Historical perspectives on the ISSS: Concluding remarks [Debora Hammond,
ISSS 1998 Paper Session, July 22/98]
These notes are a rough transcription,
prepared as each individual presenter and/or commentator spoke at the ISSS
1998 conference. Gaps and errors have likely occurred. For more accurate
citations, please consult the original presenters. These notes have been
contributed to the ISSS by David Ing, of the IBM Advanced Business Institute
(sabi@systemicbusiness.org).
[Paper session, July 22/98, 5.25 p.m.]
Debora Hammond, Sonoma State U.
History on ISSS, but primarily on founders
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Rapoport, Gerard, Boulding
Dissertation is available through UMI
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Paper which was submitted was the conclusion, would like comments.
Motivation of the project, then approach, then discuss last chapters.
Social implications of systems theory.
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Responding to Robert Lilienfeld, as systems theory as a form of technocraticism
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Consistent with the thinking in her field, history of science
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Found that system theory supports wider discussion
First heard of Capra talking about looking a systemic approach
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Came to graduate school interested in changing paradigms in science.
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Problems in defence industry weren't politics, but more how we understood
reality.
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Discouraged, when returned to Berkeley, that most of the new paradigm ideas
of systems theory, had been discredited.
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Extreme critical reaction mystified her
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Influence of postmodern thinking, and the era (from the 1960s) which say
systems thinking as "the system" -- totalizing way of looking at things,
and looking at differences (versus a singular view).
Work on postmodern thought -- modern perspectives -- was foreshadowed in
von Bertalanffy
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However, von Bertalanffy was contradictory -- systems as mathematical.
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Rejection of machine model
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Importance of environment and context is important to both
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Social construction of knowledge -- Boulding, different levels of perception,
and filtering.
Differences between systems theory and postmodern thought:
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Systems theory emphasizes synergy, and sees differences as reconcilable.
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Postmodern is an adversarial stance, differences irreconcilable.
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Almost ideological commitment to conflict.
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See this in Jean-Francois ... Postmodern Condition
West Churchman pointed her to this group.
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Churchman was at business school, then moved to conflict
resolution center
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All started from these four people, who were at the Center for Advanced
Studies at Ford Foundation.
James Grier Miller at U. of Chicago fostered cooperation between psych,
soc and biology department.
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Enrico Fermi said needed the same intensity to understand as Manhattan
project.
Sources of systems thinking:
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Engineering and management:
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This is the beginning and end of the thesis: engineering principles into
management
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America by Design: David Noble, traces the evolution of management thinking.
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In many ways, are still trying to adapt human beings to machines -- conflicts
between system world and lifeworld.
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How do we take the lifeworld, and shape the system world which has a heritage?
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Organismic models, fed by engineering and management
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Cybernetics and information n theory
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Ecology and social theory:
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Most sociologists have a functionalist perspective.
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Kenneth Boulding had an interpretive, hermeneutic perspective.
Then core of dissertation on the founders:
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Boulding often distinguished his model between the different levels of
complexity (physical, living, social, ..., symbolic)
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... and Miller's model (where organisms were central)
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Importance of dialogue and conditions for fruitful dialogue.
Then looked at establishment and evolution of ISSS.
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Margaret Mead first met at AAAS in Berkely in 1955, and then in Atlanta
in 1956, said that should use systems to understand themselves.
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Could see in the bulletins.
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Hard to soft to critical system thinking
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Collection from U.K. systems society Critical Issues in Systems Theory
and Practice:
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Mandy Brown: Participation as Means vs. Participation as Ends
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Asked consultants what impact the participatory design has.
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Answer: certain issues not on the table, e.g. pay
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Then growing cynicism of ideals to practice.
Last chapter, return to Lilian Feld, and look at contemporary critiques.
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"Man who views a system as closed means benevolent control"
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Need to address this perception in the broader community.
Leotard: two views of society:
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Functionalist models, versus critical debate.
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Some people seen any movement towards cooperation as coercive.
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Resistance to synthesis.
In closing, last few paragraphs of the book ...
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Should be understood as a mode of inquiry ...
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Close with a plea for dialogue.
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Boulding's concept of an integrative order is the beginning ....
Questions
On the bad impression of systems theory: Habermas doesn't believe that
system theory is technocratic, but the English translator of his new book
writes this in introduction
Ecologies as a systems concept
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From Haeckel in the 1860s, then in U.S. in the 1920s, discussed as communities.
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Social ecologies were rooted in Robert Park's social ecology in the 1930,
which is where Kenneth Boulding got the idea.
Is this a criticism that the problems that they chose were too large?
Idea of the unity of science: people not looking for the grand theory at
all. What is the future of the ISSS?
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The vitality of ISSS is bringing together the natural and social sciences
-- the vitality is the dialogue.
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von Bertalanffy was multi-faceted: principles were good, but trying to
get a unified theory is too narrow.
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Boulding described the hierarchy, but there are principles which are applicable.
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