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

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

My book 'reviews' are unconventional in that they are not journal fare (format and quality-wise...); the book, or my reading of it - invariably refers to Hodges' model. I could argue that is not my fault, but a quality, something built in to the model. Anyway, what of the physical book itself?

Order and the Virtual

The cover image is a marvel: Stone Quartet 1 by Patrick Haughton. 
[ Did someone say 'quartet'!* 😉]

Cover design by www.paulsmithdesign.com

Typeset in 10.5/13 Sabon, the fonts and styling through the book is clear, and easy to read (without regard to the technical content). The paper is thick, the quality contributing to a high contrast. 

The contents:

Abbreviations
Preface by Robin Durie and David Webb
1. Chaos
2. Entropy and the Complete Concept in Leibniz and Deleuze
3. Order
4. Order as Complexity
5. Sufficient Reason as Dissymmetry and the Evolutionary Paradigm
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

The EUP website only lists four chapters for Order and the Virtual, but the book clearly has five. The conclusion is similarly omitted online: running from pp.175-181, I wish I'd written it.

That nursing and healthcare practice are bound up in philosophical considerations, values and ethics is fairly obvious. Care dilemmas would arise, calling for a multidisciplinary approach, and cross-disciplinary advice. Through this book, Bill Ross keeps highlighting for me, the way that once the uniform is donned, or the clock denotes an inbetweenness '0900-1700' for community staff, philosophy goes on the back-burner. The heat of the issue, and first rule of first-aid is felt, but it is not the primary concern. There is an international group of scholars for philosophy in nursing (and journal), but practitioners have, by definition - a job to do. If time is chaos and complexity (or appears as), then in health it is continuity, avoiding disruption and more often trying to 'heal' it.

Although Hodges' model presents as a symmetry; it is anything but. If we wish to symmetry-break, Hodges' model may assist. The flux and dynamics of care [insert your context] means that Hodges' model constantly changes its shape, form. Not as an objective statement, but an interpretation. Bill Ross's discussion on Nietzchean chaos and the superior principle of sufficient reason, demands and rewards a close reading (as does the whole text). Whether it is chaos, equilibrium, law and possibility cognitive - conceptual spaces invite ergodic (a cyclic) exploration. The mix of Deleuze and Leibniz's system makes for complex ideas, one probably needs to swim in. The book's first chapters are deep, technical but also inviting. There are encouraging links to psychotherapeutic thought, in the philosophy of difference, and how this is recognised, and change negotiated.

The scale is cosmological, with a section on ergodicity; and (inevitably) time, as per the quotation (p.10):

'Everything which happens and everything which appears is correlated with orders of differences: differences of level, temperature, pressure, tension, potential, difference of intensity. Carnot's principle says this in one way, Curie's principle in another, Gilles Deleuze (DR, 222)' (DR - Difference and Repetition).

There is a ponderous sense when assessment is routinized: assessment must be comprehensive. Do: tick all the boxes. Don't miss anything! How many levels of assessment should there be? If you want this number of assessments, what should I leave out? It is fascinating how we can frame time, not just 'set' against the axes of  Hodges' model, but a product of lifestyle, bio-physics, and even bio-psycho-social-politics. Is back to Earth - back to the individual? Not now. Contrast chronological and pathological time and not just for humanity. Ross follows Deleuze, Poincare, Neitzche and others in the long-term diagnosis of the universe, no less. A heat-death: the anti-fever. Now there's the collective, while in mental health, a diagnosis (or two ...) is still (often) contested, at least on twitter/X.

'The distinction for me is that metaphysics lives in that plane above where the concepts are not tied specifically to one field, but remain free to mobilise the salient questions as they play out among several fields.' p.15.

I don't think this just applies to metaphysics, but the extent (now) to which problems (clinical and generally) are multi- inter- and transdisciplinary (Ross acknowledges the pragmatic). Otherwise, with each step across a disciplinary boundary, our concepts lose their meaning, and the ergodic action (the around and around, back and forth ... our models and frameworks) is more akin to a drunken random-walk.

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

*And is that the fifth domain floating above?

The preface is titled 'Playing Cortázarian Hopscotch':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(Cort%C3%A1zar_novel)

There is also a brief  'Series Editor's Preface'

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. 

Order and the Virtual

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

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

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

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'

Michel Serres in "A planetary art beyond the human"

Individual
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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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.

  

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.

Controlling the deluge: data, information, knowledge

"The longueil and the traversier, these are the names of the two cables that, wound on four winches called the papillonnage, tied our dredger, right and left, to the shores of Garonne. For seen from a plane, the four steel cables, the first two of which, in front, opposed the current while the two at the stern stabilized the pontoon, must have formed the edges of a transparent butterfly covering the width of the river with its spread wings." pp.11-12.

Serres, M. (2012). Biogea. Minneapolis: Univocal Publications.

