Critical considerations in the development of systems thinking and practice

This paper is concerned with the development of ‘Systems Thinking.’ In particular, it considers and critiques ‘traditional Systems Thinking’ within the framework of Critical Systems Thinking. Before embarking on such a venture it is necessary to derive a base context from which to develop argument and analysis. Therefore the outline of this paper is as follows: A contextual setting for Systems Thinking, Theoretical Considerations, Soft Systems Thinking and Methodology, and A Critical Systems Thinking (CST) approach. The account of the development of Systems Thinking is followed by a synopsis of a theoretical framework for Systems Thinking which will allow us to gain an understanding of contemporary views. The paper then goes on to review SSM and CST in order to provide a platform for a critique of traditional forms of Systems Thinking. The final section briefly discusses the applicability of CST to the ‘real-world’ context by outlining some current studies being undertaken by the author.     

A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING： INTEGRATING NATIONAL, HUMAN, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, there is a growing sense of insecurity felt by many citizens around the world. Sustainable security, with roots in the sustainable development and human security literature, seeks positive transformations for the co-evolving and mutually dependent human-environmental condition by integrating (and subsuming) national, human, environmental, and energy security concerns and capitalizing on opportunities provided by human creativity, diplomatic openings, modernization and environmental change. The field of Sustainable Security Systems Engineering is proposed for protecting, restoring, designing, and implementing a set of integrated natural and man-made processes that equitably and responsibly meet the biophysical needs of human communities, while maintaining long-term security, respecting financial constraints, meeting ecological limits, and improving institutional arrangements for transparent and effective governance. Scenario planning is shown to help promote sustainable security by identifying the preconditions of instability and helping to proactively address them in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. The six papers published in this featured collection cross policy domains, geographic, political, and sectoral boundaries and were discussed at forums sponsored by the Systems Engineering and Global Policy group. Collectively, they demonstrate the quality, breadth and depth of systems engineering methodologies that are used to promote sustainable security.     

ADVANCES IN SUSTAINABLE SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING WITH DRAMA THEORY （DT） II

We put forth Drama Theory II (DT II) as a formal multiple participant decision making framework that can be used to systematically model complex security challenges, and advance the field of Sustainable Security Systems Engineering. DT II is defined as a theory of “large world” pre-game communication and equilibrium selection. While game theoretic tools have been widely applied to resolve environmental conflicts and promote global security, traditional game theory assumes that decision makers, options, and preferences are fixed. A mathematical treatment of key drama theoretic concepts (i.e. positions, intentions, doubts and dilemmas) is provided. The dynamics of the drama theoretic process are discussed and the expected equilibrium set is derived. The fundamental theorem of drama theory is proven and all theoretical results are applied to promote sustainable security solutions. It is emphasized that DT II represents a flexible systems engineering technique to address time-sensitive, multi-faceted, and complex multiple participant negotiations.     

万物本原：原子构成论的扬弃

以原子构成论为基石的近现代科学在描述简单机械物理系统以外的对象诸如量子现象、宇宙演化和复杂系统时遭遇到挑战。本文在分析这种危机实质的基础上提出以生成性本原来取代原子。针对这个主客体相融的、表达自由意志的开放实在，提出用更为广泛的广义信息概念取代力、物质和能量，从广义信息动力学角度建立起包容近现代科学的一个全新科学框架构想，以作为解释物理、化学、生物、生态、社会和经济等广泛领域中存在的大自然现象的指导思想，并最终实现跨学科的统一。     

The Systems Approach to the Pluralist Theory of International Relations: A Case Study of the European Union

This article aims at introducing concepts related to the systems approach applied to the international system. First, the authors describe the systems view considering General Systems Theory in order to conceptualize the international systems as well as the Pluralist Theory of International Relations. Based on General Systems Theory, the authors analyze the international systems from the perspective of the Pluralist Theory of International Relations, using a case study on the European Union. The pluralist image of international systems presents important similarities to Systems Theory, as it analyzes the international context, characterized by variety, complexity and dynamics and uses the concepts of object, attribute, inputs and outputs, environment, motivations and process, which enable a better understanding of the international system.

Systems thinking,systems practice,and practical philosophy: A program of research

IfSystems Practice is to serve the cause of socially rational decision making, its understanding of systems approach must open itself up to the communicative dimension of rational practice uncovered by contemporary practical philosophy. This programmatic paper argues that building the bridge between the two traditions of systems thinking and practical philosophy is a key challenge to be faced by the systems community. A three-level framework of rational systems practice is suggested as a point of departure for a program of research.     

