2024/08 Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms

31st Jan 2024

Author

David Ing

Abstract

Purpose: The rise of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) and Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) perspectives originated in the industrialization of the 1950s and 1960s. With ubiquitous computing and globalization compressing time and space, interests in systems thinking by the 2020s have turned towards systems changes. This refocusing on changes has encouraged hypothesizing an alternative world theory of (con)texturalism-dyadicism with a root metaphor of yinyang dancing through [eight] seasons. Through post-colonial sciencing in constructionist philosophizing across Western and Classical Chinese traditions, SES alongside STS are recast as kairotic rhythms casting on and binding off weaves in time.

Approach: This inquiry began with behavioral histories of open-sourcing-while-private-sourcing, in an inductive approach to theory building. Curiosity on the origins of causal texture theory led to plunging into the history of pragmatism, and its associated metaphilosophy. An exploration of processual philosophies revealed a better appreciation through a non-Western approach, via yinyang at the foundation of Classical Chinese Medicine. Developing a (con)textural-dyadic world theory enables conjoining SES and STS as diachronic complements.

Findings: Changes in SES and STS based on Western philosophy presuppose functions and structures as primordial, evoking systems conceptions of rearranging objects. Clarifying root metaphors, changes in SES and STS that foreground processes and behaviors elevate the repacing of rhythms in systems concepts. Systems practice approaches involving action learning can be adapted for the altered foundations..

Originality: In organizational theory, SES and STS have been expressed as different perspectives on systems of interest. Tracing back to metaphilosophy from the 1940s, an alternative branch of pragmatism incorporating yinyang enlarges the scope of systems thinking from its Anglo-American traditions.

Keywords: Socio-Ecological Systems, Socio-Technical Systems, Systems Change, Systems Thinking

Citation

David Ing, “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” (preprint) The 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in IS (STPIS’24) August 16-17 2024, Jönköping, Sweden. https://stpis.org/program/.