Mutual causality in developing countries

Deviation-amplifying mutual causal systems provide a framework for the analysis of a number of problems that characterize developing countries. This paper presents several examples of such cause-effect loops and shows that the difficulty with developing countries is a “vicious circle of vicious circles” or a “system of deviation-amplifying mutual causal systems.”     

Awareness of Residents Regarding the Construction of a Sustainable Urban Community: A Case Study of Action Research in Taiwan

Chung-Sheng Community in Taoyuan City, Taiwan is a typical urban community. By adopting participatory action research, this study examines resident awareness regarding the feasibility of transforming Chung-Sheng Community into a sustainable community. Action research can help avoid constant “trial and error” in constructing sustainable communities and enhance process efficiency. Meanwhile, an active research approach can help communities better achieve sustainable development. Constructing a sustainable urban community requires energy, effective frameworks, and professional assistance. Achieving these requires a continuous and participatory action research process, and careful exploration of the awareness of community residents, which is the focus of this investigation.     

Operationalising “Double-Loop” Learning in Service Organisations: A Systems Approach for Creating Knowledge

Learning organisation literature has widely discussed the connections between “double-loop” learning and its significance to organisational performance, but paying little attention to tools and systems that can operationalise “double-loop” learning in organisations. This paper investigates the impact of applying a systems approach for service operations design, expressed as the Vanguard Method (Seddon, Freedom from command and control: a better way to make the work work, 2003), in order to activate “double-loop” learning in service organisations. Two case studies were conducted in the banking mortgage operations and adults’ social care services in the UK, using the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire (DLOQ), semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. The findings of the cross-case analysis support the link of applying the Vanguard Method with operationalising “double-loop” learning through three main factors, namely systematic-operations improvement, organisational capacity development, and outside-in mode of work; that are all embedded into the seven dimensions of the DLOQ. The value of this paper is the introduction of a service operations design tool that can activate “double-loop” learning performance in the fast changing knowledge era. It also provides an impetus for service organisations to creatively influence employees’ competencies to effectively improve internal systems.     

Motivational interaction between living systems

The concept of motivation applies not only to animal organisms, but also to other levels of living systems as well. Indeed, any two living systems, such as a psychologist and a pigeon or a business firm and an employee, may be seen as interacting in order to motivate each other. Motivational influence, far from being unidirectional as it is often pictured, is usually reciprocal both simultaneously and serially. Furthermore, such interaction subjects motivation to a variety of influences that cause it to shift in intensity and direction. In this paper Tracy's (1984) dynamic living-systems model of motivation is extended to show the motivational interaction of two interdependent systems. By realizing the interactional nature of motivation, managers and others who are concerned with motivating behavior may be able to do a better job of it. Motivational research should gain friom measuring the effects of interaction on all parties, not just the “subject”.     

Community Work Research through Co-Operative Inquiry in Timor-Leste,Australia and Peru: Insights into Process

Co-operative inquiry is an under-explored method in community-based research. Its democratic approach involves a group of “co-researchers” collaboratively inquiring into a mutually-agreed research topic through systematic cycles of reflection and action. This article shares the process, outcomes, and methodological reflections of three co-operative inquiries that were conducted as part of an international study regarding love in community work. Groups of up to 10 community workers in rural villages in Timor-Leste, Australia, and Peru engaged in co-operative inquiry to collaboratively develop new knowledge to inform practice. The article analyses data regarding co-inquirer experiences of the methodology, and identifies the strengths and challenges of the co-operative inquiry method to support the collective generation of new knowledge. The article concludes that co-operative inquiry involves shared power, participation, action, and contextual reflexivity, and is a useful method for community workers to collaboratively develop innovative approaches to community work practice through cycles of reflection and action.     

The commune's practical wisdom

Although the basic assumptions of scientific management are detrimental to the public policy of the community, they still govern its theorization and implementation. The main reason we continue to conduct our communal policy thinking in terms of scientific management is that we still lack relevant, practical alternative theories, models, and languages, which might serve to ground our thought and behavior. The present paper discusses the implications of the concept of “emancipatory interest” for the public policy of the community. The “practical wisdom” model is proposed to bridge the gap between the theory of emancipation and its praxis. Its usefulness is demonstrated in the context of an intervention study on the crisis within, and transformation of the kibbutz commune.     

Complexity and systems thinking in futures research: From “neutral” scenarios to value considerations

Futures research can be defined as the study of the present from a point of view of a special interest in comprehending the future. The basic features of futures research include multidisciplinarity and normativity, as well as interest in studying “trend breaks” and new phenomena in social development. In practice these requirements are seldom fulfilled, and a search for a new “paradigm” for futures research has been going on for some years. The implications of the newly arisen “complexity” discussion seem to offer some new perspectives to tackle the short-comings of futures research. Especially the idea of multiverse of realities, “holistic” systems thinking, and irreversibility and randomness seen as inherent parts of social development can be considered as highly valuable to the methodological development of futures research. When taking into consideration these implications it is justified to speak of a transition from the ordinary scenario thinking to the idea of “making the future” in futures research.     