Total systems intervention and human inquiry: The search for a common ground

Total Systems Intervention (TSI) is an approach to intervening in problem situations which has much to offer where complex interacting issues need to be addressed by the complementary use of intervention methodologies. That such an approach has much in common with Action Research (AR) has been recognized, with much recent effort being devoted to the relationship between AR and Critical Systems Thinking (CST), the theoretical endeavor underpinning TSI. This paper further develops this line of debate and relates AR or Human Inquiry (HI) more directly to TSI, using an information systems intervention to enhance the study. The outcome is a demonstration of how TSI implicitly uses techniques informed from the field of Action Research, and how a more thorough synthesis of HI with TSI might serve to improve the overall intervention process.     

A situation calculus based approach to dynamic management of e-business services

In the era of e-businesses, the traditional business services are greatly challenged by the ever-increasing demands from customers with various backgrounds and personalities. Large numbers of new e-businesses are driven by the needs of customers. The existing dynamics inherent in the customer needs require the corresponding dynamic management of services. Attempting to respond to customers in a rapid and intelligent way, this paper proposes a situation calculus based approach for dynamically managing e-Business services in the ubiquitous environment. By employing the formalism of the situation calculus to enable intelligence and automation, the approach can implement. the functions of service automatic composition and model verification. These functions will improve the degree of customer-orientation and enable fast responsiveness in the emerging e-service systems.     

The observer's role and the process of critical review

The intention in this paper is to present a framework of critique which can be used to evaluate OR and determine (1) whether it is possible for OR to address its missing systemic, interdisciplinary components and (2) whether OR might address the practical (human) considerations often found in complex problem situations. The discussion begins with hierarchy theory and the work of C. West Churchman and moves towards incorporating those insights into a process of critical review (Wilby, 1996) as practiced within Total Systems Intervention (Flood and Jackson, 1991a, b; Food, 1995; Flood and Romm, 1996).     

Systems practice in consulting

The paper covers the area of systems thinking and practice in management consultancy primarily in Tata Consultancy Service in India. As the largest consultancy organization in the country, it has the need and opportunity to deal with very large societal systems which are by nature complex. It needs to develop new holistic approaches to execute the assignments. The Systems Engineering and Cybernetic Centre (SECC) was started in 1982 to meet this requirement. The paper described the genesis and the arena of activity of SECC over the years, highlighting the formulation of an interactive consulting paradigm and a multimodeling approach to complex problem solving. The philosophical bases of these are discussed along with systems practice in some typical complex assignments.     

“EII META—MODEL” ON INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK FOR VIABLE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS——CITY PLANNING METAPHOR BASED ON STRUCTURAL SIMILARITY

Enterprise systems must have the structure to adapt the change of business environment.When rebuilding enterprise system to meet the extended operational boundaries,the concept of IT city planning is applicable and effective.The aim of this paper is to describe the architectural approach from the integrated imformation infrastructure(In3) standpoint and to propose for applying the “City Planning” concept for rebuilding “inter-application spaghetti” enterprise systems.This is mainly because the portion of infrastructure has increased with the change of information systems from centralized systems to distributed and open systems.As enterprise systems have involved heterogeneity or architectural black box in them,it may be required the integration framework (meta-architecture)as a discipline based on heterogeneity that can provide comprehensive view of the enterprise systems.This paper proposes “EII Meta-model” as the integration framework that can optimize the overall enterprise systems from the IT city planning point of view.EII Meta-model consists of “Integrated Information Infrastructure Map(In3-Map)”,“Service·Framework” and “IT Scenario”.It would be applicable and effective for the viable enterprise,because it has the mechanism to adapt the change.Finally,we illustrate a case of information system in an online securities company and demonstrate spplicability and effectiveness of EII Meta-model to meet their business goals.     

Designing a Management System for a Rural Community Development Organization Using a Systemic Action Research Process

This paper describes the first phase, 'finding out', of a systemic participatory action research intervention in the management systems of a rural community development organization in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The aims of the intervention were to (a) improve the management system of this organization, and (b) evaluate the usefulness of particular systems methodologies for the improvement of management systems of organizations involved in community development in under-resourced rural contexts. The second phase, "implementation," needs to be completed and thoroughly evaluated before any final conclusions can be drawn about the suitability of the chosen systems framework for Third World type rural contexts. However, the second phase is, at the time of writing, underway and all indications are that an interpretive ('Soft') Systems Methodology, combined with insights from a more functionalist ('hard') approach (with methods chosen through a Critical Systems Thinking framework) holds much promise for participatory systemic interventions in these contexts.     

Applications of systems dialectics to integrated development

Systems dialectics is conceived as the integration of two convergent and complementary lines of thinking; one, methodological, the other one, philosophical. The methodological approach attempts to understand the same system, or systems, from static, dynamic, and dialectical perspectives. Systems dynamics considers systems from the viewpoint of homeostasis or dynamic equilibria. Systems dialectics tries to explain mutation-sudden structural and functional change-in nature and society. The modern philosophical trend follows the line of dialectical idealism (Hegel); dialectical materialism (Engels, Marx); and the French scientific dialectics movement, which made a first attempt to synthesize both approaches. Systemic dialectics tries to understand these approaches from a global perspective, as complementary viewpoints. A practical application of systems dialectics would be to test in the real world its global viewpoints in order to transform conflicting situations by applying the new paradigm to the integrated development of individuals and groups.     

