Coevolving Innovations

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Resequencing Systems Thinking | U. Hull Centre for Systems Studies | 2024-05-13

August 10, 2024
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On my May trip through the UK, I accepted an offer to lead an Expert-Led Session at the University of Hull.  I had previously been a Research Fellow of the Centre for Systems Studies, but haven’t travelled to the Hull for some years.  As we worked out the arrangements, I found out that the seminar wasn’t just an hour lecture, but a complete afternoon.

The Systems Changes Learning Circle is now in year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey.  The target audience of graduate students and faculty, with the luxury of time for lecturing and discussing, allowed for an extended exposition of our learning on systems changes.  The ouline covered:

  • A. Initiating
  • B. Philosophizing
  • C. Theorizing
  • D. Practising
  • E. Continuing

This series of 4 recordings is available as a playlist on Youtube.  We started off mostly with reviewing slides, and then had progressed to more interactive discussion later in the day.  With the audio recordings, the presentation slides (including movies) were resynchronized as post-production.

This presentation segments are downloadable from this website, as well as from the Internet Archive .

Video May 13, 2024 — H.264 MP4
Part 1
(58m02s)		 [20240513_1231_UHull_Ing ResequencingSystemsThinking_Part1of4_1203kpbs.m4v]
(HD 1203kbps 573MB)
[on the Internet Archive]
  • 00:00 Welcome by Amanda Gregory
  • 03:15 A. Initiating
  • 09:35 B. Philosophizing
  • 10:52 B1. ↓ Metaphilosophy; ↑ Postcolonial Constructionist
  • 29:53 B2. ↓ Behavioral Structuralist; ↑ Ecological Processualist
  • 38:08 B3. ↓ Progress → Ideals; ↑ (Con)textualism-Dyadicism
  • 56:23 B4. Exercise: ↓ Structure then process; ↑ Process then structure
Part 2
(27m58s)		 [20240513_1350_UHull_Ing ResequencingSystemsThinking_Part2of4_0968kbps.m4v
… Read more (in a new tab)

Citation rankings for some systems thinkers

August 6, 2024
1 Comment

I’ve been checking on the breadth of some personal research on systems thinkers.  (The list is incomplete, and may orient more towards systems scientists).  Searching on Scopus gives an h-Index that counts scholarly references (with a boost, for the first person on the list who received a Nobel prize in chemistry).

The list below is sorted first on h-index, and then the number of citations.

For me, there were a few surprises.  Others may be less surprised.

Author Documents Citations h-index
Prigogine, Ilya R. 237 9,629 50
Holling, Crawford S. 66 27,402 38
Midgley, Gerald 83 2,948 33
Checkland, Peter B. 47 3,425 27
Jackson, Michael C. 76 2,716 26
Odum, Howard T. 55 4,579 24
Ackoff, Russell L. 68 2,411 23
Wiener, Norbert 72 3,758 22
Rosen, Robert 93 1,624 21
Senge, Peter M. 34 2,186 18
Lewin, Kurt 39 9,566 17
Boulding, Kenneth E. 79 2,074 16
Trist, Eric L. 21 4,537 15
Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas 27 1,013 15
von Bertalanffy, Ludwig 35 3,285 14
Bateson, Gregory 22 962 12
Miller, James Grier 20 562 11
Meadows, Donella H. 14 684 8
Beer, Stafford 29 250 8
Emery, Frederick E. 20 2,011 7
Ashby, W. Ross 15 671 6
Churchman, C. West 23 104 5

The h-index is supposed to be better in comparing researchers in the same field.  Citations may or may not be better in the systems sciences, where we have a chemist alongside some economists.… Read more (in a new tab)

Yinyang and Daojia into Systems Thinking through Changes | EQ Lab Dialogic Drinks | 2024-05-02/03

August 1, 2024
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Reading a theorist who espouses the dao (tao) in their systems work?  Here’s a challenge:  is the writer referring to daojia, or daojiao?

  • Daojiao 道教 is religious daoism, gaining legitimacy only with the Tang dynasty (712-758 CE), after many centuries with the religion of Confucianism as dominant.
  • Classical Chinese philosophy is hard to interpret even by Chinese literati, because standardized writing didn’t occur until the Qin dynasty, circa 221 BCE.
  • Daojia 道家 is philosophical daoism, associated with the DaoDeJing (translated as the “Classic of the Way, and the Classical of Virtue”, also known as the Laozi, dating back to 300-400 BCE.
  • During the Eastern Zhou dynasty (771-256 BCE), there were six philosophical lineages, including the Yinyang School.
    • According to Sima Tan, the six philosophical lineages were (i) Yinyang; (ii) Confucian; (iii) Mohist; (iv) Legalist; (v) Schoolf of Names; and (vi) Daoist

Yinyang and daojia are considerably older than daojiao.  The Systems Changes Learning Circle is most interested in philosophy of science, with a concrete application in Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM).  Yinyang is foundational in CCM, and religion doesn’t enter into the science of medicine, unless the inquirer wants to delve into the question of “what is nature”?