Planetary Health (ii) (and the need for a global conceptual framework)

I have 5,000 words drafted on Hodges' model and threshold concepts, for which I've yet to find a home. Staying with the previous post's theme of planetary health the paper includes the following: 

A decade ago Groffman, et al., (2006) stated that ecological thresholds can be 'troublesome' in being important but in having no practical application. Threshold concepts are not, however alone; there are also threshold questions (Halldén and Lundholm, 2009). The answers to these questions are critical to global sustainability and planetary boundaries (thresholds) - an ongoing research effort (Rockström et al., 2009).

Groffman, P., Baron, J., Blett, T., et al. (2006). Ecological Thresholds: The Key to Successful Environmental Management or an Important Concept with No Practical Application? Ecosystems, 9(1), 1-13.

Halldén, O. & Lundholm C. (2009). 25-30 August. Conceptual Change and the Complexity of Learning. Threshold Questions, Meaning making and Contextuality. Paper presented at the 13th conference European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Amsterdam, Holland.

Rockström, J., W. Steffen, K. Noone, Å. et al. (2009). Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society. 14(2): 32. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/

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.

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.

UNscathed in Politics and Sociology?

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
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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.

Metamorphosis (Ste p e-learning [curve?] )

I'm walking over ground of a gradually steepening pitch. At a certain point, I pause and start using my hands; the real mountain begins. I am climbing. Do I, as soon as my back slopes forward, return to the state of the quadruped? Almost: my body transforms; feet become hands and my two manual grips secure balance. Homo erectus, the standing man, of recent date, reverts back to the one from whom he is descended: the archaic quadrumane. This thunderbolt recollection became so black, in me, that I no longer fear to speak of the beast; I remember who we were (p.3).

Michel Serres (1999) Variations on the Body, Univocal.

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.

Playing and working with words and music - étude : ctude

étude

An étude (/ ˈeɪtjuːd /; French pronunciation: ​[eˈtyd], a French word meaning study) is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, of considerable difficulty, and designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tude

ctude

A ctude is a care assessment and evaluation instrument, a composition that is usually short, in summary form comprised of key concepts, and yet capable of representing the complexity of health and social care contexts. The ctude is designed to provide practice material for developing expertise in care assessment, holistic and integrated care that is also person-centred. Coined from étude (/ ˈeɪtjuːd /; French pronunciation: ​[eˈtyd], a French word meaning study) it is a study in care and can be a snapshot, or a dynamic series.

Use and ab-use of knowledge

The effective ‘use’ of knowledge is constantly espoused in health care both informally with patients and formally in evidence based research. Knowledge is the key to improving patient safety and delivering efficient, high quality care interventions and effective outcomes. Things become complicated in health and social with the number of potential knowledge sources and the disciplines intent on seeing, gathering, recording and utilizing knowledge that is theirs. From that adopted vantage point they are bound to have a certain perspective.

There are still vestiges of C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures (1959) when we view the use and ab-use of knowledge, particularly the way knowledge is sliced, diced, partitioned and housed into disciplines. In the Introduction to Michel Serres' Parasite, Cary Wolfe notes that:

... the Latin prefix ab- meaning, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, “off, or away from”: "abuse" value at a tangent to use and exchange value, at a distance from it: a different vector, a different type of value (Wolfe, 2007). p. xx.

Literally looking at the model we see that whilst there is increasing interdisciplinarity and collaboration between disciplines, practitioners and managers, academics and policy makers … there remains much ab-use between the domains of (care) knowledge.

If by definition abuse brings individuals, agencies and whoever falls in-between into disagreement, dispute and possibly much worse then clearly a tool that can help furnish a common understanding and insight should be welcomed.



For all that Hodges’s model can offer as a common foundation and bridge for the disciplines, we must ask where is the patient, the carer and the public? Is there a new discipline emerging?

What is needed to help gauge the potentials of use and ab-use in health and social care ...?

Additional links - for the image:
Coxeters Loxodromic Sequence of Tangent Circles
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CoxetersLoxodromicSequenceofTangentCircles.html

Donald Coexeter
http://www.geometry.net/detail/scientists/coxeter_donald.html

Snow, C.P. (2001 [1959]). The Two Cultures. London: Cambridge University Press.

Wolfe, C. (2007). Introduction to the New Edition. Bring the Noise: The Parasite and the Multiple Genealogies of Posthumanism. In Serres, M. (1980). The Parasite. University of Minnesota Press.

Image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coxeter_circles.png

'Gaps' a poem by Philip Holmes - Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Gaps

Philip Holmes

pholmes at math.princeton.edu 

Take a line and take away
the middle third, and then
the middle thirds of two thirds
left behind, and middle thirds
of those four ninths remaining.
Go on and on: what’s left at last
is utterly disjoint – beginnings,
ends – each point divided from
the next, but oh! so close,
infinitely numerous
as what you started with
and carefully have pried apart.
Will there be time to measure up
this dust of unremembering?

* *

Take a line and take away the middle third,
and then the middle thirds of two thirds
left behind, and middle thirds of those four
ninths that still remain. Reiterate:
what’s left at last is utterly disjoint –
beginnings, ends and more – each point
divided from the next and yet uncountable
and numerous as what you had before.
Take a life and take the most part out,
for so it happens; only the best-rehearsed
of memories remain: a voice transformed
among the absences, a face, a hand.
You brought me here, but there was more:
dust that blows away, gaps that captivate.

