Cyber-Systemic events in 2014

For those who may not be hooked into the various cybernetic and systems societies there is much that is on this year to distract, enthuse, activise or sustain friendships:

1. First Call for Papers: UK Systems Society International Conference 2014

9-11 September 2014  - St Anne’s College, Oxford University, UK

Theme: Systems in a Knowledge Society

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. Much has been written about knowledge in its various forms – propositional knowledge (information) or tacit ‘know-how’. 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.

Challenges of knowledge societies

With increased focus on the economic and social aspect of knowledge, its potential as a force of social cohesion and increased welfare, or conversely as a source of increased division and exclusion requires our urgent attention as citizens. UNESCO, in a 2005 World Report on Knowledge Society, has expressed concern over the potential disassociation of society as those on the wrong side of the digital divide become increasingly isolated. Further concern is expressed over excessive commoditization of knowledge, so that ownership of previously social assets become concentrated in the hands of the powerful.

The UNESCO World Report establishes four principles that are essential for development of an equitable knowledge society:

• Cultural diversity;
• Equal access to education;
• Universal access to information (in the public domain);
• Freedom of expression.

The role of technology

“Knowledge has been at the heart of economic growth and development for some time. Despite the shift in recent years from the Information Society to an emerging global knowledge society, where emphasis is more on people’s utilisation of knowledge rather than technology, it still remains a fact that information technology remains a central element of the knowledge society, combined with continuous learning particularly in Science & Technology and innovation … The ability to generate new knowledge and new ideas that are then embodied in products and organisations has always served to fuel development … The foremost use of knowledge should be to empower and develop all sectors of society to understand and use knowledge to increase the quality of people’s lives and promote social development. A socially inclusive knowledge society empowers all members of the society to create, receive, share and use information and knowledge for their economic, social, cultural and political development. In recent times, disparities in the productivity and growth of different countries have far less to do with the abundance or lack of natural resources than with the capacity to improve the quality of human capital and factors of production i.e. to create new knowledge and ideas and incorporate them into equipment and people’s skills.”

(Extract from a GESCI report, funded by the UN ICT Task Force, 2010)

Systems and the knowledge society – Call for Contributions

What is clear from this discourse is that knowledge society is characterised by its complexity. Not only is knowledge an ephemeral phenomenon, resistant to attempts to harness and control it, but it is a controversial asset that gives access to economic and political power. One thing that is clear is that the four principles set out by UNESCO cannot be achieved through linear thinking. 

We invite contributions from systems thinkers in the form of papers, models, reports from practice, posters or workshop proposals that relate to the conference theme in its broadest sense. The Conference programme will include a day devoted to practitioner contributions, and a workshop on writing for publication as well as plenary presentations and speakers (to be confirmed).

Papers should be clearly marked ‘conference submission’, and submitted by 31 May 2014, via the on-line submission system of IGI Global.  For other types of contribution, please email an abstract to the conference organisers at: Conference2014@ukss.org.uk

2. ISSS 2014 Conference - ISSS, and ASC in the following week

Learning Across Boundaries: Exploring the Variety of Systemic Theory and Practice

ISSS President 2013-14 Professor Gerald Midgley, University of Hull, UK

The 58th Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences will be held at George Washington University, Washington DC, July 27 through August 1, 2014. The conference will be held at the downtown campus in the Georgetown area of Washington DC at Funger Hall, GWU School of Business.

Further details are located on the ISSS2014 Conference pages.

This year, the ASC meeting "Living in Cybernetics" will also be held at GWU in the week following the ISSS (3-9th August). There will be a discount for those attending both conferences, please see each conference's registration pages. The discount will be halved from the registration cost of each conference.

Additional details will be added as available, please email the ISSS office with any queries in the meantime at isssoffice@dsl.pipex.com

3. 50th Anniversary conference of the American Society for Cybernetics 

2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the American Society for Cybernetics, which was incorporated in Washington DC on the 6th of August 1964.

Our conference this year will be our major celebration. The theme is “Living in Cybernetics”. The main event (4 to 8 August inclusive) will celebrate ASC cybernetics in the present through paper presentations themed using Stuart Umpleby’s “Several Traditions of cybernetics” (4 and 5 August), ASC cybernetics in the past through addresses from many past presidents and other long term members (August 6) developing our timeline, and ASC cybernetics in the future through workshops developing views of how cybernetics and education may come together to hep make a better world (August 7 and 8).

In addition, as has been our recent practice, we will hold a pre-conference meeting on 3 August; and a post-conference meeting (9 August). Conferees may attend these events without charge.

4. EMCSR 2014 

“Dear Colleagues,

We are happy to invite you to participate in the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research in Vienna, 22nd to 25th of April 2014.

