UKSS Meeting 2014 - details

Practice of Systems Ideas in a Knowledge Society

This year’s UKSS conference has different format and venue, with the great keynote speakers you expect.

  We are pleased to be hosted by the Centre for Systems Studies, Business School, University of Hull, starting with a conference dinner on Thursday 11 September, followed by a day of interesting activities including keynote speakers, papers and workshops. Then on Saturday our friends at SCiO are holding an open day with eight fantastic speakers.

On Friday the speakers are Keynotes by Professor Simon Bell, Open University, Professor Gerald Midgley, University of Hull and Patrick Hoverstadt, SCiO. There will also be an opportunity to present papers are contributions are encouraged by submitting to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ukss2014 by 31 August 2014

 

The SCiO day features the following speakers and subjects

• SYSBOK - reviewing the developing SCiO systems body of knowledge, with Tony Korycki and Patrick Hoverstadt
• Benjamin Taylor - the practice of systems leadership: application of systems concepts to leadership
• Patrick Hoverstadt - subject to be confirmed
• Arthur Battram - Navigating Complexity
• Ivo Velitchkov - Requisite Inefficiency
• Jane Searles - case study: applying systems thinking with British Waterways
• Christoph Giagounidis - Beer at work (how work can make us sick, and Beer can make us better)
• Alfredo del Valle, Ph.D. - Managing high-complexity problems through methodical participation: experiences with the Participatory Innovation Model (speaker to be confirmed)

Full details follow:

Practice of Systems Ideas in a Knowledge Society

11 – 13 September 2014

The Venue: Centre for Systems Studies, Business School, University of Hull,Cottingham Rd, Hull, East Yorkshire HU6 7RX

This year’s conference will be hosted by the Centre for Systems Studies at the Hull University Business School, which is a leading UK business school dedicated to the development of responsible leadership for a complex world.

This is great news at it takes the UKSS back to where the first Conference was held nearly forty years ago, although if you were there you will find things have changed as in 2005, the School moved in to their new home, described by Sir Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI, as a ‘world class learning and teaching facility'.  Designed by esteemed architects Farrell and Clark, the school is a mix of new build and redevelopment.  Contemporary links connect four Grade II listed buildings to create an inspirational yet practical space, equipped with the latest technology.

            The Programme

Once again we are bringing together thinkers and practitioners in the fields of systems and complexity as it seems to us that there has been a significant international resurgence in these areas in recent years.  Delegates will benefit from cutting edge research and a lively forum for discussion and debate will be provided for a wide range of academics and practitioners in the fields of systems thinking. Our aim is to bring together as many people as possible who are engaging with the Practice of Systems Ideas in a Knowledge Society, with the intention of promoting an intense and lively debate with real world implications.

Thursday 11^th September 2014

Conference Dinner.

Friday 12^th  September 2014

Keynotes by Professor Simon Bell, Open University,Professor Gerald Midgley, University of Hull and Patrick Hoverstadt, SCiO

Challenges of Knowledge Societies

• Selected Papers.
• Practical Workshop Case Study (subject to alteration) using and comparing:
  • Ketso.
  • Soft Systems Methodology (SSM).
  • Viable Systems Model (VSM)
      Saturday 13^th September 2014
    Jointly Sponsored with SCiO; a day devoted to practitioner contributions, and workshops.
    What Are Knowledge Societies?
    Knowledge Societies are identified as societies based on the creation, dissemination and utilization of information and knowledge, i.e. societies with an economy in which knowledge is acquired, created, disseminated and applied to enhance economic and social development.
    People living in a knowledge society can expect that their work, leisure, social and political lives will be dominated by creation, acquisition and utilisation of ‘knowledge’.  However, at the heart of this concept is the idea of ‘knowledge’ itself.  Great resources have been expended by businesses wishing to know how to manage their knowledge, since it has been acknowledged that the only sustainable source of competitive advantage that an organisation has is the know-how of the people it employs.  Yet knowledge remains problematic.  It is contained within people and created by them through interactions in groups, using physical and financial resources.  People may or may not know that they have it.  Efforts to make human knowledge explicit, and capture it for the benefit of others may be more or less successful.  It is perhaps more accurate to refer to human knowing, since it is dynamic rather than static.
    Call for Contributions
    We invite contributions from systems thinkers from a wide variety of backgrounds both academics and practitioners engaging in the form of papers, models, reports from practice, posters or workshop proposals that relate to the conference theme in its broadest sense. Your paper(s) can focus on theory, practice or a combination of the two.  This conference will provide a great opportunity to meet others with similar interests and to communicate with a wider audience, so we really want to encourage you to participate.
    Submit papers to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ukss2014    by 31 August 2014