Understanding agricultural extension still important - the case of Iran

I have received word of the following conference.  Our work in this field has an Iranian connection. In 1989 we wrote: 

Russell, D.B., Ison, R.L., Gamble, D.R. & Williams, R.K. (1989) A Critical Review of Rural Extension Theory and Practice. Australian Wool Corporation/ University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury).  67pp.

Soon after this publication was translated into French and then Farsi.

i)                    French Edition: (1991).  Analyse Critique de la Theorie et de la Pratique de Vulgarisation Rurale en Australie.  INRA, France.  79pp.

ii)                  Persian Edition: (1995).  The translation into Persian by Ahmad Khatoonabadi.

 

The organiser Esmail Karamidehkordi writes:

"It is a pleasure to inform you that the University of Zanjan and the Iranian Agricultural Extension and Education Association (IAEEA) are organizing The First International Conference of the APIRAS & the Fifth Congress of Extension and Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management: “Facilitating Information and Innovations for Empowering Family Farmers”in 2-4 September 2014, with the collaboration of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), the Asian and Pacific Islands Rural Advisory Services (APIRAS), World Rural Forum (WRF), the University of Tehran, Iranian Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, Iranian Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, and other international and national institutions.

Because family farming is a very important farming system in the world, particularly in developing countries, we preferred to call the main theme of this conference as “Facilitating Information and Innovations for Empowering Family Farmers”. On behalf of the conference scientific committee, I would like to invite you to participate in this conference through your paper submission or supporting it as an institutional partner. The website is accessible through http://iaeea2014.znu.ac.ir and you can submit your abstract and paper online. I will appreciate your kind support if you add this link to your website and introduce it to your colleagues to participate in. We hope this international conference can provide an opportunity for the participants to share their knowledge and experiences regarding rural development and extension approaches to support family farming. Please let me know should you have any questions regarding the conference and your participation."

The worldwide systems movement is gaining momentum?

As posted a few days ago there is a lot happening in the cybersystemic world this year.  Is this a sign of a new momentum?  Folk running EMCSR this year claim this is the case.

Other events this year include:

1. EMCSR

A marvellous programme is already shaping up for the European Meetings on Cybernetics and System Research EMCSR 2014, 22-15 April 2014 in Vienna.

The keynotes by Mario Bunge, John Collier, and Markus Schwaninger are confirmed. Three theme chairs will open the meetings and lead into the themes of Sustainability & Development, Emergence & Design, and Complexity & Strategy. Three theme speeches will set a special focus in these storylines. Distinguished lectures are confirmed in diverse symposia. Diverse Demonstrations like the Evolutionary Learning Labs, a movie screening (Population Boom) and discussion with the acclaimed Austrian director Werner Boote (Plastic Planet) and Systems Analysis for Informing Policy by the renowned International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis will showcase impactful systems thinking and practice.

Do not miss the opportunity to become a contributor and participant, too. The deadline for the call for papers and participation is still open until 28 February 2014. Choose among the symposia to meet your interests and submit your contribution.

Tell your colleagues and friends. They might want to receive the newsletter of the EMCSR, which will be the meetings magazine in the upcoming two months, featuring you, the particpants, organizers, and your research and practice.

Join the EMCSR 2014 community. We are looking forward to welcome you in Vienna from 22-25 April 2014. 


At EMCSR organised by University of Maribor, Slovenia

Eva Schernhammer, Matjaz Mulej, and  Simona Krajnc   are organizing a Symposium on Systemic approaches to hunger and obesity: discoveries, innovations, and policies for the global food & health system. We would be delighted if you/your colleagues would participate. Especially the link to social responsibility, innovation, climate change, public policy, transdisciplinarity, agriculture, etc. would be very much welcome. See the EMCSR website.

2. WOSC Event in Colombia, October 2014

Our self-organising world: from disruption to reparation

Systems and cybernetics applied to technology, design, governance and power

WOSC's 16th Congress: Organised by the Universidad de Ibagué, Colombia and the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, 15-17 October, 2014

Call for Abstracts
 
Instructions for abstract submissions to the Congress themes are given below:

The call is for extended abstracts of about 1000 words with the 31st March as a deadline. The deadline to submit full papers, of about 5000 words, is 30th September; however the focus for now is extended abstracts. 

Calls for papers for symposia are open until 31 March 2014. Please be aware of the time deadlines! Refer to the Congress website: http://wosc-congress.unibague.edu.co/
 
Submitters will be notified of acceptance or rejection no later than the 30th of April. The earlier you submit, the earlier you can be notified, since the review of your abstract is an ongoing process.

Detailed submission instructions are available at the http://wosc-congress.unibague.edu.co/index.php/instruction-for-authors
 
Accepted abstracts will be accessible to all authors on the Congress website

sincerely yours
WOSC team

'Systems Practice' Traineeships

Louis Klein from the SystemicExcellence Group advises that:

"we are currently looking for professionals to join us at the SEgroup Intelligence Hub in Berlin. Please circulate this call to people who are looking for a new rewarding opportunity."

