Tricotyledons, systems and social problems

'If scientists and engineers are to be able to attack social problems with the same validity and effectiveness with which physical problems have been attacked, then a much more sophisticated and rigorous system design methodology is needed.

Such methodology, called the tricotyledon theory of system design, has been developed as a synthesis of: empirical and speculative approaches to system design [2], the methodology of operations research [10], classical optimization techniques [18], results in specialized branches of mathematical system theory [1,4,6,7], and the constructs of general mathematical system theory [12,13,14].

Experimental applications of the tricotyledon theory of system design to several problems in widely differing contexts [3,4,8,9,16,17] indicate that the methodology holds great promise for validity and effectiveness in attacking any large-scale, complex, man/machine system design problem with precision and rigor. There are no theoretical limitations (such as differentiability, linearity, finiteness, or discreteness) for the problems that can be attacked within the tricotyledon theory of system design.

In this short abstract the theory is only described in terms of set and system theoretic concepts as presented in Reference [12), [13], or [14]; no exploitation of the theory, either theoretical or practical is attempted here.' ..' p.224-225.

'The task of defining a large-scale, complex, man/machine system design problem P=(S,T,α,β,γ,D) often requires an interdisciplinary team in practice. An interdisciplinary team requires, in turn, that the above definitions be translated into non-mathematical methodology. This has been done in Reference [15].' p.229.

15. Wymore, A.W., Systems Engineering Methodology for Interdisciplinary Teams, unpublished manuscript. (Another loss?)

Wymore, A.W. (1975) The Tricotyledon Theory of  System Design. In. Category Theory Applied to Computation and Control: Proceedings of the First International Symposium, San Francisco, February 25-26, 1974 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 25) by E.G. Manes (Editor).

See also: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Wayne_Wymore

http://sysengr.engr.arizona.edu/wymore/bookreview.html 

https://lockywolf.wordpress.com/2019/02/16/a-mathematical-theory-of-systems-engineering-the-elements-by-a-wayne-wymore/ 

style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"

Abstract accepted: 6th World Conference on Complex Systems - WCCS 2026

April, 20-22, 2026

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir-Marrakech, Morocco

About Us

Building on the success of previous editions, we are delighted to announce WCCS26, organized by the Chair of Complexities ∞ Humanities - UM6P and the Moroccan Society of Interdisciplinary Studies, with technical sponsorship from IEEE. This conference remains a premier international platform where researchers and Ph.D. students come together to share cutting-edge research, address emerging challenges, and explore new frontiers in complex systems and interdisciplinary science.

WCCS26 fosters collaboration and debate on the most advanced methodologies and approaches for understanding, modeling, simulating, predicting, and mastering societal, ecological, biological, and engineered complex systems. By bringing together experts from diverse disciplines, the conference bridges theory and real-world applications, driving scientific progress and innovation.

Join us for a stimulating exchange of ideas at WCCS26!

WCCS26 Theme :

Navigating Contemporary Complexity:
Transdisciplinary Approaches to Economic, Social,
Political, and Environmental Challenges

Conference Topics (But not limited to...) :

• Foundations and Approaches to Complex Systems
• Social and Economic Complexity
• Complexity in the Anthropocene
• Biological Complexity: From Cells to Societies
• Complexity in Health and Medicine
• Philosophical Dimensions of Complexity
• Complex Systems With Artificial Intelligence
• Complexity in Emerging Technologies
• Grand Challenges in Complexity Science
  
  

Continued at: https://wccs-conference.org/wccs26/#call

See also: 'complexity'

n.b. I am attending (unsponsored) as an independent scholar and researcher; and by abstract alone.