At EMCSR, scientists, organizations, researchers and practitioners share their experiences working with systems theory and practice.

This year's meeting is a co-production of the most distinguished systems organizations and communities in the world and in addition will connect members of the International Federation for Systems Research and EMCSR with the intent to create a hub that showcases the advance of systems approaches to contribute to solutions of today’s complex problems.

The Symposia Call for Papers timeline is 28^th February, 2014

The EMCSR 2014: “Civilisation at the Crossroads: Response and Responsibility of the Systems Sciences” will be guided by three story lines, each comprised by the perspectives of concepts, applications and bridges between academia and practice:

I. Sustainability and Development

II. Emergence and Design

III. Complexity and Strategy

There are specific topics under each theme. (Read more)

The PhD Day call for papers timeline is 14^th February

The EMCSR 2014 PhD Colloquium & Award is a special topic of the EMCSR 2014 with paper presentations from scientists in pre-doctoral or early post-doctoral phases of work.

One of the highlights of the EMCSR Colloquium & Award is the special “Ludwig von Bertalanffy Young Scientist Award”, which consists of a diploma and a monetary prize. (Read more)

Please find the information pertaining to this event at the following URL http://emcsr.net/  and share it with all friends and colleagues you know whom you think might be interested in this event, and distribute it to other academic institutions and organizations far and wide.

Connect yourself with the EMCSR community in Social Media Facebook  Twitter

Sign up to our EMCSR newsletter for updates and information like community and background stories and project features! Newsletter

Hiding the systemic failures of products and processes

This New Yorker piece entitled "A Valuable Reputation" by Rachel Aviv is insightful at many levels. 

"In 2001, seven years after joining the biology faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Tyrone Hayes stopped talking about his research with people he didn’t trust. He instructed the students in his lab, where he was raising three thousand frogs, to hang up the phone if they heard a click, a signal that a third party might be on the line. Other scientists seemed to remember events differently, he noticed, so he started carrying an audio recorder to meetings. “The secret to a happy, successful life of paranoia,” he liked to say, “is to keep careful track of your persecutors.” 

Three years earlier, Syngenta, one of the largest agribusinesses in the world, had asked Hayes to conduct experiments on the herbicide atrazine, which is applied to more than half the corn in the United States. Hayes was thirty-one, and he had already published twenty papers on the endocrinology of amphibians....." Read on.

My thanks to David W-T for alerting me to this article. It seems classic multinational behaviour - seeking to hide the systemic failure of products and processes.  The systemic failings reported are all avoidable; above all else so is the thinking that creates and sustains these circumstances. I cannot help but feel we are collectively suffering a self-induced myopia, given that this atrazine story is only one of many that creates a pattern that afflicts us.  Consider also these recent examples:

1. Epic California Drought and Groundwater: Where Do We Go From Here?

"The bad news is that we are running out of groundwater.  In particular, this is happening in the places that we need it most — the dry parts of the planet where we love to live, precisely because it does not rain.  Out of necessity, our reliance on groundwater in these parts of the world is much greater than elsewhere."

"One of the key numbers to emerge from the report is that the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins have already lost 10 cubic kilometers of freshwater each year in 2012 and 2013.

To put that number in perspective, it is roughly the amount of water used by the entire population of California, for household, municipal, and industrial use (that is, for nearly everything else besides agriculture and environment).  It is also the steepest decline in total water availability that our team has witnessed in the 12 years that we have been monitoring California water resources with the GRACE mission."

2. The UK floods - see this article by George Monbiot to begin to appreciate some of the systemic issues.  Talk about a crisis of governance!

3. Nutrient cycle distortions with massive systemic effects

"A new report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights how humans have massively altered the natural flows of nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients. While this has had huge benefits for world food and energy production, it has caused a web of water and air pollution that is damaging human health, causing toxic algal blooms, killing fish, threatening sensitive ecosystems and contributing to climate change. 

Our Nutrient World is launched at this week's UNEP Governing Council / Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, which runs until 22 February 2013. The study was carried out by almost 50 experts from 14 countries."

On the positive side...but way to late really, a significant member of the Obama administration in the person of John Kerry has had the courage to call climate change

[a]  'weapon of mass destruction'  ....."... that climate change could threaten [our] "entire way of life" as he called for all nations to do more to stop global warming." 

It is time for climate change denier regimes such as those of David Cameron and Tony Abbot, and to be fair, Barack Obama, to take responsibility for the futures of the citizens they seek to govern.  

