Notes (ii) from Paipa Conference: Q & A

Q. What is the appeal and relevance of Michel Serres to the Health Care Domains Model [h2cm]?
c/o Fred Manrique / UPTC 

(As per the paper - Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons. 2008)

A. I cannot remember how I came across this French philosopher (Bruno Latour?), but in 2004 I started to read some of his translated texts. Serres' work is not easy to read, but rewards perseverance. Thus enthused I wrote (in my spare time) and eventually submitted a paper to a prestigious nursing journal. This was rejected - twice. Using the feedback I was able to produce the paper that found publication in the informatics field. This is listed in the W2tQ bibliography. Serres' ideas were remarkable in how they spoke to me and reflected in many ways the conceptual framework of h2cm. I need to read more of Michel Serres' work. Ideas of particular appeal include his use of several tropes:

• Harlequin: the uninvited guest (disease, illness?), mischief (health taken-for-grantedness), chaos (the unpredictable);
• blanc: in my presentation I included a blank slide. There it represents every new person, new page - no judgements, positive regard. A page for lifelong learners and being able to self-reflect.
• Hermes: the Greek God, the messenger - information and Serres' early study of information science. The 'underworld' - nursing and medicine - are not for everyone. The importance of ports as a means of information and cultural exchange - today economies see themselves as information ports and the rise of information portals.
• Serres states (as do other commentators) that the Internet will provide opportunities for new scholars, outside of established academic institutions.
• borders, boundaries - the middle: in life we often have to ask do we continue and cross the middle?
• The Planet: Serres is concerned for how we treat the planet. The health care domains can also be utilised to explore the physical and psychological impacts of climate change and the need to attend to human ecology. We are rocking the boat - Earth is our boat.
• ... plus many others - fluid, dynamics, life - rivers - choices, narratives, Home, Angels, statues.

Finally, within "... S E R R E S ..." you will also find H2CM!  

Please see the bibliography for the paper.

Additional links:

Michel Serres on this blog.

http://michelserres.blogspot.com/

More Q and A to follow plus photos and slides. Photo source (PJ, Copenhagen shop window, 2010).

viii Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual'

 'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

So much of what we experience is nuanced. What was conscious thought, becomes tacit knowledge and unconscious. Is that consciousness nullified as Ross writes on page 76? I wrote a note 'reflection as hesitation'; also prompted to think about intution (p.83) and our word uses in 'retardation' (which here is no problem at all - in physics and complex sciences/systems. Again the 'principle of least action' arises (p.82). With more physics and cosmology to follow, it helps a little that 'manifold' has landed begging to be understood across the contexts. Bill Ross notes how Delueze and Michel Serres used the game metaphor [Game analogy #1]. Again, lifting this to a scribble 'Health-Illness is quite a game'! This will be the subject of a post soon. In England at least the law and manifold on health (being productive) and illness has been utterly disrupted. The game-table has been kicked over, by those in society who still able? New spaces, and canvases are needed. Kantian thought and interpretations are added to Leibniz. A heady mix but clearly essential as Bill Ross's critique is developed. 

 

The book was a must-read, as in the contents: Complexity (with a presentation next month), cosmology, Serres, and Claude Shannon. In Game Analogy #2, "Communication is understood here to encompass much more than meaningful exchange; all phenomena 'communicate'". p.85. I couldn't agree more with with these 'games', this thought being 'situated within the purchase of information theory' (p.86). Bizarrely (or not), in the same year two papers:

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3),591-598.

Jones, P. (1996) An overarching theory of health communication? Health Informatics Journal,2,1,28-34. 

Ross explains the global view of Michel Serres when it comes to 'information'. This entranced me, and I only scratched the skin:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Here there's a pointer to the cosmology to follow - Ross is true to the title. I have let most of the Astronomy Yearbooks go, but retain a few. Not just for key birth-years, but articles that are well written and researched historical snapshots. Here, Bill Ross discusses the game of Cepheid variables and their significance in mapping the universe. Truly, fascinating. Weaver's three levels of salient action are listed. Threads are tied too, with conclusions offered. These rules are reappraised, physics ever present. In light of one of the above papers I should revisit Serres, and Leibniz; the search for 'overarching explanatory power' (p.91) is ongoing. This game draws on Serres invitation to imagine a diagram, a network of nodes, channels, and propositions. This tabular formulation and its relations for me, spans the history of economics (Quesnay's tableau), the current state of economics (human values), and next (mathematical?) steps for Hodges' model. So many questions here: surely node  can't be an axis? I felt like Hansel, picking up sweets, Cartesian lines, scalene forms, thresholds, coming across hoops to jump through through to terminal equilibri. As you walk the sound of the thalweg, downstream... where Bergson features once again.

 

Reading Ross, over several months coincided with several key themes gaining in personal coherence. Bayesian ideas as might be applied to Hodges' model, even if in a naïve way (c/o feedback on draft notes). The remainder of chapter 3 includes time (thought), percept (space), to close with Deleuze's Ideal Game. I looked up Cortázarian Hopscotch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(Cort%C3%A1zar_novel), as the preface is titled. Ross reflects on the Ideal Game (does it exist, for Deleuze, only in thought?), and the distinction between 'domestic' chance (Baysian) and radical contingency belonging to the clinamen. In response to 'physical action and and the thought being on the same continuum', don't ask (please!), but I scribbled: 'corridor care' - a dangerous game, far from ideal. Plus, bird's using quantum entanglement to navigate. 'Kant's chaotic manifold', I will also investigate for next month(?).