A MODIFIED ANT-BASED TEXT CLUSTERING ALGORITHM WITH SEMANTIC SIMILARITY MEASURE

1. Introduction As an important application field of the data clustering technologies (Jain and Murty et al. 1999), text clustering is unsupervised partitioning of a collection of textual documents into self-similar groups so that any item is more similar with another item in the same group thanwith an item outside the group. Such groups are called clusters, which are run-timely formed during the clustering process, instead of being pre-defined as in the case of text categorization, which comm…     

Conflict analysis approaches for investigating attitudes and misperceptions in the War of 1812

Formal systems engineering approaches to modeling misperceptions and attitudes are employed within the framework of the graph model for conflict resolution to systematically study the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Great Britain in order to provide enhanced insights into the causes of the war. More specifically, relational definitions for preferences, movements and stability concepts are defined for describing the attitudes and associated behavior of decision makers involved in a conflict. To capture misperceptions of decision makers in the War of 1812, attitudes are studied within the structure of a hypergame. Combining attitudes and misperceptions within the paradigm of the graph model furnishes the flexible analytical tool which demonstrates that misunderstanding of attitudes by Great Britain and the United States may have contributed to the outbreak of this nasty war.     

Expert discovery and knowledge mining in complex multi-agent systems

Complex problem solving requires diverse expertise and multiple techniques. In order to solve such problems, complex multi-agent systems that include both of human experts and autonomous agents are required in many application domains. Most complex multi-agent systems work in open domains and include various heterogeneous agents. Due to the heterogeneity of agents and dynamic features of working environments, expertise and capabilities of agents might not be well estimated and presented in these systems. Therefore, how to discover useful knowledge from human and autonomous experts, make more accurate estimation for experts＇ capabilities and find out suitable expert（s） to solve incoming problems （＂Expert Mining＂） are important research issues in the area of multi-agent system. In this paper, we introduce an ontology-based approach for knowledge and expert mining in hybrid multi-agent systems. In this research, ontologies are hired to describe knowledge of the system. Knowledge and expert mining processes are executed as the system handles incoming problems. In this approach, we embed more self-learning and self-adjusting abilities in multi-agent systems, so as to help in discovering knowledge of heterogeneous experts of multi-agent systems.     

装备虚拟维修训练系统设计方法研究

开发虚拟维修训练系统是一项复杂的系统工程,Agent的理论、技术为大型、复杂系统的分析、设计和实现提供了一个崭新的途径,介绍了多Agent系统工程(MaSE)方法及其开发工具agentTool,针对传统软件开发方法的局限性,运用MaSE方法指导虚拟维修训练系统的分析、设计和开发,提出了一种基于Multi-Agent的虚拟维修训练系统(VMTS)结构框架,整个系统分别由7个具有交互作用的Agent组成,并运用图形模型描述了系统目标、行为、角色、Agent类型及Agent之间的通信接口,从而将VMTS转化为一个多Agent系统的设计与开发,提高了系统的健壮性、灵活性和可重用性。     

Systems and reengineering: Relating the reengineering paradigm to systems methodologies

Recently the topic of business process reengineering (BPR) has emerged to prominence in a number of guises, e.g. Hammer and Champy (1993). BPR is accepted here as containing a core paradigm with the potential to mobilize and channel change to secure radical improvements in organizational performance. This is contrasted with Continuous Improvement methods which deliver gradual improvements. In this paper BPR is conceputalised as an approach comprised of an emerging group of systems methodologies. These are related to other approaches and methodologies using the Total Systems Intervention framework of Flood and Jackson (1991). In keeping with the framework the main assumptions and metaphors that underlie the BPR literature are examined. BPR methodologies are characterised as rooted mainly in the hard systems approach with the machine metaphor dominating. The possibility is discussed of BPR methodologies based around other than hard system approaches.     

复杂网络上的演化博弈动力学——一个计算视角的综述

复杂网络上的演化博弈是复杂网络与演化博弈结合而形成的新型交叉研究领域,它以复杂网络和演化博弈动力学分别刻画个体间的交互关联结构以及决策范式,为分析和预测复杂交互环境下群体的决策行为提供了一个系统的研究框架。旨在从一个计算的角度对复杂网络上的演化博弈动力学进行一个简要的综述:介绍复杂网络上演化博弈动力学模型的数学描述;分析网络上演化博弈动力学的计算复杂性;概述复杂网络上演化博弈动力学的若干主要解析结果等。这些结果是对于复杂网络上演化博弈动力学仿真研究的一个有效补充。