“Fifth Discipline”: Review and Discussion

The book Fifth Discipline is Peter Senge's account of the learning organization. For Senge, five disciplines are necessary to bring about a learning organization—personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking (called systemic thinking from here on). Systemic thinking is the discipline that integrates all five disciplines. Each discipline is briefly explored in this paper, with emphasis placed on systemic thinking. Senge's concern with localness and openness is also touched upon. The paper concludes with an outline critique of Senge's work.     

Piaget,self-organizing knowledge,and critical systems practice

An examination of Piaget's conception of the source, nature, development, and use of knowledge reveals that his model for the genetic development of human knowledge is cybernetic and self-organizing. Moreover, Piaget presents a model of cognition which is a reflection and extension of autopoietic biological organization; both cognitive and organic systems are seen to exhibit organizational closure and structural plasticity. An action-based intervention method, modeling embedded learning structures as cybernetic, autopoietic systems, may provide insight toward clarifying some theoretical and methodological problems of critical systems thinking.     

Foucault's interpretive analytics of power 1,2

In this paper an interpretation of Foucault's work on power is presented. One aim is to introduce this aspect of Foucault's work to the emerging debate on Critical Systems Thinking. Another goal is to clarify how Foucauldian discourse about power can be framed within the notion of “interpretive analytics” (a term that describes Foucault's work, conceived by Dreyfus and Rabinow). This metalogical thinking proposes that archaeological and genealogical dimensions are proper methods for the study of the History of Thought. The interpretive space of experience-in which knowledge, power, and self are the axes of experience-is presented as a comprehensive model of the critical task of the History of Thought. Foucault's work is analyzed according to this model. Two conceptions of power arise from this analysis: the first conception is a peripheral view of power which raises key questions that drive the second, microphysical conception of power. We then demonstrate how the latter absorbs the former. The microphysical conception is based on a nominalistic view, which raises issues about nominalism in Foucault's critical thinking. These are addressed at the end of the article.     

The Relationship of ‘Systems Thinking’ to Action Research

This article investigates the relationship of systems thinking to action research by reviewing the main developments in systems thinking and relating these to action research. There are two main lines of thought in systems thinking that lead to wholly different conceptions about action research. The first (systems thinking) advocates thinking about real social systems that it assumes exist in the world. The second (systemic thinking) supposes only that the social construction of the world is systemic. Greater emphasis is placed on systemic thinking consistent with its greater importance to contemporary action research. The article concludes that systemic thinking when taken to its practical conclusion from a critical perspective offers to action research a somewhat unique liberating praxis. Concern that any liberating praxis could remain hollow is addressed through a certain kind of ‘spiritual’ awareness that is suggested by wholeness.     

The Oblivion of Churchman's Plea for a Systems Approach to World Problems. II. The Rise of the Modern Constellation

This is the second article in a trilogy devoted to inquiring about the historical meaning of the intimate link between a systems approach and world issues, so appropriate for Churchman's initial work on systems. After examining the logical relationship between modern systems thinking and world issues in the first article, in this second article the historical conditions for the formation of modern systems thinking are explored. It is shown how the intimate relationship between the will to systems and the notion of humanity gives full meaning, within the modern constellation, to Churchman's plea for a systems approach to world problems. However, in the light of this historical–ontological inquiry, systems thinking appears as both a propellant for the formation of the new constellation of modernity and a propellant for its destruction.     

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.     

A sketch for humane operational research in a technological society

This article is based on my presidential address to the Swedish Operational Research Society 1996 Conference. It starts with a statement affirming the critical need to incorporate virtues and norms in the management and operation of our institutions. With the help of multimodal systems thinking and Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model, it builds a framework that allows the transfer of such things as faith, love, and wisdom into the operation of our social systems and their management. The article concludes with the placing of operational research and management theory within this framework and with a challenge to all operational researchers to work for new modeling techniques that will contribute to a more virtuous and humane society.     

Earthdream: A critical interpretation

“The Earth is on the verge of destruction” has become a common cry nowadays. This cry embodies “the Earth and its ailments” as a symbol which synthesizes many concerns revolving around modern decadence and the current predicament of human-kind. But what contexts provide full meaning to this symbol? What conditions have made possible the emergence not only of extremely waste-oriented and environmentally dangerous societies but also of a spiritually impoverished world? In the spirit of interpretive systemology, a critical interpretation of the “Earth's ailments” is undertaken in this paper. The interpretive task is cast in the form of a hermeneutical exercise, namely, the exegesis ofEarthdream, a book written by Robert Hamilton. This particular piece of work, upon which the present paper is fully based, is chosen as a vehicle for the critical interpretive inquiry, not only because it summarizes the current debate on the world crisis (thus providing a standard reference for beginning the interpretive inquiry), but also because the argument it develops can be molded within a format which facilitates the critical interpretation to be conducted. Accordingly, two interpretive contexts will be uncovered, and internal and external critiques outlined; to give full meaning to the symbol “Earth's ailments.” Two major interests propel the interpretive task. One relates to the participation of systems practitioners in the current crisis and the need to encourage responsible systems practice. The other interest arises simply from the fact that we are all on the same raft called Earth, and the raft seems to be sinking!     