Summer reading and books for review

I look forward to reading and reviewing these books. Many thanks to:

• Tom Griffiths - Julian Richer's office
• CUP
• Springer Nature Customer Service

Julian Richer (Author), Kate Miller (Editor) (2024) Our Housing Disaster: - and what we can do about it. London: Richer Publishing and Media. 

https://www.richersounds.com/our-housing-disaster.html

Joaquim Braga & Mário Santiago de Carvalho (eds.) (2021) Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy. Cham: Springer Verlag.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5

I will advise on how / whether informs my online presentation this coming week at:

MYTH, RITUAL AND PRACTICE

FOR THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE

Fritjof Capra, Pier Luigi Luisi (2014) The Systems View of Life - A Unifying Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/life-sciences/genomics-bioinformatics-and-systems-biology/systems-view-life-unifying-vision?format=HB&isbn=9781107011366 

All three could have a role to play?

23rd UKSS International Conference: Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

23rd UKSS International Conference

Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

15th of September 2023 in the Richmond Building, University of Portsmouth

The Conference programme for the 15th of September is as follows: UKSS 2023 Conference programme Friday the 15th of September Time Activity 10.00 – 10.30 a.m. Arrival and registration, Reception, The Richmond Building 10.30 – 10.45 a.m. Welcome by the UKSS President, Professor Stowell, Room 201 10.45 – 11.45 p.m. Keynote presentation, Ray Ison, Read More …

I thought I had posted this news, but it seems not. I'm pleased to do so now and have only recently  booked. As above, the conference is for one day and costs £25.00 while free for UKSS members, which will make you a UKSS member if not already. You can attend in-person or virtually.

As per 2018 when I presented Hodges' model in Portsmouth, I plan to attend physically, visiting Oxford on the way down.

22nd UKSS International Conference

22nd UKSS International Conference

20th & 21st June 2022
at Lancaster University

Joined-up Thinking  for a Disconnected World

In every age, there is a turning point, a new way of seeing and asserting the coherence of the world.  J. Bronowski

About this event

As we emerge from the Covid pandemic, it is abundantly clear that we, the human race, share the same ecological systems and have the same survival instincts. However, we treat things in a piecemeal fashion in our day-to-day existence and conveniently forget that all our lives are entwined. We, the human race generating waste and creating pollution, cannot blame anyone else. Never has thought in a joined-up way been more critical. It is appropriate this year that the conference is hosted at the University of Lancaster that, under Peter Checkland, has done so much to stimulate Systems Thinking and Practice. To this end, the conference committee agreed that the theme should focus upon the value of systems thinking and practice and encourage contributions from across the spectrum of human concerns where the notion of holism is at its core.

 

Planning to attend ... See you there?

 

Previously:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=UKSS

Book Review: [iv] Health System Redesign - Part 3 & 4

Part 3 tackles the structure and dynamics of health system organisations. The introduction begins with how we perceive whole and part and teases out levels once again. These have their own concepts and language as we move through layers. This transition between layers means we also have to dispense with, or suspend the detail that a layer gives us - the 'cellular level' for example. Sturmberg describes the properties of layered systems that include, concepts, discovery, interaction and constraints. As is often the case through the book, table 1 (chapter 9) captures a great deal with figure 3 - health system phenomena and different levels of organisation. The final addendum of part 2 posed the questions: what to change?; what to change to?; and, how to cause the change (p.158)? This introduction reminds us of the constant need to consider parts (data) anbd the joining of wholes (wisdom).

Chapter 9 is about modelling, potentially a dense and jargon-ridden subject, but the treatment here retains the book's accessibility, clarity and interest. This chapter is like an answer to a soapbox of mine as it highlights the role and use of spatial modelling and geographic information tools. Admittedly, as clinicians (all disciplines) we cannot be service planners and public (mental) health specialists, but services should have access to such tools. (Teams could have a running list of 3 research questions that can be taken up, revised by students and team members, perhaps allied to CPD and other training/education commitments). Sturmberg gives us: mental health services in Helsinki; childhood obesity in Berlin; Life expectancy in a city and infection risk in Democratic Republic of Congo.

On first picking up the book, the arrangement of the parts with an introduction and the chapter introductions can be a little confusing. But the disorientation is brief. The book has some typos: 'intense' for 'intents' p.171; 'locking' for 'looking' p.179; 'build' for 'built' p.225; 'pleural' for 'plural' p.234; outlined, p.251. (I used to read papers for data definition standards.)