Markets should not be left to run themselves

There was an excellent article by Geoff Davies published in The Age today.  Amongst many good points he says:

"Systems scientists can recognise a modern economy, full of such instabilities, as a far-from-equilibrium self-organising system. The tidy neoclassical equilibrium theory does not even begin to be a useful approximation to such an economy.

Such self-organising systems are rather messier, and not everything about them is predictable. Nevertheless they typically have some regularities, and a recognisable character. In this respect they resemble living systems, which is no coincidence, because living systems are the best exemplars of self-organising systems."

Geoff Davies is a scientist, author and commentator. His most recent book is Sack the Economists and Disband Their Departments. Read about the rationale for his book here.

Steve Keen's commentary is also worth a read.

Beyond Big Data

I wish policy makers and funders of research would visit this site which rightly, in my view, attempts to move us collectively beyond the current preoccupation with 'big data'.

Here is the associated press release:

CAMBRIDGE (Dec 17) — One question Big Data can’t answer: how do we know what’s important in a complex world?

Big Data keeps getting bigger, whether in biology, medicine, social sciences or social media. But how do we know which pieces matter in continually larger piles of data? The trick is to recognize patterns in the largest scale of behavior. These patterns, determined by relative handful of information, are not only the key to understanding a system, but they also tell us how we can influence its behavior going forward.

In an article released today, complex systems scientist Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute, explains how his team has been successful using this approach to predict and explain market crashes, food prices, the Arab Spring, ethnic violence, and other complex biological and social systems.

Rather than amass larger and larger data sets, determining which information is pivotal (and ignoring the rest) is the key to solving the world’s increasingly complex challenges.
The article, titled “Beyond big data: Identifying important information for real world challenges” describes a general way to understand complex systems.

“Big data analytics is a buzzword today,” Bar-Yam explains, “but the key to using any data is understanding its significance, and this requires knowing the patterns in the data and how we can affect or change the system’s behavior. This requires key ideas about the way the system functions.”
Complexity first made its mark in physics by demonstrating how traditional approaches of statistics and calculus fail to describe such radical transitions as the moment water boils into vapor. These transitions required a new kind of mathematics. Bar-Yam and his group have been applying generalized versions of the new mathematics to answering real world problems.

“Understanding the problems we face in the world today requires more than just data, it requires insight into radical changes that will take place in the future,” Bar-Yam stated. “We have to understand transitions that might happen in the behavior of systems, not just how they were behaving yesterday.”

I would argue that investing in Systems Thinking in Practice is needed to focus on the end of the graph where what is important needs to be understood and acted upon.

Systems thinking in practice PhD course as part of IFSA 2014 in Berlin

Systems Thinking and Practice in PhD Research: Working strategically with Farming Systems Research(4 ECTS)Date: 30 March – 5 April 2014 including 4 days of IFSA Symposium

Objectives

Working strategically to negotiate boundaries for research in a meaningful way in the areas of farming, food, rural areas and environment requires particular skills and abilities: It is necessary to be able to make relevant connections and to contextualize research activities without becoming overwhelmed by potential complexity and uncertainty. The context of the increasingly multifaceted complexity of issues of sustainability and climate change in relation to food production and consumption is particularly challenging for PhD research. It is a context that is however a core part of the IFSA community’s experience. The purpose of this course is to help you, the PhD student, develop your skills in contextualizing your research, to make connections among issues using systems thinking and to so improve your ability to work both strategically and purposefully. The course is also designed to help you build on what other researchers have done.

Through joining this course you can expect to:

• gain an overview of the intellectual traditions of Farming Systems Research,
• make links to the history of IFSA,
• strengthen your research through developing understanding of systems theories and methodologies
• have opportunity to reflect on strengths and weaknesses of different systems approaches and methodologies in relation to your own PhD research
• get added value from your participation in the Berlin Symposium by also becoming part of a parallel critical learning systems community that has a PhD research focus
• critically review potential contributions of your research to help meet global challenges
• develop appreciation of multiple perspectives on contemporary issues
• work across multiple disciplines

  Process:

The course will be held in connection to the 11^th IFSA Symposium and draw on the gathering of specialists and researchers within this field. Its design draws on tried and tested ways of experiential learning. The course will be grounded in a project of your own choice, preferably based on your PhD work. In your time in Berlin you will participate in an inquiry with three main parts - before, during and after the symposium. It will also involve some preparation and submission of a final reflection. 

1. Before the course, you will be asked to complete an assignment in which you describe and reflect on either (i) your understanding and use of system theories in your project; or (ii) the rationale you have followed, or would follow, in making a choice to include, or not, systems theories in your PhD research

2. The pre-symposium part of the course will be offered in a workshop format consisting of a mixture of student presentations, lecture inputs and group work. It will take place over two and half days starting on the morning of Sunday 30^th March and finishing at mid-day on Tuesday 1^st April.