Chapter 4 'Order as Complexity' proved most relevant. Every page is touched by graphite.

Deleuze has a 'blind spot' (p.111), something that Hodges' model seeks to ameloirate. But then of course at the model's center (nexus - as noted) that decussation of the axes invites a darkness of its own. If Hodges' model assists forethought and foresight  While inviting complexity, this interdisciplinary palette can also facilitate trandiscipinary sense-making. 'Magnitudes of intensity' reminded me of logarithmic thresholds within our perceptual apparatus. This is like reading Serres. A flow of punctum, simultaneity, delay (again) but its contribution to causal series, and Aionic time. I was taken (frequently)  to plane, person, personhood, chronicity, scales, local to global to glocal.

'BwO' (p.117)? That's 'body without organs: DELEUZE, GUATTARI a thousand plateaus - capitalism and s c h i z o p h r e n i a'.

There is a 'corner' amid those thousand plateaus. n.b. to self - 'triangulation always needs one other'. I cannot resolve the frameworks as yet, scientific - otherwise or otherwhere; but you can take flight from here. Physics takes it place as 'complexity begets complexity'. Bill Ross utilises well-recognized sources, Penrose, Kauffman, Kolmogorov and Bohm.

As with the frameworks internal and external complexity must be untangled 1-4 (p.124?). I can laugh now, did I really try to marry up Order  - Disorder :: Simple - Complex (complicated?) to the domains of Hodges' model? So often reading philosophy, you feel an imposter playing games with words, as in: 'different similarities' and 'similar differences' (p.125). But of course, this is serious scholarship. Especially, when it involves lines, a rough circle, segments and dimensions: disorder becomes different degrees of order. Page 126 delivers Deleuze in spades, Ross pulls his thoughts together. It is fitting for me that Ross closes chapter 4 with a nod to transdisciplinarity.

Chapter 5 deals with symmetry and disymmetry; indifference and difference; limits and non-locality. There is an argument to follow (p.133). With 'group theory' mentioned on p.131, I've a lot of things to 'look up' [topology too]. Despite appearances I recognise the lack of symmetry in Hodges' model. This is what the situation does (practice) and means (theory): 'There is no reason under the sun which can rely on perfect symmetry' (p.135).  Where do/can we locate 'spooky action at a distance' in Hodges' model (p.140)? 

The Higgs role! Who knew? 'the speed of light. It represents a retardation.' Thanks Bill Ross, fascinating pp. 135-174. Plus, axes too. Note to self: when we die do we 'simply' set sail on the Dirac Sea? Attending the Bill Ross Memorial Workshop – BSP Special Event 2025 last September:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2025/09/bill-ross-memorial-workshop.html

the esteem .. and love .. that Bill Ross engendered in the people that knew him. The preface refers to chats in university cafes. How I wish. I wonder what Bill would have made of Hodges' model and the ongoing project here? Vitally, I get a distinct sense that he would have found time to listen ... 

'Bill Ross (1964 – 2022) had interests ranging widely across contemporary philosophy and culture, with a particular interest in the relations between science and philosophy. As managing editor, he was the driving force behind Clinamen Press, which in the early 2000s published new works by contemporary philosophers, and English translation of important works by continental philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Gaston Bachelard and Michel Serres. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Staffordshire University, where he taught on the MA in the Philosophy of Nature, Information, and Technology. Bill had a lifelong passion for the connections between science and philosophy, on which he had published several important articles. Bill was working on a monograph on the philosophy and science of Deleuzian cosmology, which was has been posthumously published by Edinburgh University Press. This event is to celebrate Bill’s book and his life, and to allow his friends, his colleagues, and anyone interested in his work or the topics and issues addressed by his work to continue the conversation that Bill’s work inspires.'

https://www.thebsp.org.uk/bill-ross-memorial-workshop-deleuzian-cosmologies/

 

Many thanks again to Edinburgh University Press for my copy - a keeper! Bill Ross RIP.

 

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

Serres-Hodges model chapter proof & Oamos

I've received the proof for the book chapter to appear in:

Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues
edited by Dr. Kidd and Dr. Chen

Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains
and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons

Abstract

This chapter explores the extent to which selected writings of French philosopher Michel Serres and a health care model created by Brian Hodges in the UK can augment and inform the development of social informatics. The volume of Serres’ output contrasts markedly with work devoted to Hodges’ Health Career - Care Domains - Model. Since the concept of health is universal culturally, and informatics disciplines are emerging fields of practice characterised by indistinct boundaries in terms of theory, policy, and practice, various ethnographic and cultural associations will be made. Placing Hodges’ model and Serres' work together is not intended to suggest direct equivalence, other than the common themes this author intends to bring to the attention of the social informatics community. Central to this is the notion of holistic bandwidth, utilising Hodges’ model as a tool to develop and disseminate sociotechnical perspectives.

-<>-

This has been a long road, but it is smashing to see your text nearly there as 'chapter 7'.

