Sustainable Community Development: A Brief Introduction to the Multi-Modal Systems Method

There is still no agreement on the concept of sustainable development but, what was initially only seen as an equation of economic growth and protection of environment resources, has now began to include several other dimensions, such as the social, cultural, ethical, legal and political. However, this requires a scientific perspective capable of dealing with ethical and normative questions. The Multi-Modal Systems Method intends to tackle the sustainable issue in a total manner, based on a trans-disciplinary approach and on a method that makes possible practical applications in empirical contexts. This article presents an introduction to this method in the context of the sustainable development of communities.     

Multi-Modal Systems Thinking and a Self-Study of Teaching Reform: Realizing the Ethical Mode of Being

I describe multi-modal systems thinking in the context of my qualitative investigation of the influence of open discourse on technicism in a University Business Computing Course. I discontinued the research on realizing, through a reflective self study, influenced by my reading of the multi-modal thinking of the Amsterdam School, that I had acted unethically. I thus changed my research and my teaching practice. I note that this approach has recently been incorporated into systems thinking in the work of J. R. D. de Raadt, whose university informatics teaching reform, informed by the "way of the prophet," resonates with my reforms.     

The Future of Systems Thinking

Due to the diminishing popularity of systems thinking, an attempt is done to predict its future in the university world. Two starting points are used: one in the traditional scientific community, being its habitat; and the other in the surrounding society, being its area of application. The investigation shows that systems thinking is highly needed, although its nearest future seems bleak. The systemic challenge to the traditional academic world has unfortunately been taken as a threat against its existence. The scientific and educational impact of systems thinking is therefore opposed as an alternative to the old scientific paradigm. Furthermore, the resistance to new theories moving across disciplinary boundaries seems stronger than resistance to theories within the disciplines.     

Community Development and Renaissance Social Humanism: Some Lessons for Systems Science

Starting from the crisis in our communities—research has indicated it to be widely spread—the author explores the scientific tradition preceding the rise of modernism in order to draw out a more humane way of thinking that may help our contemporary societies. He discerns between two types of Renaissance humanism, one characterised by its cleverness, the other by its compassion and desire to restore dignity to the lives of people struggling to escape the clutches of medievalism. The father of the latter is Erasmus of Rotterdam and we follow the development of his conception of a social humanism as it branches out, through the work of his successors, into every scientific discipline, both natural and human. These disciplines are united by an embracing systemic idea of philosophy that unites the mind with the heart and which Erasmus called “Philosophia Christi”. We examine the two main pillars upon which this philosophy is built, love for our neighbour and education as the only legitimate instrument to change society, and the extraordinary impact it had on science and on communities living in the seventeenth century. We contrast this with the idea of power, the chosen instrument of modernity to transform society, and trace some of its tragic outcomes. We conclude by discussing the incorporation of an Erasmian type of social humanism into systems education and the future development of such programmes.     

增强系统辩证论的认同感

系统辩证论的提出和阐述，引起了人们的关注、兴趣和重视。它与唯物辩证论在本质上是一致的，既坚持了唯物主义，又是立意更高的唯物辩证论的另一种表达形式；它有马克思主义哲学和系统科学两个理论来源，出自实践并接受实践的检验，是哲学“走出书斋”的重大理论成果，用它来认识事物已越来越成为一种趋势；它不是对唯物辩证论的否定，而是对马克思主义哲学的丰富和发展，是对系统科学的超越，是哲学领域思想解放的生动体现。     

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.     

The Relevance of Systems Thinking in the Quest for Multifinal Social Enterprises

Human deprivation and suffering around the world are increasing despite the efforts of traditional aid-based approaches focused on alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life for marginalized communities. There is ample evidence that billions of dollars in aid money have been expended on development projects that are fundamentally unsustainable. On the other hand, social enterprises, which improve lives and livelihoods through practical market-based approaches, are growing in number. Systems Thinking can be especially helpful in navigating the complexity and chaos inherent in social ventures in developing communities. Lack of clarity in the roles, responsibilities, and returns for the various stakeholders epitomizes this chaos and is a major contributor to the failure of such projects. By employing Systems Thinking, entrepreneurs can establish accountability mechanisms, ensure equity for all stakeholders, and facilitate system sustainability. Though much research exists on both Systems Thinking and social enterprise, few sources discuss how Systems Thinking can be practically applied to conceptualize, build, and sustain social enterprises in an easy-to-understand manner. This paper synthesizes definitions of the tenets of Systems Thinking including interdependence, holism, multifinality, equifinality, differentiation, regulation, abstraction, and leverage points. The relevance of each of these tenets to social entrepreneurship is described, and further reinforced, with examples. A practical understanding of these tenets can empower entrepreneurs as they navigate chaotic environments in the quest for social enterprises that create win–win situations for all stakeholders.     

Systems Thinking and Management Epistemology

Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, its presuppositions and basis, and the general reliability of claims to knowledge. Since its birth, Social Systems Sciences (S3) has been critical of positivist epistemology in the discipline of management. The epistemological foundations of management theory have evolved with the development of three paradigms—the idea of social science, the unity of science movement, and the behavioral science revolution. Examining the epistemological foundations of maangement theory, this paper reflects on the role of positivism as a dominant ideological construct (or a grand-narrative) in management and organizational studies.     