基于观点动力学的水库移民文化适应机制研究

从观点动力学的全新视角出发,首先厘清非自愿移民文化适应概念框架,然后据此构建出“社会心理建模+复杂网络分析+多Agent仿真”的文化演化计算模型,最后通过模拟实验量化分析了水库移民文化适应的影响因素和发生机制.结果 表明:移民身份认同中的文化容忍度和易感性能加速文化适应进程;扩大移民在安置区的社交范围和精英移民的引导,...     

Scalably revealing the dynamics of soft community structure in complex networks

Revealing the dynamics of community structure is of great concern for scientists from many fields. Specifically, how to quantify the dynamic details of soft community structure is a very interesting topic. In this paper, the authors propose a novel framework to study the scalable dynamic behavior of the soft community structure. First, the authors model the Potts dynamics to detect community structure using a “soft” Markov process. Then the soft stability of in a multiscale view is proposed to naturally uncover the local uniform behavior of spin values across multiple hierarchical levels. Finally, a new partition index is developed to detect fuzzy communities based on the stability and the dynamical information. Experiments on the both synthetically generated and real-world networks verify that the framework can be used to uncover hierarchical community structures effectively and efficiently.     

Community Service Learning and the Emergence of Systems Thinking: A Teacher Education Project in an Urban Setting in Turkey

This study explores how community service learning experiences are reflected in the cognition of prospective teachers. Initial thoughts related to the experience are analyzed in relation the emerging thoughts throughout and after the experience. The study explored the thoughts of 15 prospective foreign language teachers related to their participation in a community project. The participants tutored students with visual disabilities at a learning center in an urban setting in Turkey. As part of the community-based field experience, participants worked with the learners with visual disabilities over a 16-week period. For this study, multiple reflective narratives of experience were collected from each individual. The goal for the collection and analysis of these narratives was explore the participants’ thinking patterns throughout the project and encourage them to reflect on their experience. The analysis of participants’ discourse relied on analysis of co-occurring lexemes in sample utterances text with descending hierarchical classification and correspondence analysis. The main themes that reflected the thoughts of the participants were related to (a) visions for community service, (b) teaching students with visual disabilities, (c) reflections in action, (d) awareness through interactions with difference, (e) interactions with people during community service, and (f) efforts to contribute to the project site. These themes were discussed in relation to the contribution of community service learning and the emergence of systems thinking among program participants.     

Schools as Communities: Purveyors of Democratic Values and the Cornerstones of a Public Philosophy

Establishing interdependency and community among people may be the solution to reestablishing or creating a tighter fabric of support for childrens' development, for building cultural democracy and a democratic state. This paper attempts to create a bridge between education and the construction of sustainable democratic communities in education, as a basis for building a public philosophy. Ultimately, sustainable democratic educational communities may address the concerns of today and tomorrow and build sustainable democratic communities in the larger global society.     

关键核心技术及其攻关策略研究——基于产业链供应链安全稳定视角

突破关键核心技术，提升我国重要产业链供应链的安全稳定性，是事关国家安全和高质量发展全局的重大战略任务。考虑我国这类后发国家的发展现实，分别从产业发展和国家间竞争视角诠释了关键核心技术的概念和特点，厘清了“卡人”和“被卡”“我无人有”与“我有人优”等不同类型的关键核心技术；分析了提升产业链供应链安全稳定性的途径及其相应的关键核心技术攻关任务，明确需要同时推进“卡人”和“被卡”两类关键核心技术攻关。最后，提出了通过开发自主品牌高档新产品、替代性新产品、颠覆性新产品和全新产品等多类新产品带动不同类型关键核心技术攻关的策略。     

Systems practice in several communities in Philadelphia

Several volunteer community groups in inner-city Philadelphia have been working to improve their blighted neighborhoods. This article describes how they applied Ackoff's interactive planning and Forrester's system dynamics and then details two programs that were implemented as a result. Examples of government efforts and “community development” funding structures are included for contrast. Local and federal government efforts tend to address the symptoms, but not the producers of problems, and are short-sighted because they tend to ignore the context that creates the problem situation. The structures for allocating resources appear to serve the purposes of decision makers who allocate funds, at the expense of the communities that desperately need services. A major point of this article is that such systems approaches as interactive management and system dynamics offer hope for solving seemingly intractable problems that threaten many communities and societies today.     

三江自然保护区生态建设与替代生计选择研究

在理清了生态建设和替代生计的概念基础上,分析了两者之间的关系,认为生态建设的实施是寻求替代生计的动力因素,替代生计的实施可以为生态建设提供保障和支持,可以消除生态建设所产生的负面影响,解决经济社会问题.通过时三江自然保护区的现状问题分析,提出退耕还湿、退耕还草和设施建设工程3项促进三江自然保护区湿地良性发展的生态建设内容和生态移民、传统农业改造和多元化产业发展的替代生计模式.图2,参13.     

