances/restrictions associated with the study’s technological and pedagogical understandings. The obtained knowledge is applied to the previously developed guidelines to produce a set of refined guidelines.
The third phase of the study’s content knowledge (CK) is presented in respect of Java programming concepts. The interrelationship of the CK and: (1) TK is discussed in tandem to technologies that are used for performing and understanding that science; (2) PK, offered is based on the: motives of teaching programming; concepts to be taught; familiar students’ programming difficulties or misconceptions; and the way to teach a topic. A pragmatic review is also done on the previously refined guidelines to obtain another set of (final) enhanced (center for all the knowledge connections; TPACK) guidelines. In future work, these literature-based guidelines will be imperially tested/verified and used to assist in the development of a framework for using IM in computing training in secondary schools, technical and vocational education, and training colleges from a HCI principle and critical systems perspective
Green Rising: An Alternative Future
No full textMy book Green Rising: An Alternative Future deals with the theme of this track.
Where we are going is not a mystery. There are numerous discussion of where we are going, beginning with Limits to Growth. Darwin was the one who described the process of evolution as “selection,” or decision making. The fundamental characteristic of complex, adaptive, and evolvable systems is that they make decisions. Green Rising looks at the question from the point of view of decision making. The book considers “How do these decisions to destroy the environment get made?” And it looks at that from the view of a holarchy with decisions at each level: corporate, political, philosophical and cultural.
Decisions are historical. Our culture has chosen a direction. In order for us to make a decision to change that direction we have to have alternatives. The book sets forth possible alternatives to our current system.
These are summarized in the book's last appendix: The Green Manifesto. The rest of this abstract is a summary of the Manifesto which is a summary of the book which is available as a free download at the website, www.berserkrpress.com.
The world system is currently in danger from the growth of human beings and their economy. We must move from a growth economy to a sustainable economy. This requires change at the various levels of the holarchy. The capitalist system of compound interest creates a constant economic demand for growth. Controlling growth requires controlling capitalism. The capitalist corporation is a corrupt system that focuses the corporation on maximizing shareholder value i.e. capital growth. This system of incorporation must be replaced by a system that equalizes stakeholder value. The free market is a system for distributing production based on wealth. It is based on inequality and increases inequality. The combination of the capitalist corporation with its drive for efficiency and the free market with its growing inequality creates a constant unemployment and poverty that generates a general popular demand for more jobs and thus economic growth and an exponentially growing consumption. The free market system must be replaced by a guaranteed liveable income and the egalitarian provision of essential social services like education and health care. Our political parties with their neoliberal ideologies define the goal of the economy as increasing levels of consumption. Instead of looking at our society as a collection of individuals each trying to maximize consumption, we need to look at our society as an organic whole seeking the health of the ten basic biological functions of a society. In order for us to make the shift from looking at society as a mechanism to looking at society as a biological system, we have to make a cultural change from a philosophy of materialism to a philosophy of holism. A cultural change requires a change in our universities, our spiritual institutions, and our media.
The Green Manifesto
System
Status Quo
Green Alternative
Worldview
Materialism
Holism
Political Values
Wealth
Health
Economic Values
GDP Growth
Feed, house, clothe
Corporate Purpose
Profit
Social Mission
Individual Values
Selfishness, greed
Love and respect
 
The Green Manifesto
No full text Special Track 1: Future of Human Social Systems: What Might the Evolution of Complex, Adaptive, and Evolvable Systems Tell Us About Where We Are Going?
My book Green Rising: An Alternative Future deals with the theme of this track.
Where we are going is not a mystery. There are numerous discussion of where we are going, beginning with Limits to Growth. Darwin was the one who described the process of evolution as “selection,” or decision making. The fundamental characteristic of complex, adaptive, and evolvable systems is that they make decisions. Green Rising looks at the question from the point of view of decision making. The book considers “How do these decisions to destroy the environment get made?” And it looks at that from the view of a holarchy with decisions at each level: corporate, political, philosophical and cultural.
Decisions are historical. Our culture has chosen a direction. In order for us to make a decision to change that direction we have to have alternatives. The book sets forth possible alternatives to our current system.