Systems Thinking and Higher Education: The Vanguard Method

Reforms to the higher education sector in the UK are only increasing competitive pressures between institutions. Universities are therefore looking to gain competitive advantage over their rivals both in terms of student experience and through administrative efficiency. This paper will present an alternative view of how to transform the way that the higher education system delivers service to students in an environment where ‘student choice’ will be viewed as of paramount importance. The paper will argue that the prevailing ‘command and control’ (Seddon 2003) management logic, which can be found at work throughout both the public and private sectors, is the primary cause of inferior, expensive service. As an alternative, this paper will explore the benefits of working in a systems thinking way, whilst comparing and contrasting this with the flawed thinking which currently prevails. The Vanguard Method (Seddon 2008) is one particular form of systems thinking which has been developed for use in service organisations (Jackson et al. 2008) and which has been applied to many public sector organisations (ODPM 2005; Middleton 2010; Zokaei et al. 2010). Using a case study methodology (Yin 2009), this paper will address what has been learnt by applying the Vanguard Method in an HEI environment for the first time.     

综合集成系统开发的系统方法思考

综合集成系统开发研究是一项非常重要的科研课题,它必然涉及理念、理论、方法论、思路、技术、实现、应用,以及组织管理等多层次多方面的一系列的思考.本文认为(1)在理念上提出"综合集成"就是一个突破,否定"还原论",不是"整体论",可以提"系统论"或"总体论",其中又应特别强调"质变过程";(2)在理论上要求深入研究"1+1>2"的必要条件和充分条件,这是整个研究开发中具有基础性的关键问题;(3)在方法论上建议关心"物理-事理-人理(WSR)"方法论和"螺旋式推进(SPIRPO)"方法论,也许能在综合集成的研究中发挥出一些作用;(4)在系统结构上建议采用"分布网络关联式的大系统结构",以便于满足可扩展性、可持续性、可维护性、可演化性,以及自学习性等的要求;(5)在技术与实现方面,为了实现分布网络关联式结构的思路,特建议选用MAS(Multi-Agent System,多独立智能体系统)技术,其中至少涉及两种具体的技术,即MAS关联技术与MAS封装技术,并构建三类Agent(独立智能体),即"管理Agent"、"交互Agent"以及"各别Agent"等,以便推动标准化;(6)在综合集成方面指出将涉及10多种具体技术;(7)在应用方面提出6项建议,并给出分布网络式大系统结构建议的示意图;(8)在组织管理方面建议试用"旋进式管理"的思路,以"以旋克旋","以旋克难",也许对整个大课题的完成能够有所促进、有所帮助.     

The Pattern-matching Role of Systems Thinking in Improving Research Trustworthiness

This paper seeks to identify a new and useful role for systems thinking in improving qualitative research quality. Firstly, it reflects upon the main characteristics and difficulties of qualitative research. Secondly, it critically reviews some of the techniques suggested to improve research credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Thirdly, it explains the concept of pattern-matching and its role in designing case studies. Based on these, the paper examines the pattern-matching role of systems thinking in enhancing the trustworthiness of qualitative research. Finally, a case study is described to illustrate how pattern-matching is embedded in systems perspective to improve research trustworthiness. The paper highlights that when systems thinking is combined with pattern-matching properly in qualitative research, it can help the investigators to develop a fuller and richer understanding of a phenomenon, and can enable others interested in the research to recover how conclusions have been made and to make informed judgement about the research findings.     

信息系统工程监理机制研究

讨论了信息系统建设中工程监理机制的概念及必要性,分析了用户方、开发方和监理方的职能及组织关系。在此基础上提出了信息系统工程监理的主要内容,即从对现行管理体制的认知;信息系统开发策略制定;系统分析;系统设计;系统实现及运行维护;监理组织和监理人员等方面进行了研究。该研究对信息系统建设具有一定的理论指导意义。     

论城市社区发展的系统观

从系统理论观点出发，将社区作为社会大系统中的子系统，论述了城市社区发展与社区系统的整体优化、社区发展与社区结构功能的耦合、社区发展与社区内部调节机制的关系。探讨了我国城市社区发展存在和亟待解决的问题。     

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.     

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.     

石油化工仿真培训系统的研制

本文介绍了北京化工学院仿真中心开发研制的石油化工仿真培训系统的硬件和软件。探讨了开发研制中所碰到的问题以及对策。     

跨学科的系统思维与综合创新

美国圣菲研究所的宗旨和理念就是开展跨学科的复杂性研究,认为一种新型科学正在从这种跨学科综合中涌现出来。系统思维和系统科学实际上就是跨学科研究的结果,而跨学科研究也是系统科学的基本研究进路。其中,类比、隐喻与模型是系统科学的主要研究方法。复杂性科学研究的一个前沿与创新,就是在跨学科的视野下,运用隐喻与计算机模拟探索复杂系统突现的动力学机理。     

Sustainability,Systems Thinking and Professional Practice

This article explores the impact of the new sustainability agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have taken educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at undergraduate or postgraduate level or through relevant professional institutions’ continuing professional development programmes. It also describes a one-day workshop for the professionals on sustainable development, based on systems thinking and practice. The workshop provides a model for developing greater understanding and effective action in professional practice, by using dialogue and interprofessional learning to explore approaches to sustainability in a variety of business and professional contexts. It introduces the principles underpinning the concept of sustainability and provides tools to support the integration of sustainable development into professional practice and organisational change.     

Negotiation,Management, and Systems Thinking

The mutual apartness of negotiation, management, and systems thinking and practice is highlighted, and a reflection on a systemic view of negotiation is presented. An overview of negotiation studies is given, as well as practical comments on the pursuit of win-win to achieve the general satisfaction of the parties and lasting relationships; the importance of everybody's participation; different views and facets of negotiation and of conflict; the basic variables of power, time, and information; and the basic points for a methodic negotiation process. Some aspects of negotiation have been selected from the management literature. Systems approaches that could contribute to negotiation and benefit from its findings are recalled, integrated into TSI/ LSI, which seems to offer a conceptual and procedural guide to a systemic view of negotiation as a wheel for management, as suggested in the final section.