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

To close here is a new media search engine:

http://www.oamos.com/

Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual' ii

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

Now I can say: "This year, Hodges' model will be presented at WCCS 6th World Conference on Complex Systems", so current reading needs to match this project. And, it does. In spades, in fact c/o and with thanks to Edinburgh University Press. Look at chapter 1! 'Chaos' with Mandelbrot fractals, smooth space drawing from Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus. For readers unfamiliar with the Deleuzian oeuvre, abbreviations of texts that feature in Bill Ross's book Order and the Virtual are listed (xii) and includes key sources by Michel Serres, Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead. This works as you mentally take a note, of work to lookup. Almost twenty years ago, I related some ideas of Michel Serres to Hodges' model:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109. 

Ross discusses the extent and proximity of Deleuze's thought to chaos, complexity theory and science more generally as identified by commentators. Now up to chapter 4, it would have helped to have a look at the bibliography at the book's end. Deleuze saw how his work resonated with chaos theory. Steve Strogatz's book (now in a 3rd edition):

Strogatz, S.H. (2015) Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Application to Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering. 2^nd edition. Perseus Books Publishing, Cambridge. 

- explains in the introduction how 'home computing' contributed to the aesthetic appeal of fractals, which could display incredible patterns derived from seemingly simple mathematics. Even though, the programs often required many hours of running to deliver their results.

In the late 1980s I was fascinated with a subscription to Fractal Report:

https://stephen.shawweb.co.uk/Fractalreportindex.html

The relevance for me of Order and the Virtual is apparent on page 1, Deleuze and Guattari's thought having an immediate transdisciplinary application, crossing boundaries, and the creation of regions of bifurcation. Ross connects Deleuze's thought and Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers' text:

Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature. London: Heinemann, 1984 

Ross is encouraging (to me and for Hodges' model), as he notes how the notions may be inexact, but they are nonetheless rigorous. Spanning as they do, philosophy, science - what is scientific(? - itself a boundary - demarcation) and artistic. I've often thought of Hodges' model as filled with folds, and multiple bifurcations. It looks like Bill Ross is going help me to isolate several, and possibly make my search more efficient (the latter really would assist). The memorial event held in Manchester last September was revalatory. Since the early 2000s I'd grown to  really appreciate the availability of books by Michel Serres. I was not aware of the force behind the Clinamen Press, which Bill Ross established in 1999. 'Clinamen' is a useful concept too, which I have encountered previously, through Serres and Lucretius. 

Readers new to philosophy, sociology and the development of ideas must often grapple with a new and specific vocabulary. This is a primary purpose of such texts. On page 2 the springboard is sprung, the Event is key in Deleuzian scholarship. The Event is a force for creative and disruptive force for thought,  idea generation and creativity. The Event is experienced in our current 'realities' of: time and space (Kronos) where things are actualised, and the virtual (Aion) - the pure Event. This lack of hesitation is welcome. Our 'virtual' world quickly provides access to reading:

parrhesia 27 · 2017 · 1-12
extract from the birth of physics
michel serres, translated by david webb, with an introduction by bill ross
https://parrhesiajournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/parrhesia27_serres.pdf

Where you have bifurcations, you have convergences and divergences, stasis, state - stasis or not, paths, a series and metrics. We are reminded that science is not just about theory - metaphysics, it is, sleeves rolled-up about doing too; as I've noted in subsequent reading. As 'chaos' predicts, there is no let up,  the Choasmos, quickly follows. I'm thinking of a 'situation' clinically as a rollercoaster - 'constant displacement' seeking a difference, and repetition, the ravages of alcohol, dementia, low mood, psychosis, obsession and compulsive 'states'. The chaosmos is central in Hodges' model, although as both continua and oppositions. Ross explains how Deleuze's chaosmos is not necessarily scientific, but belongs to the ancient cosmologies of the Greeks (p.3). I thought of flux here. 'Parity' is not just a physical metric, but a quality that acts, seeks resolution - equilibrium(?) - between the mental chaos and physical chaos.*

Thinkers like Deleuze 'trap' words, concepts, in boxes, drawing from other other sources (for chaosmos - with Guattari again); then they can be examined and tested for their scope, application, meaning and association. Hodges' model provides a trap, for any situation. Not as specific as a physicist's ion (or Penning) trap, but the model can act as a series of holistic traps. To provide a metric of holistic bandwidth.

*Of course, equilibrium is never found - until the 'End'; such is the nature of flux. 

More to follow...

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

Where the heck am I (and where are you on Hodges' model)?

A combination of nursing experience and informatics knowledge and skills have meant that for a long time I have been able to sit on the fence and listen appreciatively to two sides of an ongoing saga. I am sure the ending will be a happy one, if not for the reason that there is no such thing as a 'finished' (nursing) information system. There is however a need for targets, deadlines, plans for a series of software releases and all the activities that accompany 'IT' projects. In short - project management. There is then a constant need for people to sit on the fence.

While the ability to sit on the fence may be something of an advantageous position, there are times when it becomes a source of anxiety and dissonance. Off the fence as a nurse without an informatics role (without i-portfolio), you feel left out of things. Literally chomping at the bit to contribute to the developments taking place - elsewhere.

Also off the fence, but alternately wearing the informatics shoes you have a sense that those soft, fuzzy caring, psychobabble skills are slowly yet inexorably melting away. How credible can you be if you have not 'nursed', that is - seen a client, managed your case load for 1, 2 or 3 years? Whatever your field, you can lose your touch.