This does not detract from something special in 9.3 modelling system problems. The question is "What ... if..? and a series of scenarios in aged community care: What if -

• We double the number of nursing home beds?
• We double the social care workforce?
• We combine a 50% increase in both the above?

The addenda for chapter 9 are system diagrams and link to chapter 10 very nicely returning to micro, meso and macro levels. I could sketch out the multiple cause and sign graph diagram fig 10.1 for a patient and how deteriorating health results as much from the interdependent variables of his social context as basic physiology (p.197 - another case study).

With a book that can serve as a key reference for Hodges' model - it had to happen (sorry!). Here I have mapped some of the content of Table 10.1 (p.209) to h2cm:

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Mental Health	Hip replacement surgery Flu vaccination Multimorbidity management of polypharmacy Intensive Care Unit Managing a second degree burn Protocols - handwashing -
Community care for frail elderly Managing a natural disaster (social impact)	- policy Health financing Nurse unit manager ensuring staff record every patient incident regardless how trivial Surgeon managing theatre team Acute psychiatric Unit Bed management of a hospital (*see below)

This week driving between my community visits, a radio public health notice asked listeners: what is the 2nd most significant cause of cancer after smoking? It begins with 'O' and ends with 'Y'. Chapter 11 concerns obesity at the personal, personal-community, and community-whole society levels. This chapter relies on diagrams-figures, some are difficult to read and with no web reference to go to the detail is lost (figure 11.10). The message is not lost, however; a magnifying glass might help (figure 11.8). 'Obesity' must include the industrial and political dimensions.* 'Food sovereignty' is an important point (p.223). If blockchain technology does prove itself beyond cryptocurrencies could it find an governing application in food system regulation?

Sturmberg anticipates there is/will be resistance and refers to the need:

"to overcome some of the false and unhelpful conceptual dichotomies in the debate about the obesity epidemic"p.227.

What follows then is a need for informed debate and argumentation?

Part IV brings to life the book's subtitle and achieving this goal: Chapter 12 how things ought to be. The introduction here is rich - 6 pages, 16 references mainly tables but informative.

Personomics p.246 is a gift to me and unsurprisingly it is allied with person-centredness. Sturmberg rightly stresses how we need to put the person at the centre of the system. Although referred to constantly - to the point of rhetoric? in the literature, politicval media. In Hodges' model I have stressed how 'work' is involved in achieving person-centredness and being person-centred. In the model the individual needs to 'moved' conceptually, in the first instance to the centre of the model.

With figure 12.2 I'm still sore from the back-flip. I've possibly seen this before, but the version on p.249 is again very meaningful and vital to holistic and integrated care.

https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/the4thbox

I would switch this slightly for h2cm, thus:



EQUITY :: EQUALITY


REALITY :: LIBERATION

The book ends on design and design thinking. H2cm leads inevitably to structure and content and as such care architecture and so design. Here the book is talking 'problem solving strategies' and hence Health System Redesign. Such ambition needs to attend to barriers and once again in 13.4 we consider "what might stand in the way". Even at the end Sturmberg is clarifying and extending definitions: Adam Smith - the Public Good AND the free market; 'social' and 'socialised'. This is not an oversight but helps close a fascinating circle and excellent book.


The 'blurb' as they say refers to the book as a "forward-looking volume" - together with the knowledge here - and crucially the combined wisdom that results - we can make it here-and-now.

I would like to express my many thanks to Prof. Sturmberg and Springer for the review copy.

Sturmberg JP. Health System Redesign. How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable. Cham, Switzerland: Springer; 2018.

See also:

Book Review: [i]

Book Review: [ii]

Book Review: [iii]

Book Review: [iii] Health System Redesign - Part 2

In part 2 from chapter 5 the focus is "Best Adapted" Health System. Such a system simultaneously addresses person-centredness, equity and sustainability. The healthcare system is one of many subsystems of a complex adapted health system, comprised of primary, secondary and tertiary care. Quaternary prevention may deserve mention? The quaternary approach being sympathetic and resonating with the book's aims as a whole (scope: humanistic - mechanistic and sustainability) .