3. The part of the course that runs in parallel to the symposium will provide mentorship and help you plan your attendance at the most relevant workshops for you at the IFSA symposium. It will also provide an opportunity for joint reflection and feedback as the symposium progresses.

4. After the symposium, on Saturday 5^th April, you and the other students will gather for half a day to recapitulate and work in groups, and complete the assignment that has been agreed, on possible improvements of your own PhD study design, or future research trajectory, linking it to systems thinking and practice. The course will end at mid-day.

Background and resources

This PhD course will benefit strongly from the fact that many outstanding researchers within farming system approaches will be gathered at the Symposium of the International Farming Systems Association. Contributions specifically to this course will come from experienced researchers who have been a part of the IFSA community for many years. They will include lectures and/or workshops that

• introduce systems theories;
• consider different systems approaches and methodologies suitable for researching issues of farming, food, rural areas and environment:
• bridge the different systems approaches – soft, hard, critical, viable etc.
• explore how to deal with handling of complexity and the role that modeling can play
• critically review focuses on action, learning and reflexivity
• explicate social systems and learning systems approaches
• explore the relationship between systems approaches and transdisciplinary research

The key literature for the course will be:

Ika Darnhofer, David Gibbon and Benoit Dedieu (2012) The farming systems approach into the 21st century: The new dynamic. Springer, Berlin.

The following references provide additional background

Blackmore, Chris (Ed.) (2010) Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. Springer: London. (For online extracts see: http://www.springer.com/computer/information+systems+and+applications/book/978-1-84996-132-5)

Ison, Ray (2010) Systems Practice: How to Act in a Climate-Change World. Springer: London. (For online extracts see: http://www.springer.com/computer/information+systems+and+applications/book/978-1-84996-124-0)

Ramage, Manus and Shipp, Karen (2009) Systems Thinkers. Springer: London.

(For online extracts see: http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/behavioural/book/978-1-84882-524-6)

Reynolds, Martin and Holwell, Sue. Systems Approaches to Managing Change. Springer: London. (For online extracts see: http://www.springer.com/computer/information+systems+and+applications/book/978-1-84882-808-7)

Course Assessment

To obtain the course certificate you will be required to:

• complete the assignments as outlined above
• participate in the lectures and group discussion.
• participate in one of the relevant working groups of the IFSA symposium.
• after the Symposium, discuss improvements to your own PhD study, or future research trajectory design linking it to systems thinking and practice.

  Registration for the Course

Contact: Dr. Thomas Aenis, Extension and Communication Group

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstr. 53, D-10099 Berlin, Germany

Phone: +49-(0)30-2093-6511
Email: thomas.aenis@agrar.hu-berlin.de

Course Team:

Co-ordinators:

Dr. Thomas Aenis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Prof. Dr. Nadarajah Sriskandarajah, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

Prof. Dr. Andrea Knierim, University Hohenheim, Germany

Guest lecturers:

Professor Ray Ison, The Open University Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group, UK and Monash University, Australia

Dr Chris Blackmore, The Open University Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group, UK

Database State - Executive Summary

This significant report was published in 2009. It reviews 46 databases used across government and observes that:

 "All of these systems had a rationale and purpose. But this report shows how, in too many cases, the public are neither served nor protected by the increasingly complex and intrusive holdings of personal information invading every aspect of our lives."

Of course since this was published Edward Snowden's revelations have been revealed to a surprisingly unknowing citizenery.  But it is worth relooking at the findings by Ross Anderson and his colleagues in the 2009 report in the light of the Snowden revelations and my earlier posting about the NHS centralised data opt-out possibility. They found that:

• A quarter of the public-sector databases reviewed are almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law; they should be scrapped or substantially redesigned. More than half have significant problems with privacy or effectiveness and could fall foul of a legal challenge. 
• Fewer than 15% of the public databases assessed in this report are effective, proportionate and necessary, with a proper legal basis for any privacy intrusions. Even so, some of them still have operational problems. 
• Britain is out of line with other developed countries, where records on sensitive matters like
  healthcare and social services are held locally. In Britain, data is increasingly centralised, and shared between health and social services, the police, schools, local government and the taxman.
• The benefits claimed for data sharing are often illusory. Sharing can harm the vulnerable, not least by leading to discrimination and stigmatisation. 
• The UK public sector spends over £16 billion a year on IT. Over £100 billion in spending is planned for the next five years, and even the Government cannot provide an accurate figure for cost of its ‘Transformational Government’ programme. Yet only about 30% of government IT projects succeed.

