Knowing Wuli,Sensing Shili,Caring for Renli: Methodology of the WSR Approach

This paper presents an outline of an Oriental systems methodology: the Wuli Shili Renli approach (WSR). The basic theme of WSR contends that wuli (regularities in objective existence), shili (ways of seeing and doing), and renli (patterns underlying human relations) constitute a differentiated whole that conditions systems projects. WSR suggests that we should design and employ appropriate methods to address and tackle wuli shili and renli elements in a theoretically informed and systemic way. The background, philosophy, process, principles, and some practical applications of the methodology are preliminarily outlined.     

Transforming Self and Society: A "Critical Appreciation" Model

This paper sets out to uncover some relationships between reflection, discourse and action. By challenging and synthesizing some polemical arguments concerning the creation, maintenance, and transformation of self and society, a model of self-society dynamics that operates through reflection, discourse, and action is developed. The model of self-society dynamics brings together aspects of self-reflection and ideology-critique (explored in the paper), which it is suggested are required for any intervention (transformative action) to be grounded in locally meaningful ways. By creating a dialog community in which self- and group assumptions can be subjected to validation through discourse, it is proposed that a dynamic balance between individual needs and broader societal aims may be achieved. If individuals can be open to such discourse (i.e., they can become critically self-reflective), then it is argued that possibilities for achieving sustainable change will be significantly enhanced.     

Systems Practice in China: New Developments and Cross-Cultural Collaborations

This short paper introduces a special issue of Systemic Practice and Action Research on new developments in Chinese systems practice. It focuses on the recent history of systems thinking in China, describing a paradigm shift that is currently taking place from an "objectivist" to a more pluralistic stance. Details are provided of the Hull–Beijing research program, which has contributed to this paradigm shift. In one way or another, all the papers in this special issue can be seen as having a connection with this research program.     

Science as Systemic Intervention: Some Implications of Systems Thinking and Complexity for the Philosophy of Science

This paper sidesteps the usual starting points for debate about complexity and the philosophy of science, which tend to assume that science is primarily about observation. Instead, the starting point is intervention, defined as purposeful action by an agent to create change. While some authors suggest that intervention and observation are opposites, it is argued here that observation (as undertaken in science) should be viewed as just one type of intervention. We should therefore welcome scientific techniques of observation into a pluralistic set of intervention methods, alongside methods for exploring values, reflecting on subjective understandings, planning future activities, etc. However, there is a need to explicitly counter a possible pernicious interpretation of this argument: intervention could (erroneously) be viewed as flawlessly preplanned change based on accurate predictions of the consequences of action. This is the mechanistic worldview that systems thinking and complexity science seek to challenge. Therefore, having redefined scientific observation as intervention, the paper revisits insights from systems thinking and complexity to propose a methodology of systemic intervention. Some brief reflections are then provided on the wider social implications of this methodology.     

Dealing with a Differentiated Whole: The Philosophy of the WSR Approach

This paper seeks to explore a philosophical ground for the formulation and practice of an Oriental systems methodology, the wuli–shili–renli approach (WSR). Drawing insights from ancient Chinese thought, WSR contends that, in sociotechnical systems design/management, we should investigate and follow wuli, shili, and renli, which constitute a differentiable, dynamic whole. Wuli, shili, and renli condition and determine the fate of our projects, meaning different methods are needed to deal with each differentiable aspect. It also points out that, to deal with wuli, shili, and renli properly, we need to engage in encounters with the "dark side" of Confucianism and with the contemporary tendency of scientism.     

A critique of hierarchy theory

In our zeal to apply models successfully, failures of the model are often overlooked. A model may be used for quite some time before its success is questioned or before the model fails to be applied successfully. Since hierarchy theory has been deemed successful in the systems field, it is necessary and appropriate to critique the development and application of hierarchy theory using the framework presented inCreative Problem Solving (Flood and Jackson, 1992). That framework proposes a critique that uses the four areas of theory, utility, ideology, and methodology in reviewing a systems theory. It is important to examine hierarchy theory through the analytical filter of critical systems thinking if we are genuinely to understand what hierarchy theory has to offer systems thinking in the exploration of complex situations.     

The origins and nature of critical systems thinking

Critical systems thinking is a relative newcomer in the systems tradition of thought. Nevertheless, it has already made a number of significant contributions to the field and is now developing more quickly than any other part of systems thinking. The paper charts the origins and nature of this evolving, critical systems, body of work. The author's own impressions of its development are first set out. This helps establish that critical systems thinking has come to rest upon five commitments which define its essential character. These commitments are then used to classify the published literature associated with critical systems thinking. The result is a review of the origins and nature of critical systems thinking up to 1990.     

Critical systems thinking,paradigms, and the modelling space

Inquirers explore situations from their ownWeltanschauung and model them through a paradigm. A relationship between Weltanschauung and the paradigm is explored, as is that between paradigms and situations. Within the context of Critical Systems Thinking, exploration of how paradigms and their coordination, and thus the methodologies that they entertain, can be used within the action of complementarism.     

The scene for Interpretive Systemology

In this introductory paper to the special issue ofSystems Practice devoted to Interpretive Systemology, some of the conditions under which this trend in systems thinking has come to life are briefly depicted. For that purpose a wider and a narrower scene are presented. The wider scene presents the general questions and problems that are to be tackled by Interpretive Systemology, within a wide international perspective of systems thinking and practice. The narrower scene, which is related to more particular conditions, shows how some circumstances connected to the socalled Third World or underdeveloped countries have helped to trigger the launching of Interpretive Systemology. Finally, a brief outline of the research program for Interpretive Systemology is introduced.     