Chapter 5 uses the Vortex model to represent the vision of a seamlessly integrated complex adapted health system from that which so often exists. The graphics are small but there is a url (Figure 5.1). Several avenues of continuity and links to part 1 are provided, disease, the purposes and goals of existing health systems versus the new vision and the values and need to disambiguate between patient needs and wants. This calls for definitions which are also provided; to logically lead to underlying philosophies which are extended in the addenda.

Chapter 6 prepares the reader for some real world examples to follow. I have long found discussion of scale fascinating. The levels here extend across:

• Macro
• Meso
• Micro
• Nano

"Food regulation" is rendered as an influence diagram showing the various agents and their operations. Copious tables shed light in the four levels. The real world examples in chapter 7 are geographically, Kenya and Brazil concerned with AIDS and the NUKA primary care system in Washington (USA). Sturmberg contrasts the possibly theoretical emphasis of the previous two chapters with this more practical focus. The visualisation methods vortex and Cynefin models are well used here. The case studies help to reveal different degrees of complexity while also showing what they have in common.

You cannot move in social media without reading or hearing about leaders and leadership. Chapter 8 is not paying lip-service to this cultural preoccupation, but marries how can we better understand what is unpredictable. Sturmberg explains VUCA, that is, volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity; wicked problems and how we can use VUKA and transform these challenges into understanding for learning and transfer of knowledge. Again the book carries the content forward, combining four learning frameworks to shift mindsets and world views through use of the Cynefin framework.

In the management of system constraints a multidiscipinary (multi-domain) approach is used, as in leadership involves psychological work. To better appreciate leadership, leaders are contrasted with managers (Table 8.2, p.139). An example of contrast is also used characterising organisations as Banyans (which expand their own empires) and Dandelions (which while prolific allow others to thrive). The references range in chapter 8 from 1958-2017 - Argyris, Mintzberg, Polyani and Schön. The addenda closing chapter 8 and part 2 are once again philosophical - "History of Reductionism" and very much add to the text.

There's an important quote on page 140:

"It is the common cause of an organisation that defines its identity and must reside in the heads and hearts of its members. Thus, in the absence of an externalised bureaucratic structure, it becomes more important to have an internalised cognitive structure of what the organisation stands for and where it intends to go - in short, a clear sense of the organisation's identity. A sense of identity serves as a rudder for navigating difficult waters.'

I think 'identity' for the individual (micro) and organisation (meso-macro) levels could be emphasised more and should be indexed. Parts 3 & 4 follows.

Sturmberg JP. Health System Redesign. How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable. Cham, Switzerland: Springer; 2018.

See also:

Book Review: [i]

Book Review: [ii]

Book Review: [ii] Health System Redesign - How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable

Part 1 gets straight to the matter of "challenging the orthodoxy" with a two page introduction to complexity and health. Part 1 covers:

• systems sciences
• visualization of complex systems (Capra's vortex metaphor)
• understanding the co-existence of different degrees of complexity and their dynamics within complex adaptive organisations based on Kurtz and Snowden's Cynefin model.
• health as a "complex adaptive experiential state"

All four points here are very pertinent to where we are in health and healthcare (the book rightly stresses this differentiation) and current and ongoing 21st century issues. The use of Capra helps to distinguish scale and the levels inevitably existent, experienced, and described in health and healthcare systems.

If you are familiar with Hodges' model and the Cynefin model, then the answer is yes - seeing the Cynefin model did make me hoot. (I remember Dave Snowden's work from Plaxo and a presentation he did in Lancaster back in 2007). More importantly, part 1 introduces where the focus needs to be to facilitate change; on the core driver of the system, the system's long-term direction, a specific system view and the need for a solid grounding in theoretical and applied approaches. This is were the visual tools and producing a view - perspective are so important. Chapter 2 contrasts the simple scientific world view and the complex scientific. The reader is asked to consider numerous background points, from the colloquial meaning of complex/complexity to the scientific. How do the words 'complex' and 'complicated' differ? At small scale the result is greater certainty BUT loss of context, while at the large scale we find greater uncertainty AND loss of detail.