These are summarized in the book's last appendix: The Green Manifesto. The rest of this abstract is a summary of the Manifesto which is a summary of the book which is available as a free download at the website, www.berserkrpress.com.
The world system is currently in danger from the growth of human beings and their economy. We must move from a growth economy to a sustainable economy. This requires change at the various levels of the holarchy. The capitalist system of compound interest creates a constant economic demand for growth. Controlling growth requires controlling capitalism. The capitalist corporation is a corrupt system that focuses the corporation on maximizing shareholder value, capitalist growth. This system of incorporation must be replaced by a system that equalizes stakeholder value. The free market is a system for distributing production based on wealth. It is based on inequality and increases inequality. The combination of the capitalist corporation with its drive for efficiency and the free market with its growing inequality creates a constant unemployment and poverty that generates a general popular demand for more jobs and thus economic growth and an exponentially growing consumption. The free market system must be replaced by a guaranteed liveable income and the egalitarian provision of essential social services like education and health care. Our political parties with their neoliberal ideologies define the goal of the economy as increasing levels of consumption. Instead of looking at our society as a collection of individuals each trying to maximize consumption, we need to look at our society as an organic whole seeking the health of the ten basic biological functions of a society. In order for us to make the shift from looking at society as a mechanism to looking at society as a biological system, we have to make a cultural change from a philosophy of materialism to a philosophy of holism. A cultural change requires a change in our universities, our spiritual institutions, and our media
ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENTS USING A CAUSAL LOOP DIAGRAM
No full textThe Japanese government is aiming for Society 5.0, where cyber and physical technologies are highly integrated to solve social issues and achieve economic development, thereby realizing human-centered value.Some parts of Society 5.0 will be provided via Systems of Systems (SoS) realized via the collaboration of multiple business entities while ensuring independence in the operation and management of each constituent entity. However, under the current Japanese legal system, SoS is difficult to regulate appropriately. Specifically, multiple management entities exacerbate the asymmetry of advanced science and technology information between regulators and operators, making it difficult to investigate the causes, distribute legal responsibility, and gather information to prevent a recurrence. Nonetheless, this can be solved by applying the deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) mechanism. For corporate crimes, this mechanism leverages criminal sanctions to encourage companies to provide information to prosecutors, thereby eliminating the information asymmetry between companies and prosecutors. DPAs have been adopted in the United States and many other countries, but their successes or failures are varied. Multiple conditions may be necessary for DPAs to be effective, but the relationships among these conditions are complex and unwieldy when discussing the design of new regulations with a wide range of stakeholders. Therefore, to help promote stakeholder understanding, we analyzed the structure of DPAs using a causal loop diagram.In this diagram, variables related to the operation of the DPAs are set, and by analyzing the relationships among the variables and the controllability of each variable, the rationale for measures that need to be designed alongside DPAs to achieve effectiveness is visualized.Interviews conducted with legal scholars, lawyers, and others validated that the described causal loop diagrams expressed the structure of DPAs at a level that will contribute to stakeholder discussions. Moreover, the effectiveness of the diagrams was evaluated
When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn't Working: Doing, Thinking and Making via Systems Changes Learning
No full textPractitioners coming to the systems sciences and/or systems thinking have an interest in “systems change(s)”. Many come from premise that that change occurs as “unfreeze-move-refreeze”, misattributed to Kurt Lewin. A more reflective view of systems changes not only sees distinctions between the intended and emergent recognized by Henry Mintzberg, but also an ecological epistemology. That leads to an appreciation of living systems in a temporality of the landscape as described by Tim Ingold extending the tradition of Gregory Bateson.
Beyond the metaphysics of Heraclitus and Parmenides, the sciences of systems can be extended through a philosophy of science underpinning Classical Chinese Medicine. The ontology of contextual-dyadic thinking outlined by Keekok Lee is in contrast to the Western dualistic thinking.
For novices, the central concepts in the Systems Changes Learning approach are: (i) rhythmic shifts; (ii) texture; and (iii) propensity. Practices are depicted as a hub of “knowing from within”, and four axes of (i) recognizing contextural influences; (ii) diagnosing rhythmic disorders; (iii) prognosing likelihoods; and (iv) reordering pacing.