So as to better appreciate the extent of on-going systemic failure in this field it is worth reading Geoffrey Sampson's article:

Whistleblowing for health
Geoffrey Sampson
The University of South Africa
This paper offers a concise account of what was possibly the largest-scale failure ever in the
history of software engineering, namely the British National Health Service “Connecting for
Health” project. The failure offers important lessons about the rôle of professional expertise
and the impotence of authority in the software development process.

Word has it that the English government is at long last about to scrap the NPfIT. 

Avoiding the systemic mis-use of data

Those who live in England will shortly be faced with the prospect of a little white and blue leaflet from the NHS landing on their welcome mat.  As outlined in this article in The Independent under the heading '“Better information means better care”, this innocuous piece of paper will outline one of the biggest transformations of the way the NHS handles our confidential data for decades.' 

I think there are strong arguments for opting out of this arrangement which the state seeks to impose upon us.  Safeguards and institutions that ensure privacy remain inadequate. 

Like so many government initiated IT projects (e.g. the National Programme for IT) this one has also been a project that is very complex, and 'has been beset by confusion, delays and misinformation.'


If you wish to opt out copies of a leaflet for you to print or e-mail to friends and family can be downloaded from http://optout.care-data.info

Systems Thinking in Action

From Gene Bellinger:

• Group: Systems Thinking in Action
• Subject: STW becomes STiA with new Group Rules

g'Day,

What the caterpillar calls death, the butterfly calls life.

In an attempt to evolve and go where no LinkedIn group has gone before, as far as we know that is, the group previously known as Systems Thinking World is now Systems Thinking in Action.

The intent is to promote discussions which enable collaborative learning development in a manner that may be of immediate value to others who haven't participated in all the posts to that point, and don't have the time to review all the previous posts, which in some cases may mean hundreds. In support of this there is now a new set of group rules.

When you read the new rules, which is strongly encouraged, please note that nothing has actually been eliminated. We've moved some things around a bit and added a new dimension which we hope will foster collaborative learning development.

* Group Rules: http://webbrain.com/u/15CL

Those discussions in the discussion area that are not consistent with the new group rules will be allowed to run their course and fade into the background over time.

Whether what is intended will actually come to pass remains to be seen. Consider this the next experiment in learning.

be well,
Gene Bellinger
Host of Systems Thinking in Action

2014 Cybersystemic Events - EMCSR, Vienna

From Stefan Blachfellner:

"Welcome to the EMCSR 2014!

We wish you a happy and succesful new year. It will be a great year. We have started last year with the preparation of the upcoming EMCSR 2014. Our Call for Symposia generated a strong response and we are happy to invite you to participate again in the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research in Vienna, 22nd to 25th of April 2014.

Over 39 letters of intent were received after our call for symposia from individuals or groups representing a variety of different communities of academics and practitioners. The geographical origin of the symposia proposals goes beyond the European Union; it includes Russia, the Ukraine, Turkey, Israel and Palestine, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and the United States. Besides, there is a strong participation by Austrian Universities. But we were most excited when three trajectories emerged through this wonderful community participation.

The EMCSR 2014 will be guided by three story lines, each comprised by the perspectives of concepts, applications and bridges between academia and practice:
I. Sustainability and Development
II. Emergence and Design
III. Complexity and Strategy
Before Christmas 2013 we could put the bulk of the Calls for papers 2014 online. Since 20 December the call for the PhD Colloquium and Award has been open. The submission system is ready for your use. The registration website went online with the start of the new year.

We heartly invite you to participate and submit your contribution, to share, to showcase and to co-create insights and actions with the EMCSR community!

Help us to disseminate the Calls for Participation and Papers and support the growth of our community by referring your friends and peers either to our newsletter on our website or to one of our social media channels.

EMCSR in the Social Media Sphere

EMCSR is supported by a variety of different social networking opportunities, including Facebook, Twitter, and in the process also YouTube and Flickr. We will be sharing our blog activities and provide you with many valuable and interesting news, updates and behind the scenes info.

Don’t miss the opportunity to network with conference attendees and non-atttendees around the topics of cybernetics and systems research.

Please come along and follow us in these spaces as well - become a fan of EMCSR on Facebook and a follower on Twitter.

In this way you can keep up with the latest news and grow your EMCSR network! You are welcome to join, share and engage!

Also, if you have any links to articles, videos or images relating to the subjects of the conference or would like to promote anything related to your own work, please send us links and we’d be happy to include and promote them! In addition, if you have any suggestions or questions, don't hesitate to message us at mail@emcsr.net and we try to get back to you as soon as possible!

Please note that you can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time (see the end of this email), if you decide you don’t want to receive regular mails from us.