Figure 2.3 shows the key features of complex systems (also indicating the dynamics - '+' '-'):

• System boundaries
• Interconnectedness
• Feedback
• Impact of starting (initial) condition

Some of the figures point to their means of creation "The essence of systems thinking" (Figure 2.4) produced through Insightmaker. Sturmberg's seeks to ground the discussion too by reference to the everyday. Table 2.1 runs through how systems can be related to the experience of a 'Long day at work'. Addenda are put to immediate effect with a reference to a map of the history of complexity science; the philosophy of complex adaptive systems; and the complexity and difficult questions.

As already suggested Chapter 3 on the visualisation of complex adaptive systems had my attention. The vortex metaphor (Capra) seems trite on first encounter, but it works.* The four different ways to map a system:

1. Systems map
2. Influence map
3. Multiple case diagram
4. Sign graph diagram

are quite important as if you can take the explanations onboard you really will be on the way to fully understanding and utilising theoretical and applied approaches. The learning here is allied with understanding common system dynamic behaviours which are also illustrated and explained. Figure 3.4 shows the Cynefin framework, which is still in my head. The Cynefin model deals with the continua of:

• uncertain - certain
• non-linear - linear

• Contrasts - Learning and Teaching
• and four quadrants that combine what is complex, knowable or complicated, chaos, and known or obvious (simple). The three references here span 1996-2003.

At chapter 4 - I was worried - 'Defining Health' (now there's a task) but this is also interesting, rewarding and well placed. Core notions of health are tabled (4.1) from 1911 to 2007. Health is distinguished from dis-ease. I must follow up the footnote on p.59 Marja Jylhä and her framework of self-perception of health. 

The illustrations on pp.60-61 are frustrating.

Very!

Not because they shouldn't be there, but because they are a gift that remain (as far as I am aware) unrealised in respect of those of us working in the humanities. We still lack the visualisation tools that we need.

If I mention Figure 4.1 "The somato-psycho-socio-semiotic model of health" you will get the drift and overlap with Hodges' model. There is more with 4.2 on Attractors in Health and Illness and the system dynamics of health. The political attractor is missing (and its 'gravitational' impact) in this rendering, but the barriers to progress are also raised at the book's end. Given the topic of health, the text is not science light, with the physiology of health and disease also used to explain points, so we have, gene networks, the autonomic nervous system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and bioenergetics in the mitochondrion. While not in-depth the potential application across external factors-personal experiences and internal mechanisms are demonstrated. The role of the patient, public and carers are central today and realised to various degree in theory, practice, management and policy. Self-rated health is briefly mentioned and with community health and health services utilisation this closes part 1.

More to follow...

Sturmberg JP. Health System Redesign. How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable. Cham, Switzerland: Springer; 2018.

See also first part...

Book Review: [i] Health System Redesign - How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable

Health System Redesign

The 'summer reading' is almost complete (p.245/290) and described as such due to it being a review and a specific deadline is not helpful. (You may have noticed with Drupal and the new site!). Fortuitously, starting the book coincided with my attending the UKSS conference in Portsmouth. The exposure to systems and complexity - as in complexity science was welcome. I would really like to write a paper on Hodges' model and complexity and this book would be a primary reference.

The foreword is by the President of the Lown Institute, this is a think-tank "advocating a radically better and uniquely American health system that overturns high-cost, low-value care." Sturmberg provides the means for this over-turning whilst beforehand explaining what is happening in the health system and health care systems worldwide. There is a difference, as we must change mindsets and facilitate the health system reducing the impact, dependence and expense of existing health care systems. What we have is no longer sustainable.

Even in Sturmberg's preface I can see why this book through its title had an instant appeal to me and should do so to others in the health, social care, policy and educational communities.

The book addresses three key themes:

1. Understanding complexity—what are complexity sciences, and how does complexity thinking shape our understanding of health
2. Envisioning a “best adapted” health system
3. Achieving a person-centred, equitable and sustainable health system

The promised references follow the chapters (as expected!), but often with addenda that provide more background, insight and further reading if needed. Page 2 provides the first of many figures throughout the book, as with copious footnotes. Some people and publishers find footnotes untidy or contributing noise. I found these informative, pointing in some instance to video resources and copies of diagrams that are too detailed for a book. Inclusion still conveys some meaning given the subject matter of complexity and scale through the levels of nano, micro, meso and macro.