Reading Michel Serres and his use of Harlequin as a trope really caught my imagination and breath (as lots of things do). Here's some background to Harlequin (and Hermes):

Two figures, then, inform Serres's oeuvre: Hermes and the Harlequin. Hermes the traveller and the medium allows for the movement in and between diverse regions of social life. The Harlequin is a multicolored clown standing in the place of the chaos of life. Two regions of particular interest to the voyager in knowledge are those of the natural sciences and the humanities. Should science really be opened up to poetry and art, or is this simply an idiosyncrasy on Serres's part? Is this his gimmick? The answer is that Serres firmly believes that the very viability and vitality of science depends on the degree to which it is open to its poetical other. Science only moves on if it receives an infusion of something out of the blue, something unpredictable and miraculous. The poetic impulse is the life-blood of natural science, not its nemesis. Poetry is the way of the voyager open to the unexpected and always prepared to make unexpected links between places and things. The form that these links take is of course influenced by technological developments; information technology transforms the senses, for example. Source: Dr.Vicente Forés López

This short quote hopefully illustrates the attraction of Serres to me as I study Hodges' model and informatics. Discovering Serres really creased me up. I say creased because that is where I am, trapped between two worlds. Stuck in that line between HUMANISTIC and MECHANISTIC realms. If I run the gauntlet there, the only other avenue open to me is that afforded by the INDIVIDUAL and GROUP axis.

Now I'm clearly not the only one able to sit on the fence and take in the views and perspectives of two frequently disparate worlds. On informatics secondment and at events such as HC2008 (HC2009) as a nurse - informatician (?) you have to see lost opportunities looking at the speaker line-up and number of nurses present and enabled to take the messages home.

As a fact of life change will happen.

How much better though is change borne of
dialogue and engagement?

Like Harlequin those of us with clinical AND informatics insights must mix things up. There is a need to constantly enquire, challenge, influence and direct at times. A need also to pass the baton and let others experience the dual perspectives from the fence (and the splinters too).
Image sources: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene
and http://www.qosmiq.com/cdiadrone/ghis/pfolio/characters/index.htm
 

"Where are we?" Take Two, Three, F.... (witheringcare?)

In Five Senses, Serres does not overtly discuss mortality, loss, depletion and omission (Connor, 1999). Management consultants advise that to succeed ‘think outside the box’, but the population pyramid is casting an ever larger shadow, highlighting an ageing population and the box is frequently found full and yet empty? Plaques disconnect, disable the memory; the critical biological box no longer registers and connects. The noise that counts, the background bioelectrical hum is disrupted or absent. Memories once ready to roll downhill, surfing the wave of potential are inaccessible, if marshalled at all. Wither the neural crossroads; the informatique mote in Hermes’ eye?

Our older people, those not yet ephemeral have become peripheral, their personal space an adjunct to furniture. New quantities in life, beg questions of quality, especially quality of care and what it means to care. The concept of self, person-hood is a prime distinguishing factor in terms of describing the attitudes of cultures and communities to older adults and memory loss. In the developed nations the debate continues: is this the price of a long life, or a way of life? In a search for the locus of informatics: the sign on this door reads deep informatics. Listen carefully, as inside the seniors are cared for at home (touched*) remotely courtesy of telecare solutions. The values here of course extend from inappropriate use of informatics to lack of access to such services (Barlow et al., 2006). ...




*For Serres touch is the interface.




We must ensure remote care is not a total substitute for face-to-face interaction.

Barlow, J., Bayer, S., Curry, R. (2006). Implementing Complex Innovations in Fluid Multi-Stakeholder Environments: Experiences of ‘Telecare’, Technovation, 26, 3, pp.396-406.

Connor, S. (1999). Michel Serres’ Five Senses.
Retrieved May 19, 2007, from http://stevenconnor.com/5senses.html

From submitted chapter: Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons - forthcoming...

P.S. Sorry about the two posts today - trying to figure some things out...

Michel Serres in "A planetary art beyond the human"

Individual
|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------ mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Group

"In the mid- 1990s, Michel Serres was already registering the devastating impact of ‘dense tectonic plates of humanity’ on a hitherto ‘mute world’.1 Our excesses, he writes, have awoken the ‘mute, passive, obscure things’ around us that had ‘obediently slumbered’, but will now respond to us with violence.2 In such discourse we recognize the now common tropes of thresholds and tipping points, often deployed by climate scientists and echoed by scholars who assert that humans are now truly ‘geological agents’ in their impact on the planet.3 ...

... Getting to grips with the consequences of human activity for the Earth’s systems is unarguably an essential step in forging policies to mitigate the damage. But in the political urgency that shapes many debates about climate change, there is a risk, as Dipesh Chakrabarty points out, that ‘humans emerge as the subject of the drama of the Anthropocene’ while geological time fades from view.4 An emphasis on human agency may simply lead us full circle, back to the anthropocentric conception of a docile Earth made up of inert matter, only stirred by our own excesses, and waiting to be saved or destroyed by its human inhabitants." p.31.

 

Page, J. (2021). A planetary art beyond the human. In Decolonizing Science in Latin American Art (pp. 31–65). UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18kc0mw.6

 

Joanna Page is Reader in Latin American Literature and Visual Culture at the University of Cambridge. 

See also:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Michel Serres on W2tQ

Consider also - 'deep' within Hodges' model:

DEEP space, time, ecology, links, design ... DEEP CARE.