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics Vol 1, No 1, January 2011.

Editors: Mark Huber, Claremont McKenna College; Gizem Karaali, Pomona College

Used with permission of Philip Holmes and JoHM with thanks.

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/

earth, wind, fire, water AND the birth of physics

To begin - the health career model is concerned with space, structures and knowledge (care domains) built around two axes, plus the 'subjects' and 'activities' of health.

How we define and (so) divide space and accord that space salience amid changing contexts is critical to theory, practice and management and the models we subsequently derive:

... The dichotomy does not cut, it defines, it surrounds the closure of a limit, it delineates a boundary. Within the space thus enclosed like meets like. Or rather, conversely, the specific convergance [convenance] or identity, the assembly of the analogous, delimits zones in the disorder which are distinguished from each other. The earth is separated from the waters, air divides from fire. ... p.28.

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

water	earth
air	fire

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

(many) Care Transitions and The Little '-' That Could

Some people looking at Hodges' model may believe that the model perpetuates the dichotomies of old:

Human --- Machine
Individual --- Group
Sick --- Healthy
Supply --- Demand
Home --- Hospital
Self care --- Nursing care

In the 1990s as a community mental health nurse I was involved with a group of general nurses looking at ways of improving:

• discharge planning
• continuity of care

These issues remain and with the dichotomies of care above we can see how Hodges' model can assist our thinking and planning about transition. Not just one transition, but several.

This past week I was fortunate to attend one of a series of workshops -
Delivering High Quality Health Care for All: Bringing the social and technical together for a joined-up approach to deliver supporting systems and technologies
10th/11th December 2009, Leeds, UK

Organised by the UK Faculty of Health Informatics and the BCS Socio-Technical Group

The event was very good, stimulating and challenging. In the closing debate the appeal of 'socio-technical' and how to market a much needed joined-up approach in health IT came down at one point to the difference between:

'socio-technical' and 'sociotechnical'

In trying to find an alternative title, the hyphen was lost, and whilst it is not a crucial issue - for me that hyphen represents the axes of Hodges' model. Hodges' model acts as a high level aide-mémoire and that little hyphen can perform the same trick. The hyphen reminds us of the differences. The dichotomies that need to be navigated and negotiated in our dialogues about care AND caring. These are most evident in transfers and transitions (after all - "getting out of bed is a risk").

There are mini and macro transitions. Care pathways are not yellow-bricked unbroken splines from cottage to cottage hospital. They should be tortured if they do reflect person-centered experiences and needs.

Some transitions are process laden and repetitive, such as drug administration and must be protected - free from interruption. Although grounded in a social exchange of (correct) identities: a registered nurse, the right patient, right drug, right dose, right duration and right time these can be framed within the SCIENCE domain. That is where (for me) the conventional 'drug round' can be found. Counselling is another transition (if effective it also moves people on). 'Counselling' can be found in the INTRAPERSONAL domain - close to the border with SOCIOLOGY.

Other transitions and transfers are more involved:

• person's home to attend day care (for the first time!)
• person's home to residential home
• hospital ward to home
• home encounter with the crisis team
• telecare consultation
• ...

Care is constantly passed hence the need to write and record. Passed from -

person-to-person
team-to-team
team-to-carer
time-to-time
discipline-to-discipline
self-care

This is the outcome that is sought. Ultimately passing responsibility back to the individual and when applicable their family. Having formal integrated care pathways is one thing, but they are never truly continuous, clear and true. And as they say crossing bridges you may have to break step and surely different disciplines march to different tunes? Today though the most audible tune must be socio-technical. ...

Additional link: The Little Engine That Could
Image source:
Drug round tabard http://internet-workwear.co.uk/acatalog/Drug_Round_Tabard.html

Health care and handedness

The word legerdomain featured on Wordsmith's Word.A.Day as listed below:

PRONUNCIATION:
(lej-uhr-duh-MAYN)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Sleight of hand.
2. A display of skill.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French leger de main (light of hand), from leger (light) + de (of) + main (hand). Ultimately the from Indo-European root man- (hand) that's also the source of manage, maintain, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, and command.

It is a shame and a matter debated at large that specialists - whether medical or of other disciplines - are not held in the high esteem that they once were. And yet when you come across a leader and specialist in their field the way they deploy their knowledge, insight and skills remains something to greatly admire and respect. I mean knowledge and experience that transcends sole reliance on interpersonal skills and blinding people with jargon and 'science'. Such are the outcomes of what the specialist brings to the (operating?) table, that it may even seem like a sleight of hand. Not in the sense that it is a trick, but there is an effortless transparency to not only what they achieve, but how they make people - their patients, clients feel. Not just feel, but how these people react and may find themselves.

If there is a sleight of hand it is in how while a specialist, they can and do cross boundaries. They see and can count the important numbers (evidence) in their discipline, but they know (from some no doubt hard-won lessons) that frequently some of the numbers in the very sequence they need lie outside their comfort zone.

RIGHT-handed (mechanistic)

or

(humanistic) LEFT-handed

- they know there is a

middle

and they cross it, without anyone noticing.

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