The book is clearly laid out, chapter 1 precedes Part 1 to set the context and agenda. Sturmberg explains this is not a theory book, but the explanations are progressive and a good foundation for further study (that must follow). Some of the challenges in teaching and learning systems thinking and health(care) systems redesign are discussed, as students are bound to encounter them not only in the literature, but in many of the assumptions that they are being socialised into in practice. A good example, is Table 1.1 Disambiguation of systems complexity (p.5). Like the use of figures, tables are liberally but effectively distributed throughout to reinforce the discussion. I like the way that systems thinking tools are set out in Table 1.2 across three pages. The tables and figures are not just page-fillers though, but sources to return to.

The differing sections that apply systems thinking are set with the implications for health care. As already mentioned some of the figures are colour reproductions and suffer due to the print size. To compensate the original source is usually provided (Addendum 2, Obamacare Health System Chart is a prime example that also time places pressure on any text). This works well as the author grapples to illustrate scale from the individual to the organisational level, industrial and processes and policy makers.

I know a review is about the book, but in this case especially I cannot but help see how this topic supports and validates (imho!) my own work and interests. Page 9 confirms how h2cm not only incorporates "design thinking" as it can readily combine the sciences and the arts (as in various blog posts). As I have stated (for 30 years) the POLITICAL domain in Hodges' model is crucial in the 21st century. So, even as I reach Part 1 for this review, the importance of global health; policy, organisations, public engagement are stressed if change is to follow. Many sections have a short introduction that ends with questions for readers to reflect on their own health systems experiences. As a summer reading project through to part 1 I was very pleased to have an 'ice-cream' of my favourite flavour that was going to run and run...

Sturmberg JP. Health System Redesign. How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable. Cham, Switzerland: Springer; 2018.

More to follow three - four posts in total?

UK Systems Society presentation: Missing the obvious...

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Psychological systems	Physical systems
Social systems	Political systems

Book: Health System Redesign How to Make Health Care Person-Centered, Equitable, and Sustainable

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

HEALTH	Health System Redesign
SYSTEM	REDESIGN

Thanks to Prof. Sturmberg and Springer I have some summer reading. Having received the book it really does look well-worth reading. Review to follow here...

UKSS 2018 – Can systemic thinking help shape health services?

Looking forward to a 20 minute presentation I have just sorted accommodation for this conference in June. I am still wondering about train or car, preferring the former if possible for the c.240 mile trip to Portsmouth. With an interest in ecology I welcome the opportunity to be involved in an event connected with Schumacher College. I have long wondered about Dartington. Now that would be an excellent way to study and learn about Hodges' model and 'holistic bandwidth'...

News of this conference I posted on 2 January 2018 but as I add the news to the sidebar - here are some details once again and the necessary links...

UKSS Conference 25th June 2018

http://www.systemsforum.org

Can systemic thinking help shape health services?

A UK Systems Society conference in association with SPMC and the Schumacher institute; supported by the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics and the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sui Sistemi

Speaker: Alex Whitfield, CEO Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Provision of health service is facing major challenges in every country. Life expectancy has increased, people are active for longer, and citizens expect first class healthcare and for “repairs” to be done quickly to restore them to their full capacity. Some expectations are fantasy but others are justifiable, yet every day we hear or read about outcomes that give cause for concern. In the UK we recognise that the NHS cannot continue in its present form. But the NHS is close to the heart of our citizens making major reforms difficult because of the intense passion that any discussion generates. But the NHS as a ‘system’ is more than 3/4 of a century old. The way that illness and old age are viewed now is different to that when the health service was created. This conference will provide a platform for ideas that might contribute to a way forward.

We would be delighted to see and hear from you at this conference.

More details...

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.