  

Book: The Empathy Exams & Michel Serres Institute

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

The Empathy Exams Interpersonal Skills	The Natural Sciences
Local, Society & Socio-	-Economics Law

As recent posts reveal I'm overwhelmed with reading at present. Material that is essential for the TEL course and reading more tangential and yet potentially enjoyable titles. It will be a busy summer as all this is brought together(!?). Especially as I've a literature search in mind as a module submission - progress permitting.

The publication of Jamison's book this (N) spring sits well after the findings last year about the benefits of reading fiction in increasing empathy.

Since 2008-2009 I've lost touch with the work of Michel Serres:

Jones, Peter, Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons (Aug 15, 2007). SOCIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONNECTING SOCIETY AND CULTURAL ISSUES. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1842504 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1842504

I only scratched the surface of Serres' oeuvre in the above paper and when time permits will revisit this work having just learnt of the Institute:

The resource-systems approach

"Reframing the conceptual and operational field of natural resources requires deep interdisciplinarity across fields encompassing legal and socio-economic studies, and life-sciences. And, it goes without saying, philosophy. The priorities at present are the aid to decision-making and a participative, pro-active civil society acting to (1) manage human activities while meeting the specific territorial potential and resource capacities and (2) ensure a fair re-allocation of such resources according to vital human needs and coherent public goods policies. Who are the members, what are the missions and the activities of the (...)."

Book cover image: c/o Author.

My source: The Empathy Exams
FT Weekend, June 7-8, 2014.

RCN Congress: The Systems Table and the Missing Cog

Across two maillists: SDOH Social Determinants of Health and POHG Politics of Health Group a discussion and debate regards public health, longevity and policy, was provoked by a study:

'At least 80% responsibility for ill health in old age down to individual'

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/20/responsibility-ill-health-old-age-oxford-longevity-project-study

'... Individuals bear at least 80% of the responsibility for their ill health in old age, according to a report aimed at challenging the belief that physical decline is either inevitable or primarily the responsibility of the state.

The report, launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last week, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood. The authors call on the government to take legislative action on alcohol comparable to restrictions on smoking.

Living Longer, Better – the Oxford Longevity Project’s first Age-less report – was co-authored by an interdisciplinary panel of UK-based experts in medicine, physiology, ageing and education policy. It was sponsored by Oxford Healthspan.

The report’s authors, Sir Christopher Ball, Sir Muir Gray, Dr Paul Ch’en, Leslie Kenny and Prof Denis Noble, present the figure of 80% as a conservative estimate.

Ball, a 91-year-old former Parachute regiment officer who intends to reach 100, said: “Some have gone higher and said it’s approaching 90%. But I think 80% seems about fair.”The claim, however, has been described as simplistic and said to neglect wider arguments about whether people are genuinely in control of individual choices when it comes to issues including poverty, pollution and healthcare access.

Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology at Harvard TH Chan school of public health, said: “The report is to be commended for rejecting genetic determinism but it problematically avoids engaging with the societal determination of health and health inequities; the role of work, economic deprivation and government policies that give corporations free rein to sell unhealthy products.”

Steven Woolf, professor of family medicine and population health and director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health, agreed, saying the paper “ignores and oversimplifies the actual, multilayered root causes of the conditions that foster poor health in a population”.

Woolf added: “There are factors affecting health that are beyond personal choice. So while it’s good to give people clear guidance on how their choices affect their health, it’s taking policymakers and others off the hook.” ...'

This provides me with evidence (well it would - wouldn't it^) on the need for, the purposes, and applications of Hodges' model.

More philosophically (perhaps), I'm reminded of the work of several academics - thinkers, Michel Serres stands out for me. Serres felt that positional adverbs were important, e.g. between, above, and under.

He also wrote of life (as per many philosophers), and the universe e.g. his writings on Physics and Lucretius - as flow - a river.

For new life, the options are seemingly infinite, far, far upstream: at source - not recognisable even as a trickle... but soon a rivulet, a stream, a river of so many tributaries.

As we grow older we get closer to the sea (of the 'eternal'), the options open to us shrink gradually, but ultimately radically - inevitably.

But looking back the turbulence, uncertainty, unpredictability (trauma and joy), all contribute, not just to where we end (up) but how this came about.

Life's signature at death.

In "Hodges' Health Career Model" 'health career' refers specifically to the idea of life chances (of course) and how other careers, education, work, retirement, caring (self - others - planet) .. are impacted through life and death's course.

This morning at RCN Congress, Liverpool (the home of District Nursing) there was discussion re. nurses being engaged in preparation for the next pandemic.

So often 'Nursing' is absent from the POLITICAL / POLICY table:

• Workforce planning
• Safety
• Higher Education?
• Research funding?
• Information / Health infomatics policy?

Speaking for myself, nursing is not interested in the four-course meal, but being involved and engaged in the after dinner discourse can be critical.

Politicians, policy makers, business, management consultants and lobbyists are so quick to point to and extol the 'SYSTEMS' perspective, and the need for 'systems thinking'.

Guilty of systemic neglect, they clearly have no idea of what a system is, an inability to appreciate and apprehend scope, scale and the 'whole'.

In mitigation (or not), for all groups: voice matters. Especially the voices of foresight, balance, advocacy, Their ability to ascend always proves an issue. 

Related papers listed in the sidebar:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Jones, P. (2009) Socio-Technical Structures, the Scope of Informatics and Hodges’ model, IN, Staudinger, R., Ostermann, H., Bettina Staudinger, B. (Eds.), Handbook of Research in Nursing Informatics and Socio-Technical Structures, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 11, pp. 160-174.

