An article related to the ISSS plenary talk of July 2022 has now passed the peer review process, and is published in early view for Systems Research and Behavioral Science. It should shortly be printed in the November issue of SRBS that serves as the General Systems Yearbook.
Update on Nov. 22, 2023: A full-text, read-only version is available via the author on Article Share https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/YEVWGPGURZ5IVE7AWQRM?target=10.1002/sres.2973
Those without institutional access to journals can contact me, and I’ll send you a copy. The article is otherwise embargoed until September 2025, at which point it can be self-archived with open access on the Coevolving Commons publications website.
The process of review, with a helpful editor, sharpens and shortens the content. This formally published version is about 5,000 words. The original manuscript that appears in the 2022 proceedings is about 15,000 words. Since I cite a lot of published works of others, I prefer to embed long quotations from the original sources, so that I can keep the original meanings clear. The extra details enable a diligent reader to not have to cross-reference and look up extended research sources, at the risk of being tedious for researchers who are familiar with that territory.
The article concludes with the following acknowledgement;
This research has been guided since 2019 by the core members of the Systems Changes Learning Circle: Zaid Khan, Dan Eng and Kelly Okamura. We have benefitted by the largess offered on the Open Learning Commons and Digital Life Collective by Robert Best.
I’m definitely the most scholarly in the group, and write the most. The content is the result of many conversations, explanations and re-expressions of ideas that we continue to have.
The abstract for the article follows below.
In which ways is the subject of systems change(s), as a first-class concept, distinct from a reduction into (i) systems and (ii) changes? For practice, theory and methods to be authentically rigourous, the philosophy underlying an approach to systems changes can be explicated. Through an appreciative systems framework, presumptions are surfaced as to (i) what are and are not systems changes; (ii) when, where and for whom, systems changes are prioritized for attention; and (iii) how systems changes should be addressed. Philosophies of (i) architectural design, (ii) ecological anthropology, (iii) Classical Chinese Medicine and (iv) rhythms are explored through multiparadigm inquiry and open theorizing. The resulting influence of these four philosophies is considered, leading to a philosophy of systems rhythms more explicitly proposed as a foundation on which to approach systems changes.