In workshops, metaphors of (i) sun waxing and waning; (ii) musicians weaving into an ensemble; and (iii) motions riding a surfboard, have effectively reframed thinking about systems changes. Providing a workbook with guiding questions has aided self-organizing groups to surface their points of view and engage in rich discussion, with a minimal coaching by facilitators.
Ongoing action learning on doing (praxis), thinking (episteme) and making (poiesis) by the Systems Changes Learning Circle is in year 4 of an espoused ten-year journey
ARCHITECTURES TO PROTECT THE COMMONS – : COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE TO INSPIRE AGENCY AND HOP
No full textThe paper gives an overview of some of the activities associated with balancing individualism and collectivism (2019-2021) in particular the engagement with colleagues from a range of disciplines to bootstrap change through inviting them to contribute to two edited collections, namely
From polarisation to Multispecies Relationships : Re-generation of the commons in the era of mass extinctions and
Transformative Education for Regenerative Development: Pathways to Sustainable Environments with a linked website to inspire engagement towards a circular green economy based on a one village, many enterprises approach. The paper discusses the potential and challenges of on line cross cultural engagement with peers, graduates and members of the community through ccapacity enhancement approaches to balance individualism and collectivism. The art of the impossible was inspired by the pandemic and zoom engagement became a matter of course in order to work on small pilots. The paper makes the case that education, design and the ethical values that undermine positive feedback to support wellbeing stocks need to be supported and those interventions that undermine wellbeing and contribute to pathology or the undermining of ecosystems should be penalised and sanctioned in law
Teaching Holistic Systems Thinking
No full text My wife and I got into systems theory by teaching parenting classes in the Inner-City of Winnipeg. We were familiar with the behaviourist paradigm, and found it profoundly destructive. Looking for an alternative we turned to Gregory Bateson and systems theory. So we developed a new course based on systems theory called Families Working Together: Leadership for Parents.
How do you teach holistic systems thinking to adults, specifically teaching parenting to parents with “problem” children in the Inner-City? Holistic systems thinking has three aspects: information and communication, cybernetics or control theory, and holarchy or nested systems. We were striving to empower parents to make decisions on behalf of their family. In our modern individualist world that means learning leadership.
We do live in holistic systems and people have ways of talking about them in a vocabulary accessible to the average person. Holistic thinking means moving up the relationship ladder from object relations (it-it), to instrumental relationships (I-it), to authority relationships (I-you), to negotiated relationships (I-thou), to the family relationships (We), and the larger society and its institutional systems. People are involved at all levels, and shift between levels and have a basic understanding of how to operate in holistic systems. Much of this is unconscious and some of this is explored in the social sciences.
The presuppositions being taught are defined by the questions we ask. e.g. Communication: “Are you speaking the same language?”
Introduction: List learning goals: “What do you want to learn?” written down on a flip sheet. Outline the lesson plan, “This is where we will be talking about the issue that concerns you.” Modeling the group process as negotiation (I-thou), harmonizing the group goals with the goals of the participants.
First Hour: Sharing: Go around the circle and hear from each family. This helps to define the problem, to provide feedback about what is working and what isn't, and to make people aware of their own decision making power. It also promotes listening skills.
Second Hour: Content: Each section of the course attempts to reflect communication, control, and holistic thinking at the same time, and to make the theoretical models available at a useful level of abstraction by asking interesting questions. What are people like? How are people different? What are families like? How do you survive emotionally? Then moving on to four essential leadership skills: looking and listening, problem solving, negotiating, and celebrating. Finally, closing by talking about continuous learning.
At the end we would post their initial learning goals and ask, “Did you learn answers to your questions?” We would use their responses to constantly revise the course.
The course begins at the negotiated relationship level. It is not much use in mechanistic, instrumental, or authoritarian relationships. Leaders must be able to model the things that were being taught. Leaders must be learners. Making the course useful requires a constant process of adapting to specific realities and different cultures