A Systemic Framework to Develop Sustainable Engineering Solutions in Rural Communities in Colombia

In several rural areas in Colombia there is a serious lack of water quality supply. Thereby the problematic situation is understood as complex one that involves stakeholders with pluralistic interests, multiple variables and requires the development of sustainable and suitable solutions. In order to address this issue, this paper proposes an integration of engineering design framework (CDIO) with a systemic approach. Particularly the approach emphasizes on systemic elements such as autonomy, systems within systems, cooperation between stakeholders and cause effect relations; it also proposes a previous observing phase for engineering design framework. Thus the proposed systemic framework aims to generate projects that improve living conditions in rural communities and promote the production of knowledge between the stakeholders to ensure sustainability in the long term. To illustrate the proposal, this work contains a case study that discusses a project carried out by a research team—Ingenieros Sin Fronteras Colombia—in a rural district near to Colombia’s capital. The experience, which involved and benefited 16 families in the community, provided strong evidence to support the proposed framework. The paper concludes with a discussion about the replication of this proposal in other contexts.     

Churchman's “anatomy of system teleology” revisited

Churchman's concept of “inquiring systems” and its underlying “anatomy of system teleology” have been a source of inspiration for the development of Peter B. Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology. The author here provides a personal account of the importance that Churchman's approach has had for him. In the spirit of Singerian inquiry, he also offers a few critical considerations with respect to the assumptions and limitations of Churchman's teleological system approach. (Editor)     

Some difficulties of ecological thinking,considered from a critical systems perspective: A plea for critical holism

We probably have simplified matters too much. We tend to talk about systems thinking and practice as if we knew what they are. The fashionable call for “holistic” or “systems” thinking in ecological issues provides a major example. This much is certain: the quest for comprehensiveness, although it represents an epistemologically necessary idea, is not realizable. If we assume that it is realizable, the critical idea underlying the quest will be perverted into its opposite, i.e., into a false pretension to superior knowledge and understanding—a danger of which the environmental movement does not always appear to be sufficiently aware. My question, therefore, is this: How can we deal critically with the fact that our thinking, and hence our knowledge, designs, and actions, cannot possibly be comprehensive, in the sense that we never “comprehend” all that ought to be understood before we pass to judgment and action? What consequences does this fact imply for a critical systems approach to ecological concerns and, ultimately, for our concepts of rationality in general?     

The Application of Critical Systems Thinking to Enhance the Effectiveness of a University Information System

Faced with the common problem of dissatisfaction with the outcome of investments in information systems (IS), the IS community has long sought ways to improve information systems development (ISD). This paper reports on action research (AR) that sought to improve the effectiveness a UK university’s student record system (SRS), which had exhibited persistent problems. Critical systems thinking (CST) is seen to have value for ISD and was used to guide the AR. In the first stage of this research, the issues with the initial design of the SRS were identified to have largely resulted from insufficient elicitation of the underlying assumptions about, and perspectives on, complex organisational issues. The second stage centred on examining the situation from an “ought” perspective analysing what should be done and how, in order to develop creative solutions to the problems uncovered. The third stage involved recommending solutions to address the problems identified in order to improve the effectiveness of the SRS. Overall, the AR indicates that CST enables those involved to view the design and implementation of the SRS as a holistic system, critically reflect upon broad and complex human, technological and organisational issues from different perspectives, and thereby identify creative solutions. The main contribution of this research is in generating support for an ISD intervention guided by CST. The results of, and the understanding developed from, this intervention are likely to be relevant to the problems that frequently occur in similar situations.     

融资平台存量债务的展期重构及其福利影响

在融资平台债务结构中，融资平台是名义上的借款主体和偿债主体，地方政府是隐性的或有代偿主体。在融资平台存量债务的展期重构过程中，地方政府是否坐实或落实其或有担保责任将改变融资平台的偿债方式和银行的获偿预期，本文模型刻画了地方政府的隐性代偿预期对银企双方债务展期重构的模式选择及其福利影响。主要结论有：① 当预期展期债务难以获得清偿时，融资平台偏好自偿型债务展期，而银行偏好复合型债务展期（由融资平台和地方政府共同清偿），此时融资平台倾向于撇开地方政府的或有代偿责任，银行则渴望落实地方政府的担保责任。② 当预期展期债务能够获得充分清偿时，融资平台偏好复合型债务展期，而银行偏好自偿型债务展期。在偿债能力的提升途径中，银行更偏好融资平台自偿能力之增强，而非地方政府或有代偿之补充。③ 仅从银企双方的福利改善状况来看，复合型债务展期优于自偿型，但若将银企双方视为决策群体进行审视，它们同有“揩地方政府油水”的强烈动机。④ 尽管债务展期有助于缓释融资平台即期偿债压力，给其恢复偿债能力赢得时间或条件，但其仅能调节有关福利的分配结构，并不能增进全体参与者的总体福利。