系统科学视野中的劳动价值论研究提纲

文章从系统科学的角度出发在不同层次上讨论价值的源泉问题,认为物质生产系统、经济系统和社会系统都是创造价值的。为了使马克思劳动价值论能够更好的适应不断变化的现实,我们必须用系统科学的思维方法去发展马克思劳动价值论,为我们的社会主义事业能够实现更好的发展提供保障。     

Intersections of Critical Systems Thinking and Community Based Participatory Research: A Learning Organization Example with the Autistic Community

Critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) are distinct approaches to inquiry which share a primary commitment to holism and human emancipation, as well as common grounding in critical theory and emancipatory and pragmatic philosophy. This paper explores their intersections and complements on a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level, and then proposes a hybrid approach achieved by applying CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice to traditional systems thinking frameworks and practices. This hybrid approach is illustrated in practice with examples drawn from of the implementation of the learning organization model in an action research setting with the Autistic community. Our experience of being able to actively attend to, and continuously equalize, power relations within an organizational framework that otherwise has great potential for reinforcing power inequity suggests CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice could be useful in CST settings, and CST’s vocabulary, methods, and clarity around systems thinking concepts could be valuable to CBPR practitioners.     

A Limit to Our Thinking and Some Unanticipated Moral Consequences: A Science of Conceptual Systems Perspective with Some Potential Solutions

One paradox of modern society is the widespread use of highly complex mechanisms of economic and social self-regulation which produce a large number of unintended and often undesirable side-effects. Human conceptual systems (theories, policies, and mental models which support our thinking) are good enough to keep the self-regulatory mechanisms in operation; yet they are not good enough to prevent and control the undesirable contingencies. Systems thinking, and complexity science are growing in their usefulness for understanding our social systems as well as our conceptual systems. The present paper examines and explains this paradox by combining the ideas from the burgeoning science of conceptual systems and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. Drawing on Luhmann’s argument that social systems build up their internal complexity by disregarding the complexity of the environment, we propose to differentiate between those conceptual systems that reflect the intra-systemic complexity of simpler systems and those that reflect the intra-systemic complexity of sub-systems in combination with systems of systems to include the environmental complexity. Thus it comes about that the former conceptual systems, exemplified by physics, are much more effective and successful than the latter ones, often corresponding to social sciences. The chasm between the qualities of these systems can be overcome by using the tools of Integrative Propositional Analysis.     

A Brief Review of Peter B. Checkland's Contribution to Systemic Thinking

A brief review of Peter B. Checkland's contribution to systemic thinking is presented in five parts: (i) a thumbnail sketch of his life and works; (ii) to action research; (iii) to interpretive-based systemic theory; (iv) formulation of soft systems methodology; and (v) brief reflections.     

Tracking the development of the Emery-Trist systems paradigm (ETSP)

This paper is written to accomplish two objectives: first, to introduce the Emery-Trist systems paradigm to the critical systems thinking, a largely neglected and under-utilized paradigm; second using a critical systems thinking framework, to provide a rational justification in an attempt to track the developments in the ETSP so that an extended heuristic map is offered to the scholars interested in the Emery-Trist systems paradigm. Four tracks within ETSP are identified and analyzed to produce a liberation theme that has not previously been articulated. The liberation theme imminent in all four tracks of the paradigm development denotes the value and the promise of the ETSP to the critical systems thinking community as well as to other systems thinkers.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 34th meeting of the International Society for Systems Science, Portland, Oregon, in July 1990.     

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.     

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)     

Towards a Feminist-Systems Theory

This paper provides the findings of a study to locate the similarity and/or differences between two epistemologies: critical systems thinking and cultural ecofeminism. Selected texts from authors in each field were coded and compared using the Constant comparative analysis, grounded theory method. The analysis revealed a multitude of similarities across a range of concepts, including systems thinking language; challenges to positivist science, reason and instrumentalism; ethics and morality and praxis. The analysis also revealed several emergent principles for working towards a feminist systems theory of practice.     

System–Environment Relations in the Theories of Open and Autopoietic Systems: Implications for Critical Systems Thinking

This short paper revisits Bertalanffy??s open systems theory and Luhmann??s theory of autopoietic social systems in order to highlight the linkage between systemic complexity and the carrying capacity of the environment. Being paradigmatically focused on biological complexity, Bertalanffy??s work shows this linkage to be relatively unproblematic. In contrast, Luhmann argued that autopoietic social systems are likely to develop excessive complexity which overstrains the environment??s carrying capacity. The paper synthesizes these conceptions into a framework of discretionary social decision-making aimed at preventing systemic complexity from becoming excessive. Rooted in the idea of balancing the system and the environment, this framework determines the optimal level of systemic complexity as that level which systems can maximally attain without incurring the risk of self-destruction. The system?Cenvironment balance is shown to be the general systems theory core of Ulrich??s critical systems heuristics and critical systems thinking more generally.     

Critical Systems Thinking on the Inefficiency in Post-Earthquake Relief: A Practice in Longmen Shan Fault Area

The Longmen Shan Fault area is one of the most active seismic zones in the world, has a relatively dense population and a low economic development level. Therefore, the provision of effective post-earthquake relief is very important for saving lives and restricting financial losses. However, providing urgent relief is a complex problem that requires efficient coordination between the organizations, and departments involved, and the specific environments, for the supply of urgent materials, energy and information. In practice, although there are sufficient relief supplies, because of the lack of systemic thinking, relief activities are often chaotic leading to inefficiencies and even increases in the damage and loss of life. In this study, a critical systems thinking approach is used to reflect on the system contexts, boundaries, structures and functions of the emergency relief systems. Using systems modeling we constructed simulations for different relief plans and their consequences, and a work shop of metasynthetic engineering was constructed to integrate the different views, knowledge and contexts. At the practical stage, after the model’s validity was verified from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake data, based on the 2013 Lushan earthquake simulation results, some recommendations are made to improve future post-disaster relief operations. Finally, the significance of critical systems thinking is demonstrated to ensure effective and efficient of post-earthquake relief. Some limitations and future research also have been presented in conclusion.     

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?     

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.