Call for Traineeship in Berlin
Systemic Change and global responsibility in management and advisory practices lie at the very heart of your professional interest. You want to know how change projects work, how social complexity in politics and culture can be met and what the next level of organisational excellence looks like. You are a professional, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit looking for the opportunity to make a difference. You have a master’s degree or equivalent and would describe yourself as someone of high integrity and reliability. You are eager to learn from every theoretic and practical encounter. Reflection in action is your second nature. And, most importantly, your friends like you as a supportive and caring person.

The Systemic Excellence Group is an independent think & do tank in the field of systemic change with over 12 years of experience. As a global cooperative we feature offices in nearly all parts of the world. Our members are driven by an entrepreneurial spirit to realise change excellence – not only in organisations, but aiming at changing the change towards more efficientpractices, based on global responsibility.

The goal of the traineeship is to give professionals the opportunity to experience this challenging and unique approach. Situated in SEgroup’s Global Intelligence Hub in Berlin, trainees are given the chance to manage SEgroup development projects, learning and applying SEgroup knowledge & expertise in genuine change projects. This approach allows our trainees to face all challenges of a client project in a supportive and save environment. At the same time they become an essential part of the continuous learning journey of SEgroup, hence we encourage our trainees to challenge our perspectives and practices.

After the six-month traineeship, trainees have the opportunity to apply for a Consortional Partner role and become a member of the cooperative. For the traineeship a moderate remuneration will be granted.

Current Projects Looking for Support

• Sharing our knowledge, revisiting SEgroup’s action research based learning journey, conceptualising and implementing ways of sharing our knowledge with a larger stakeholder community.
• Co-creating discourses in the field of project management, consulting and leadership by building communities driven by a systemic mind-set and a sense of global responsibility.
• Growing SEgroup as a global cooperative refining our operating model and cascading its procedural, structural and personal implications towards a desirable next practice.

If you are interested in applying for a traineeship with the SEgroup, please contact Ms. Vivien Rupp via email: Vivien.  rupp@  segroup.de.

New Elinor Ostrom Prize

A prize of £1000 is awarded each year for the best full-length article published in the Journal of Institutional Economics in the preceding calendar year.

Each annual prize competition will be judged by an international committee of experts in the field of institutional research. The award is funded by the Foundation for European Economic Development. Approval to use the Ostrom name has been obtained from the Indiana University Foundation. 

The first Elinor Ostrom Prize will be awarded in 2014 for the best full-length article published in the Journal of Institutional Economics in 2013. The award will be made at the conference of the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research, in Greenwich, London, UK on 11-14 September 2014.

Daughters as activists

It is one of life's great gifts if it comes your way - to be proud of one's offspring in doing what they choose to do.

Here I share some links to daughters who care about the world's they live and help to create.  One of a colleague, in the field of youth unemployment:

AltGen supports 18-25 year old's to set up workers cooperatives as an empowering and collaborative solution to youth unemployment. To get involved and find out more, visit their website, facebook page, or tweet @AltGen101.

See also these Blogs by Rhiannon: Diary of a young co-operative startup and The importance of collaboration published in the Guardian Social Network section. 


And the others are Nicky and Jarra who co-established the Comunity Power Agency and are busy preparing for Australia's first National "Community Energy Congress" concerned with  community-based renewable energy. 

News from Systems Thinking in Action

• For those of you not aware of it there is a LinkedIn group called Systems Thinking in Action organised by Gene Bellinger. It is worth joining in if you have time and enthusiasm.  Here is a copy of Gene's latest missive.

g'Day,

Aren't the conversations about the broader adoption of systems thinking and the multitude of models and methods therein pretty much legion?

If systems thinkers are unable to effect the broader adoption of systems thinking what does that imply about systems thinking and systems thinkers?

Are systems thinkers the primary impediment to the broader adoption of systems thinking?

Are statements like, "Only 5% of people are capable of systems thinking," helpful?

Are the most knowledgeable on the subject functioning in a context which ensures they are off-putting to almost anyone not in the same context?

Simon Sinek indicated it was essential to begin with Why? Have we followed this guidance? http://bit.ly/1ku7maR

Isn't a commonly offered definition of insanity doing the same things and expecting different results?

Are systems thinkers the poster children for Pogo's "We have met the enemy and he is us?"

If tomorrow is to be better than today then isn't it’s up to me, and you, for if not us, then who?

The Kumu Manifesto seems well worth the read...

* https://kumu.io/manifesto

Your thoughts?

P.S. FYI...
* Systems Thinking in Action Conference April 16th to 18th in Seattle… http://bit.ly/1eqeqNk
* European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research April 22nd to 25th in Vienna… http://bit.ly/1bfhNwa
* System Dynamics Society Conference July 20th to 24th in Delft… http://bit.ly/XKdrFm

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