The meetings have always been a place for interaction and connecting people and their ideas. Our online social spaces act as an extension for our dialogue and we encourage you to take part!

Looking forward to welcome you in Vienna soon!

Best Regards on behalf of the whole EMCSR 2014 team,

Community-based renewables - what future now?

We have been shareholders of Hepburn Wind, a community-based renewables cooperative since inception.  Hepburn  have just had their AGM and released this report.  Lots of good developments threatened unfortunately by the changing policy context.

"On Saturday 23 November we held our AGM at the Daylesford Secondary School theatre and are most grateful to the 100+ members who showed up and participated in the official business of running our co-operative. We also had a good additional crowd show up to hear the keynote address by Professor Tim Flannery.

 
With Tony Gill and Simon Holmes à Court co-chairing the meeting we managed to successfully pass a number of special resolutions, present the 2012/13 annual report and share ideas with and answer questions from our members.

Members ratified the election of Candy Broad and Daniel Magasanik to the board. We are looking forward to Daniel’s second term and to welcoming Candy and her unique skills and experience. At the AGM we took the opportunity to farewell and thank Dan Cass who retired having served a full three year term on the board.

Professor Tim Flannery gave a compelling presentation updating us on the latest climate science developments and the work of the new Climate Council. Tim commended our community for our local response to the challenge and the leadership we have shown.

Aaron van Egmond, CEO of the Hepburn Shire, updated members about council’s renewable energy plans and our energy partner Red Energy explained our joint retail offering, the Community Saver. We were also pleased to host representatives from both VicWind and Yes2Renewables — two important groups who do great work in supporting and educating communities in the area of wind energy.

Carbon tax repeal submission

When our community committed to building its own wind farm, we knew we'd have a lot of challenges to overcome. But with each of the major parties committed (at the time) to both making carbon polluters pay and growing the clean energy sector, we knew we could count on our leaders to provide a favourable policy environment.

Or so we thought.

 

Changes in Canberra are radically shifting the goalposts for clean energy and for our co-operative. Just 18 months after big polluters started having to pay for dumping carbon pollution into our atmosphere, Australia is on the cusp of unwinding these important environmental gains.

Our members are watching the proposed legislative repeal with great concern and last week we made a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications’ Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013. We have explained the likely impact of the repeal on our project and ultimately on our community. We encourage members and supporters to read our submission.

Along with the millions of Australians who are investors in renewable energy infrastructure through their superannuation funds and the thousands of Australians who work in the clean energy sector, the members of Hepburn Wind have a reasonable expectation that changes in government policy will not harm their interests.

Hepburn Wind farm was built by our community for the benefit of our community. The repeal of the Carbon Pricing Mechanism introduces a significant sovereign risk to the member investors of our co-operative."

Death of Chris Argyris

Chris Argyris passed away on November 16th.  He made a very significant contribution to Systems scholarship, often in collaboration with the late Don Schon. That said he may not have claimed such an achievement as his work has usually been framed as in the field of organisational learning.

Only today I found myself using the distinctions these authors made between espoused theory and theory-in-use, which is explained on 'Resource Papers in Action Research' in the following terms:

"Argyris and Schon (1974) assert that people hold maps in their heads about how to plan, implement and review their actions.  They further assert that few people are aware that the maps they use to take action are not the theories they explicitly espouse.  Also, even fewer people are aware of the maps or theories they do use (Argyris, 1980).
 
To clarify, this is not merely the difference between what people say and do.  Argyris and Schon suggest that there is a theory consistent with what people say and a theory consistent with what they do.  Therefore the distinction is not between "theory and action but between two different "theories of action" (Argyris, Putnam & McLain Smith, 1985, p.82).  Hence the concepts Espoused theory and Theory-in-use:

Espoused theory

The world view and values people believe their behaviour is based on
 

Theory-in-use

The world view and values implied by their behaviour, or the maps they use to take action"

Based on: Anderson, L.  (1994).  Espoused theories and theories-in-use: Bridging the gap (Breaking through defensive routines with organisation development consultants).  Unpublished Master of Organisational Psychology thesis, University of Qld.

My appreciation to Rupesh for alerting me to Argyris' death.