After the EQ Lab session of Dialogic Drinks, in April on “From Unfreezing-Refreezing, to Systems Changes Learning“, I challenged myself to see if I could create an presentation on Chinese philosophy of science that might be understandable to those of us trained in the Western sciences. … Read more (in a new tab)

Incremental Adaptation or Generational Shift? | Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 | 2024-04

April 25, 2024
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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 that completed in December 2023.  As the project was winding down, a roundtable discussion with some of the researchers was released.

Industry 4.0 was announced by the European Parliament in 2015, with the funding for research into the impact on management practices and economics following in October 2018.  The EU announcement of Industry 5.0 during 2020 raised questions amongst researchers about how to handle the increased emphasis on human centricity.  Then in fall 2022, the rise of Generative AI with the release of ChatGPT captured the attention of leaders, worldwide.

As a contributor coming from Canada, outside the EU, my research in systems changes provoked a question as to the meaning of 4.0 and 5.0.  While the Industrial Revolution is conventionally regarded as 1.0, there’s a divergence on numberings used around the world. This led me to ask:  what might we learn if we framed a transition from Industry 0.0 to Industry 1.0 and compared to that?  Here’s the abstract.

As Industry 4.0 matures, what’s next? A generational shift to 5.0? Or an incremental adaptation to 4.x? Systems changes may involve both Socio-Technical Systems (STS) changes and Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) changes.

… Read more (in a new tab)

What Can Systems Thinkers Learn From Music City-making? | Adam Hogan + Ziyan Hossein | Systems Thinking Ontario 2024-03-18

April 12, 2024
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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.  Both panelists are alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU.

After short self-introductions by participants, the panelists were lightly guided through some focus questions.  How does a music city relate to urban communities?  What encourages or discourages a music city?  What systems are associated with a music city?  Between focus questions, participants were invited to offer reflections and insights.

This recording of the session is available on Youtube, as well as on the Internet Archive .

Video H.264 MP4
March 18
(1h53m)		 [20240318_ST-ON_MusicCityMaking AdamHogan_ZiyanHossein.m4v
(1920×1080 1156kbps 908MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

A standalone audio was also created during the meeting.

Audio
March 18
(1h53m)		 [20240318_ST-ON_MusicCityMaking AdamHogan_ZiyanHossein.m4a]
(126kbps, 91 MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

A short description of the session follows below, with pre-readings linked on the original abstract.

— begin excerpt —

Music and urbanization. Two aspects of life that together form the concept of a “music city”. Music cities have typically been framed as vehicles for economic development. But what else do music cities provide? What can systems thinkers learn from the the dynamics of music cities?… Read more (in a new tab)

Systems Changes Dialogues on Social Innovation | Centre for Social Innovation | 2024-03-18

March 21, 2024
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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 core group continued philoosophical and theoretical development.

A return to normalcy encourages the Circle to serve as mentors on thinking through systems echanges.

As an introduction, an online Lunch and Learn was scheduled. Dialogues can be free-flowing, with a light guidance along three questions:

  • 1. Which differences make a difference in your social innovation? Which rhythms are normal, and which are shifts?
  • 2. What influences advance or block the rhythmic shifts of your social innovation?
  • 3. Where can the pacing of systems changes, as faster or slower, favour your social innovation?

To better describe these questions, very short (5-minute) presentations were provided as orientation.

A. Welcome :05
B. Rhythms: Normal or Shift? Presentation One :05
Dialogue One :10
C. Influences: Advancing or Bocking? Presentation Two :05
Dialogue Two :10
D.Pacing that favours: Faster or Slower? Presentation Three :05
Dialogue Three :10
E. Next Meeting (poll)
Better Questions?		 :10

With only an hour scheduled for the Lunch and Learn session, participants only got a brief taste of the way a dialogue would run.

Brief animations served as metaphors on which dialogues could be built. Oriented towards an audience of practitioners, the presentation defers more rigourous theoretical explanations into later mentoring.… Read more (in a new tab)

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