Jones, P. (2012). Exploring several dimensions of local, global and glocal using the generic conceptual framework Hodges's model. The Journal Of Community Informatics. 8(3). Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/3794699/Reflecting_on_the_glocal_through_the_conceptual_framework_of_Hodges_s_model

^Because these days you need to make every kernel - found or created on the continuum of evidence - count.

Previously: 'life chances' : 'health career' : 'Serres' : 'APPGs'

Liverpool, UK. RCN Congress 2026 - 
n.b. See you in Liverpool 2027?

Dualistic- thinking checks and balances [III] (or: The-hyphen)

While dualistic thinking is positive as a means to explain Hodges' model, if a form of thinking (reasoning as ego-defence) is relied upon to excess and not balanced by other evidence then this can contribute to psychological problems. As Johnson (1994) also indicates, the three forms of thinking we are discussing in this series of posts are progressive. Compared to dualistic, Johnson states that multiplistic and relativistic thinking represent a more complex level. Appreciating that there are other sources for answers, possibly more than one answer and a need to relate things together.

Dualistic thinking epitomizes the categorical invitation that Hodges' model affords. In its most primitive form it has to be ready to hand and with the mind in an instant it is: the duality of fight or flight. A reflex arc circumvents the dualistic in an effort of instant reduction to survival.

Of course, the model is not intended to encourage thinking in extremes, polarised and absolutist. This property*, however, affirms the model's potential as a health promoting, educational and self-care resource.

There is another form of dualism that is given to us by life not model. It is the dichotomous variety that often influences and shapes attitudes to others, discourse and debate within our many cultures, politics and religious affairs.

The additional set of axes related to disciplines, for example, psych-social - referred to in the previous post [II] tempers the risks above in two ways:

1. by virtue of the learner expanding their knowledge and hence the number of concepts they understand and in-form their community of practice.
2. there is a space between the disciplines and concepts that might further support the structure, content and utility of Hodges' model.

The space lies in the '-', the hyphen, which can represent a middle ground (Assad, 1999). The axes of Hodges' model could be said to present a continuous hyphen. A cognitive pause (check): a token to collect as we reflect, especially if we cross disciplinary thresholds consciously or unconsciously. This can counter the aforementioned excesses of dualistic thinking with the addition of assessment and supervision.

I started these posts with what Hodges' model declares from the outset. This is the model's structure, the configuration of the axes the appearance of the (empty) quadrants. But as experience is gathered so the axes fade into the distance. They become grey and blue as in a background, a template we start to take for granted and work around, with and within. Content in the form of concepts and associated meaning can then populate the foreground that holds the promise of becoming increasingly more integrated which is stimulated by a shift from dualistic thinking to more pluralistic thought.

Assad, M.L. (1999). Reading with Michel Serres: An Encounter with Time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Johnson, D.D. (1994) Dualistic, Multiplistic, and Relativistic Thinking as it Relates to a Psychology Major. Honors Theses. Paper 202.
http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/uhp_theses/202/

*There are many tools that permit us to compare another duality: the binary. The presence or absence of phenomena, for example, a bone injury, or a new star, comet or asteroid.

See previous posts: Michel Serres

See also bibliography item:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Care ecology

Webster’s dictionary defines ecology as:

".. the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment."

In health and social care there are several environments:

• cognitive
• social
• physical
• political
• [and spiritual]

In this sense then Hodges' model provides a much needed care ecology:

An ecology not only for* care (disposition?)

- but an ecology to* care (direction?).

That is as something to protect given its inherent inclusiveness, balance and holism - an ecology within which we can also check on the health of our values.

In being focused on life - as an ecology - the model can also encompass the end of life.

*Michael Serres writes on the role of prepositions:

Conner, S. (2008) Wherever: The Ecstasies of Michel Serres, Accessed 19 June 2010.

Michael Serres: messengers - a Blog

Nursing - a model with 'glocal' aspirations

Reading through Dan Pink's book again I came across this ....

The rise of Empathy has even begun to color parental advice. In a recent survey of of Australian information technology managers, 90 percent said they would not recommend that their own children pursue careers in the L(ogic)-Directed field of software engineering. What would they recommend their children do instead? "I'd rather my kids opt for nursing as a profession," said Joseph Michaels, who works for a telecommunications company in Sydney. "It has both global and local demand." p.165.

And wherever nurses travel so too must the reflective tools they employ.

In the paper on Hodges' model and Michel Serres I wrote the following:

The scholastic 3Rs alone are no longer sufficient to equip youngsters for current and future challenges. Wither health literacy without digital, information and visual literacy (accessibility issues acknowledged)? Carroll and Rosson (2007) recognise the moral imperative of participative design. If technology has the capacity to change, people must be involved in that change. Are governments granted the electorate they deserve? The ability to appreciate what lies between analysis and synthesis is the 21st century touchstone. In being educated to care for others, self, and the planet there is a need for a generic model that can be taught globally, across curricula, cultures, and ethnic divides. Janus-like we must combine the local and global, achieving glocal perspectives (Erikson, 2001, chap.19).

Daniel H. Pink (2006) A whole new mind, How to thrive in the new conceptual age, Cyan, p. 165.

Eriksen, T.H. (2001). Small Places, Large Issues, Pluto Press.