Congratulations Ian Dunlop

Unfortunately few individuals have the courage of their convictions when it comes to acting ethically in response to human-induced climate change.  Ian Dunlop is a notable exception. He is to be congratulated for taking on mining heavy-weight BHP/BHP-Billiton. In the process he has demonstrated how unethical major institutional investors still are in managing their portfolios and how much into groupthink the big miners are. Dunlop’s platform for nomination to the BHP board identified climate change as the single greatest strategic risk faced by BHP. In making his unsuccesful bid for election he said:

  

"The future prosperity of BHP Billiton is of great importance, both in Australia and globally,” ......"Climate change poses a major strategic risk to that prosperity, and to shareholder value that is a risk which has the ability to fundamentally alter the direction of the company, or indeed to destroy it.  "In common with the boards of most major global corporations, I believe the board has fallen into the trap of 'groupthink' in failing to grasp the enormity of the challenge that climate change poses to the business,”

Importantlty Ian has gained significant coverage in the business sections of the press.  This exposure is welcome; it enables greater awareness of major systemic flaws in how we think about and respond to future climate change in terms of governance. We have known for a long time that big emitters have brought immense pressure to bear on governments and have at times effectively run government policy.  But companies like BHP are in the top 20 of global carbon emitters - and are thus much more significant than most nation states.  Yet our governance regimes and the social licence to operate for companies like BHP are not yet able to effectively hold them to account. Recent shifts in government policy in Australia do not help.

Ian Dunlop is a former international oil, gas and coal industry executive. He chaired the Australian Coal Association in 1987-88, chaired the Australian Greenhouse Office Experts Group on Emissions Trading from 1998-2000 and was CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors from 1997-2001. Ian is a major contributor to CPD (Centre for Policy Development).

PS If you think I am a little over the top with some of the arguments I am making read this - 'coal the new tobacco'!

Cybernetics - new books

ASC President Ranulph Glanville writes:

I would like to bring to your attention two publishing ventures.

The first is the Echoraum WISDOM series of books.

These concentrate on second order cybernetics and consist of a mixture of new work and critiques and appreciations of those who have gone before. The series of 18 books which, when the covers are put together, make a full reproduction of Breughel’s Tower of Babel. There are a couple of further books which include the book outcome of our {ASC} Troy conference, Trojan Horses: we have ordered copes for all members and you will get these as soon as we can organise cheap postage, in the new year. Please make sure that we have a good address for you.

Amongst the publications is a selection of my papers in 3 volumes called collectively The Black Boox. You can buy the volumes separately, or subscribe to a collectors version with the 3 volumes with black covers in a black box (a self-referential pun), signed by the “artist”. The special offer price runs out on 18th November.

The books (full set) can be found here.  The special edition is noted here where you will also find Trojan Horses.

 
The second is the English language version of the Heinz/Karl and Albert Mueller book, The Beginning of Heaven and Earth has No Name. You can pre-order the book here.

This is a book with a strong ASC connection. Heinz, of course, and the Muellers who are both trustees of the society. Bruno Clark, recently elected a trustee, too, is series editor. The German version of the book dates back to the 1990s: we have waited a long time.

The publication details are:

Heinz von Foerster (edited by Albert Mueller and Karl H Mueller), The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name, Fordham University Press, NY

Living in Change

Is the title of the 50th anniversery conference of the ASC (American Society of Cybernetics) which will be held in Washington D.C. between 03-Aug-2014 and 09-Aug-2014.

In outline, the conference is organised around a main event (4 to 8 August) consisting of paper sessions (4 and 5 August); a day for the telling of the ASC story by past presidents and other elder states people moving into dreams for the future (6 August, our anniversary day); and a session for the future (7 and 8 August) in which we consider how to bring cybernetics and learning together in all aspects of education. There will also be pre- and post-conference days (3 and 9 August). In addition, the ISSS conference will be on Long Island, just before the ASC conference, for those who would like to go to both.

More details shortly.

Flexible learning: six new ideas

A recent HEA (Higher Education Academy) report highlighted in this Guardian article elaborates six new ideas for flexible learning, arguing that "flexibility should be seen as a skill in its own right, rather than a method of teaching"  The six areas are:

• Learner empowerment – actively involving students in learning development and processes of co-creation
• Future-facing education – enabling people to think critically, creatively and flexibly to generate alternative visions of the future
• Decolonising education – extending intercultural understanding and experiences of students so they can be sensitive to global ways of working
• Transformative capabilities – seeing capabilities not just as abilities but being able adapt a skill to be used in both familiar and unfamiliar circumstances
• Crossing boundaries – to support interdisciplinary, interprofessional and cross-sectoral learning
• Social learning – developing cultures and environments for learning that harness the emancipatory power of spaces and interactions outside the formal curriculum, particularly through the use of new technologies and co-curricular activities. 