Systems Thinking and Systems Practice: Working in the Fifth Dimension

This paper describes how a messy organizational problem was tackled using a systems approach which led to a resolution of the problem and to an improvement in the working relationships of the people involved. The example also shows how people who are not familiar with systems thinking, as such, can quickly be helped to develop a shared systemic view of a complex situation using activity modeling. At a deeper level, the paper also shows how the underlying dynamics of the problem situation was altered as a result of using a cooperative, dialogical working method, leading to an improvement in the quality of service provided by that part of the organization. The paper uses Peter Senge's five disciplines of a learning organization, together with various systems concepts, as a framework for describing how the process of change was brought about through the simultaneous management of task and social processes, leading to both individual and organizational learning.     

RELIABILITY OF LINEAR （n,f, k） SYSTEMS WITH WEIGHTED COMPONENTS

The (n, f, k): F(G) system consists of n components and the system fails (works) if and only if there are at least f failed (working) components or at least k consecutive failed (working) components. These system models can be used in electronic equipment, automatic payment systems in banks, and furnace systems. In this paper we introduce and study the (n, f, k):F and (n, f, k): G systems consisting of weighted components. Recursive equations are presented for reliability evaluation of these new models. We also provide some conditions on the weights to represent weighted-(n, f, k) systems as usual (n, f, k) systems.     

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.     

A Maturing of Systems Thinking? Evidence from Three Perspectives

This paper reviews trends in systems theory/thinking from the 1970s to the early 2000s. It proposes a maturation of the field based on certain conceptual and methodological advances that have sought to liberate systems thinking from earlier strictures. An edited dialogue among three prominent systems thinkers from different systems schools—Merrelyn Emery, Bob Flood, and Eric Wolstenholme—provides evidence. Similarities and differences are identified, complementarities among the schools are derived and analyzed, and trajectories for future research are indicated.     

ANALYSIS AND COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHM FOR QUEUES WITH STATE-DEPENDENT VACATIONS II： M（n）/G/1/K

We study a single-server queueing system with state-dependent arrivals and general service distribution, or simply M（n）/G/1/K, where the server follows an N policy and takes multiple vacations when the system is empty. We provide a recursive algorithm using the supplementary variable technique to numerically compute the stationary queue length distribution of the system. The only input requirements are the Laplace-Stieltjes transforms of the service time distribution and the vacation time distribution, and the state-dependent arrival rate. The computational complexity of the algorithm is O（K^3）.     

Delay-dependent robust H∞ control of convex polyhedral uncertain fuzzy systems

The robust H∞ control problem for a class of uncertain Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems with timevarying state delays is studied. The uncertain parameters are supposed to reside in a polytope. Based on the delay-dependent Lyapunov functional method, a new delay-dependent robust H∞ fuzzy controller, which depends on the size of the delays and the derivative of the delays, is presented in term of linear matrix inequalities （LMIs）. For all admissible uncertainties and delays, the controller guarantees not only the asymptotic stability of the system but also the prescribed H∞ attenuation level. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed design method is demonstrated by a numerical example.     

The roots of reductionism: A counter-ontoepistemology for a systems approach

Both an ontoepistemology for reductionist modern science (counter-ontoepistemology) and an ontology for interpretive Systemology have been outlined in the two preceding papers in this special issue ofSystems Practice. In the present article, the notion of truth is interpreted in terms of both the ontoepistemology of reductionism and the ontology of interpretive systemology. Both interpretations are discussed. Such a discussion represents the objective of this paper, that is, to outline the epistemological face of the ontoepistemology of interpretive systemology. In order to design that epistemological face, the relation between ontology and epistemology must be clarified. Such a relation is seen from the standpoint already provided by the ontology. After the discussion on the notion of truth, the general shape of a systemic-interpretive inquiring process is outlined.     

Enhancing Emancipatory Systems Methodologies for Sustainable Development

Our interest lies in applying the principles of critical systems thinking to human activity systems in developing countries in situations where issues of natural resource sustainability constrain the feasible set of long-term strategies. The concept of sustainable development provides an expanded domain for critical systems thinking. The fundamental values underpinning sustainable development are that both intragenerational and intergenerational equity are important. As a consequence, key stakeholders are often excluded from power-sharing within current social systems. Addressing these issues requires renewed focus on emancipatory commitment and methodologies. To date, Ulrich's critical systems heuristics is the only critical systems methodology that offers practicable tools for emancipation. A case study analysis in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, provides insights in relation to the application of critical system heuristics to issues of sustainable development and highlights the need to extend the use of critical systems heuristics beyond the design and monitoring of structured interventions.     

Total systems intervention: A practical face to critical systems thinking

This is the first exposition of a new methodology (or perhaps meta-methodology) for systems practice known as Total Systems Intervention (TSI). Designed to overcome the weaknesses of hard, cybernetic, and soft systems approaches and build on their strengths, TSI represents a practical face of critical systems thinking. It advocates combining three building blocks-systems metaphors, system of systems methodologies, and individual systems methodologies—in an interactive manner which is deemed to be particularly powerful and fruitful. In this paper the philosophy, principles, and phases of the TSI methodology are set out and two very different examples of its use are provided.     

Knowing as intervention: Reflections on the application of systems ideas

The relation between theory and practice is explored in this paper with respect to an examination of various systems approaches. It is argued that the moment of knowing already contains practical implications in that comprehensiongears practice in certain directions. Practice/application can fulfill the demands of theory through the operation of a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. The way in which theoretical conceptions of systems researchers may constrain practice is explored with reference to the work of Beer, Checkland and Scholes, and Ulrich. In the course of this exploration, alternative views of the way in which viable systems diagnosis, soft systems methodology, and critical systems heuristics may be utilised, are offered.