Michel Serres on W2tQ

Michel Serres: A blog

Hodges' model and care domain dependencies

Analysis and Synthesis: pretty powerful tools.

Looking at Hodges' model the other day I've thought of the model as a foundation upon which learners and experts alike can build. Looking at the model afresh I've realised that (whatever we all may or may not believe) outside of the model there is the 5th spiritual domain. After this and for some people because of this 5th domain time, energy, matter and love came into being.

So now to Hodges' model itself: we could not have health, social AND pastoral care systems if it were not for the SOCIAL and POLITICAL domains. These two group domains underpin and support the individual domains. There has always been talk of the golden age. These two domains provide the scaffolding for our lives and we would do well to remember this in these burnt umber times.


Reading Michel Serres and other authors you realise that the SCIENCE and intra-INTERPERSONAL care domains depend on the continued support and sustenance of the SOCIAL contract and the POLITICAL contract. I have not written 'social AND political contracts' purposefully as this suggests far greater similarity than I can argue for.

As we look and consider the relationships at work, what else can you see?

Well, we can see the distance between our collective understanding of science AND the distance between many individuals and the political process. Depicted in this way the fragility of things so often taken for granted - research, health care, individual choice, technologically enhanced and aspirational life styles becomes starkly apparent. The things that are granted do rely on contracts. Now though these two contracts themselves depend on the formulation and enactment of a natural contract between the Earth and its inhabitants (Serres, 1990).

Serres, M. The Natural Contract, trans. Elizabeth MacArthur and William Paulson, University of Michigan Press; 1995.

The art and science of Serresian spin

To Michel Serres:
- the middle is a point of reflection, a point at which questions - the question - must be asked. In fulfilling the purposes of the health career model:

• bridging the theory - practice gap;
• facilitating holistic practice;
• supporting (personal and group) reflection;
• enabling curriculum development;

- the model's four domains are constantly (re-)visited in turn. Motion is constant. Conception - birth provides that initial impetus. Health status. Life - momentum. Centered on the person the movement is usually self-correcting, seeking balance. Health care. Questions and answers whether whole or in part follow, leaving a trail of care delivered and care planned. A record.

There is definite synergy between our use of the health career model, the dynamic quality and quantity of health and social care and Serres' description of the spinning top:

"The behaviour of the cone or the top is worth analysing. Throw this toy and describe, as Plato did, what happens. It is in movement, this is certain, yet it is stable. It even rests on its point or its pole, the more so as its movement is rapid. All children know this. But its rest is still more paradoxical. The top may move about, by translation, without ever losing its stability. To repeat, it can do so as long as it turns very quickly.


Even better, its axis may lean, take on an inclination, without putting the movement of the whole in too much danger. It may again rock, by nutation, oscillating around a mean location. This very ancient and quite childish machine is marvellously instructive.

First of all, it combines and the movements known and thinkable at the time: rotation, translation, fall, leaning and swaying. An integral model, additive, overcharged, yet simple. Second, and above all, it conjoins in a simple one-off experiment phenomena judged or presumed to be contradictory. It is in movement and rest, it turns and yet does not move, it rocks and is stable. The simplicity of a complexity, first and foremost, an additive machine; a synthesis of contradictions, beyond anything else. Now it may serve as a little model of the world, for a naive simple and local orrery. It quivers, at rest, it moves forward, turning, like the heavens, like the stars." p.28-29.

Michel Serres, (2000) The Birth of Physics, Return of the Model, Turba, Turbo. Clinamen Press.


Image source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spinvox-or-someone-like-it-keeps-spinning/

Paper on Serres & Hodges' model - great news progress!

Earlier this month I mentioned a project that has proved something of a saga starting in 2003 - the paper on Michel Serres and Hodges' model. Well yesterday I received an e-mail bearing great news: provisional acceptance for a publication due in 2007. And not just a paper, but a chapter no less of between 5000-7000 words. This has really made my month. I've still work to do of course, but it just goes to show: don't give up!

Michel Serres

Podcast - ok let's get the show on the road....

Wherever you look, or should that be - look and listen? - podcasts abound.

I've just downloaded the latest copy of Audacity and managed, using my son's audio kit to create an mp3 test file. Playing back though Audacity it's a bit low in amplitude, but sounds quiet good. Thirty years ago aping around with electric guitars my old Akai mic is still sound. No great shakes in creating an mp3 file I know, but it's a start. All I need to figure out is what to say.... Mmmm... Maybe something like this ....

Part 1 Welcome to the Quad Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 Part 2
Part 3 Application[s] or App. 1,2,3,4
Part X The Art of Hodges Model
Part X Why Hodges Model Matters ...

At the same time, I must finish the Hodges-Serres paper. This started in 2003. Most of an older version is on the site - with some images not suited to the standard journals. I've had some excellent support and feedback thus far, so the delay/struggle rests with me. Can't connect with the right journal and that speaks volumes (no pun intended) for the quality. In a way that isn't surprising [que rationalisation]. Serres is apparently very difficult for academics to summarise (let alone me) and in addition the paper echoes something of Serres' random flight with I hope the more recent addition of a little order. Podcast now I wonder ....?

Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual' i

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

'ORDER and the VIRTUAL'

The preface, pp.ix-xi - 'Playing Cortázarian Hopscotch' begins:

'Gilles Deleuze argued that the most significant characteristic of an encounter is that it forces us to think. Order and the Virtual dramatises multiple encounters between the philosophies of Deleuze, Michel Serres, Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead, Leibniz and Lucretius, and the scientific theories of general relativity, quantum mechanics, information theory, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, chaos theory and complexity theory. Each of these encounters forces the reader to think anew, to imagine new possibilities for both philosophical and scientific thought. Each encounter also reveals the depth with which Bill Ross himself had thought about these matters.'

Reading Order and the Virtual, I am beyond the preface, but can see the point regards the depth of Bill Ross's reading of a broad range of philosophy and thought (which can be distinct).

The care die is rolled in the first sentence:

'Gilles Deleuze argued that the most significant characteristic 
of an encounter is that it forces us to think.'

When the encounter is clinical, complexity rains, and you really do need to think.

As the professions continue to find out. 

Finding and attending the workshop in September, Bill Ross's legacy and his book is a welcome coincidence as I write and prepare for April's conference. Much more to follow ...

Many thanks to Edinburgh University Press for my copy.

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

See also:
https://www.thebsp.org.uk/bill-ross-memorial-workshop-deleuzian-cosmologies/

https://technophany.philosophyandtechnology.network/article/view/24392

'Serres'

Update on draft papers ii

The draft paper on cardiovascular nursing, first episode psychosis, research methods and Hodges' model is just about finalised; at 4700 words, 4 figures (one illustration of the model, plus three 2x2 tables) and 42 references.

One of the oldest drafts is c. 2013; in mitigation I completed an MRES in-between. This is on case formulations, diagrams and Hodges' model and is quite near completion. Although now of course the references and literature need to be re-examined. There's a new rationale to pick this up - and it connects with work below.

Another effort morphed into two papers, following an initial inquiry with a journal (lost in the email archive). The focus is Threshold concepts, Liberty Protection Safeguards - a change from DoLS, the care context is nursing homes and the residential sector applying Hodges' model.

This draft has served a purpose, forming the basis of a presentation to the virtual Threshold Concepts Conference last year. News will follow soon regards next year:

9th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference (I really miss the Specialist Group on TCs in Health, but also appreciate the time such a commitment takes.)

Last summer, seduced by reference to 'advanced studies' (and a call that presented a broad door, sufficient to get h2cm through) I responded to a call on technology, and society. Liaising with the editor, we added - COVID-19 and Hodges' model. Before I knew it, I'd amassed more than 12,000 words in six weeks. The comments even when far from final draft, were poor. No encouragement at all. Contact was lost, blanked in fact: the paper slept. 

Months later, picking it up again, I can see why. It was poor.

I've taken some -ve critique previously. Welcome it in fact: so the Earth-bound vacuum was rude.

When working on the Michel Serres paper:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

- some rather negative feedback proved the spur to the final work - that I think (and been told) is coherent, engages and 'delivers'(?).

This will be the result again, but the chain reaction has to be tempered and channeled.
Clear the desk - clear the desk! I am my own worst enemy...!

The latest paper, and its being co-authored has proved an enormous help, in time management, discipline and focus (despite COVID intervening):

Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;0:e000254. doi:10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000254

Out of the technology, society text, a structured work - maybe two - will materialise.

Swiss army knife

 

After wittering on about legacy problems in nursing, and health care for quite a while, I've wondered about an original purpose Hodges' model - that of curriculum design, planning, development. As ever, it is just one tool in the toolkit, but regards nursing curricula, mental health nursing, the general Vs specialist distinction Hodges' model can be the ubiquitous Swiss army knife:

Boyer's model, Hodges' model, scholarship, future website and Drupal

 

Noting and replying to threads on twitter, Hodges' model can help articulate the arguments for the future of mental health nursing as a distinct pathway of study, discipline, and profession.*

So if you're struggling to complete a paper, keep going!

That mention, back in 2009 of a 'future website' is embarrassing though.

*A post re. the BBC Panorama TV expose will follow in the future.

UNscathed in Politics and Sociology?

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|

group

Scapegoat	U.N. Secretary General

"If everything goes wrong, I become an easy scapegoat - we joke that "SG" , or secretary-general, is now standing for scapegoat," he continues. "I don't complain about this. But when there is a unity of purpose and solidarity among security council members, particularly the five permanent members, you can real things." Tett (2015).

Additional links:
René Girard (1923— ) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
https://www.iep.utm.edu/girard/#H3

Steven D. Brown In praise of the parasite: the dark organizational theory of Michel Serres.
https://www.academia.edu/1561872/In_praise_of_the_parasite_The_dark_organisational_theory_of_Michel_Serres

Maria L. Assad Reading with Michel Serres: An Encounter with Time

My source:
Gillian Tett, (2015) Lunch with the FT Ban Ki-moon, 'I'm an easy scapegoat', Life, FT Weekend, 19-20 September, p.3.

Hodges' model: A Black Box

"Globally, every theory of systems became a graph of either a simplex or a complex, all things being first of all situated in the depths of a black box." p.3.

Genesis: Michel Serres

"Who, in the end, and from the other side of the picture can boast of having conceived a general system, of projecting or constructing a general system of communication or relation, as a universal network? What would be conveyed by it? and how? What harmony, what cacophony would come of it? Do we have any sort of an ear for hearing that kind of thing?" p.4.

Michel Serres (1995). Genesis (Studies in Literature & Science). (Trans. Genevieve James, James Nielson) Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.