2014-10-16

October 16 is the twenty-first meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration is on Eventbrite .

Theme: Systems Thinking, Systemic Intervention, Complexity and Boundaries

Towards the development of policies, criticisms of systems analysis methods dating from the 1960s and 1970s have been recognized and considered. Systems thinking and cybernetics has continued to develop, complemented with the rise of complexity science emerged in the 1990s. Systemic intervention builds on these foundations, with an appreciation of boundaries and values.

Venue: 

The September (and October) sessions will be held at the Bahen Centre, Room BA5256, 40 St. George Street (fifth floor) at the University of Toronto, thanks to Steve Easterbrook.  Here are some directions that he thought would be helpful.

• The easiest way to find the room is to first find the CUBE cafe in the southwest corner of the ground floor of the building (If you enter from St George Street, walk through the Atrium and turn left after the main staircase). Take the elevators opposite CUBE to the fifth floor, and turn immediately to your left as you leave the elevator, and you’ll see BA5256.

Suggested pre-reading: 

Gerald Midgley and Kurt A. Richardson, "Systems Thinking for Community Involvement in Policy Analysis", Emergence, Complexity & Organization, volume 9, n. 1-2, pp167-183, available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43527349_Systems_thinking_for_community_involvement_in_policy_analysis .

• An example of evaluating diversion from custody service for mentally disordered offenders is briefly described at Slide 13.  Use this concrete project to think about critique, judgement and action, and consider other cases when these ideas might apply.

Participants should not feel limited to this suggested pre-reading, but should recognize that other attendees may have not read, or are reading differently, that article.

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Bloggers are encouraged to write about their learning and experiences at the meeting. Links will be added to this page.