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is held up as an exemplar.  I would claim that our STiP (Systems Thinking in Practice) Postgraduate programme, like ESD, offers many, perhaps all, of these flexibilties. We would certainly like to further strengthen moves in this direction in time.  See for example the following chapter which relates to one of the core offerings in the programme:

Blackmore, C.P. & Ison, R.L. (2012) Designing and developing learning systems for managing systemic change in a climate change world. In Wals, A. & Corcoran P.B. eds. Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change. pp. 347-364.  Wageningen Academic Publishers, Education and Sustainable Development Series, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Based on our OU experience with Systems education I would suggest that the researchers have missed one key 'flexibility' that of epistemological flexibility - the ability to appreciate one's epistemological commitments and traverse  multiple epistemologies. This is a flexibility that the STiP programme sets out to address.

My thanks to Chris Blackmore for alerting me to this report.

Leverage Networks

PRESS RELEASE
 

'November 14, 2013 (Boston, MA): 

 

Leverage Networks, Inc. announces that it is reinventing the core business of the former Pegasus Communications, Inc., through a new, online platform. Having acquired most assets of Pegasus, including The Systems Thinker® newsletter, publications, webinars and other resources, the new company is focusing on creating effective change by spreading the use of Organizational Learning, Systems Thinking, System Dynamics, and related fields by providing relevant, accessible resources and support. The new company will be led by Rebecca Niles (Co-President), Kristina Wile (Co-President), and Kathleen Skaare (Marketing and Operations Director). Early advisers include industry thought leaders and former Pegasus board members: LeAnne Grillo, Ginny Wiley, Dave Packer, and Elayne Dorsey. Investors include Ohana Holdings LLC, an investing arm of Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay.

 

Leverage Networks will launch an interactive online platform (www.leveragenetworks.com) for information hosting, community building and referral services supporting the broader Systems Thinking communities in an effort to increase adoption of the field. The platform will include many of the original publications as well as new digital and physical media such as articles, games, webinars, videos, interactive mobile apps, a matching service for coaches and practitioners, and an industry event calendar. For more information about the launch of Leverage Networks, including product sales and partnering information, please contact us: info@leveragenetworks.com'

Sri Lanka - Australia's moral and systemic failure

Those who follow my Blogs will know that I have made several posts relating to the situation in Sri Lanka and Australia's policy position. My motivation comes from having been in Sri Lanka in 1983 just before the so-called 'civil war' erupted. In addition I have close friends and colleagues affected by what has happened, or more importantly what is failing to happen in terms of security, justice and reconciliation. 

For someone with this background it amazes me how poorly understood Sri Lanka is by journalists and politicians alike.  This came home to me in a posting yesterday by BBC correspondent Nick Robinson. What is telling is that in the stories he reported he clearly did not know that there are at least two main Tamil communities in Sri Lanka - those from the north, around Jaffna who have lived there for over 2000 years - and who for much of that time have been marginalised by the majority Sinhala community.  So the conflict, in historical terms is not new. Nor is the ongoing injustice. The other Tamil community are more recent arrivals to the areas around Kandy brought in from India by the British as labour in the tea plantations.  These different histories create different interests and experiences.  If you read Robinson's post the issues become more apparent.

This year Michelle de Kretser's novel 'Questions of Travel' won the Miles Franklin Award in Australia.  One of the protaganists is Sri Lankan and an asylum seeker who ends up in Australia, by plane as it happens rather than boat. However the novel captures well the fear that drove him to Australia and the degradation he had to endure to arrive.  It is hard to imagine that anyone in Australia who has read this novel can be fooled by the idea that supporting an authoritarian regime and providing military boats to keep those who are oppressed within has any moral integrity.  But what about those who don't read novels? How much longer can the simplistic framing of the issues by this, and previous Australian government be sustained?  

To date I have not had much time for David Cameron's policies but his stance and actions in his CHOGM visit are to be admired.  The contrast with Tony Abbot is telling and compelling. It is hard to imagine that Abbot has gained the ego boost that sustains him in a context where CHOGM was rejected by the Queen, the Indian PM, the Canadian PM and Mauritius.  To be in Rajapakse's good books is in international circles a badge of dishonour. In creating the circumstances where it was offered and then accepted our PM dishonours all Australians. 

The British media have also been more professional and incisive in their reporting.  In contrast much Australian reporting has reeked of self censorship. An exception is the excellent, nuanced report by Tom Iggulden. To better understand the hypocrisy of Australia's policy stand in recent years turn to this report by Gordon Weiss who argues that:

"... the issue is not CHOGM, but is rather what will happen next with Australia's adopted position on Sri Lanka, pursued by both Labour and Coalition governments since 2009, and the depths of hypocrisy that our own political leaders may shortly be compelled to trawl. Have our political leaders placed short-term domestic political considerations to deal with those thousands of boat people who inundated our shores last year, at some cost to our long-term interests?"