Hodges' model as a Leitbild framework

individual
|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|

group

(to ensure, process, distribute, use, maintain, use, and preserve human service demands) = PURPOSE H U M	TECHNOLOGY ECOLOGY (as Nature) related activities* distribute   'hard systems'  use PROCESS
A N S Sociology 'soft systems' *behaviours	Politics economy STANDARDS ensure (assure)

Image and reference:

Klug, H., 2012. An integrated holistic transdisciplinary landscape planning concept after the Leitbild approach. Ecological Indicators 23, 616–626. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.05.019

“A Leitbild (pl. Leitbilder) is a summary statement describing a desired and releasable future state for a specific issue or spatial unit, which takes account of the primary objectives and drivers in a holistic and integrated way. All present knowledge is used to balance future constraints and demands from social, economic, cultural, political and environmental perspectives. Therefore, a commonly accepted Leitbild projects a specified trajectory for the future spatial structure, distribution, utilisation, condition and development of the socio-natural system. It provides a set of guidelines that shape actions, and a framework within which the impact of particular developments can be judged and socially negotiated.” p.617.

At the Frontiers of Systemic Design - Relating Systems Thinking to Design (4)

RSD4 @ Banff Centre, Alberta   Sept 1-3, 2015

Submit Abstracts for Paper/Presentation or Workshops by March 15

As original members of the Design for Care book community I wanted to share with you the opportunity to participate in RSD, now in its fourth year and its first in North America. Last year we had 200 people in Oslo with speakers Ranulph Glanville, Hugh Dubberly and John Thackara. A day of workshops from leading practitioners in this field. Two days of engaging discussions with new thinking and case studies in systemic design, including a dedicated healthcare track.

For 3 years the Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD) symposium has convened scholars, design researchers, and serious practitioners to articulate and demonstrate the shared value of a transdisciplinary field with applications across all complex systems and services. We invite participation for RSD4 from all those working at the frontiers of systemic design – those leading real projects informed by systemic and complexity theories, and those researching systemic behaviours within real-world complexity, services and systems.

At the frontiers we are searching for those stories and experiments into new territory, stories of survival and sustainment, narratives of complexity unfolding into new terrains of application or discourse. We seek abstracts for presentations on real world projects that have led design into new fields, frontier domains, and both small steps or quantum leaps. These cases could demonstrate how systemic design has contributed to a case, how it adapts to the unique situation or how a case has employed systemic approaches.

Three types of contributions are suggested:

• Case studies of design-led projects involving clear systemic impacts and principles
• Research supporting systemic design applications and validating theoretical claims
• Workshops for collaborative discourse or sharing new methods and practices

Join us in Banff this year for this growing transdisciplinary symposium in the intimate and reflective space of the Banff Centre. Sponsored this year by the Alberta Government, the RSD4 Symposium is brought into being by co-chairs Alex Ryan (Gov of Alberta), Birger Sevaldson (Oslo School of Architecture and Design), Peter Jones (OCAD University, Toronto) and Jodi Forlizzi (Carnegie Mellon). www.systemic-design.net

Design for Care update: 
You received this email as a member of the original Design for Care community. If you'd like to stay in touch and hear about significant events from me every so often, stay subscribed.

If you don't yet have the book, please remember you have a 30% discount code of DFCFRIENDS only at Rosenfeld Media designforcare.com  Design for Care remains the only design practitioner reference in the healthcare domain, the only service and system design book in healthcare. There are texts on digital health and patient-centered care research, but this field is still very much in the early stages of development - but picking up quickly. The book continues to find new adopters and I'm finding myself at very different conferences than I used to be.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about RSD, are interested in a presentation around the book's ideas, or are interested in our unique Master of Design programs at OCAD University.

PETER JONES, Ph.D.  @designforcare
Redesign Network and OCAD University
pjones AT ocadu.ca
Design Dialogues

Join the Revolution: For the Lady in the Corner (c/o ST4Health)

ST4Health

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

Lady situated assumptions personal experience	one disease - malaria, smallpox, leprosy, TB,  emergency treatment, hospitals, Africa, systems, capacity
people, society, community, village gender, interactions, humanitarian works,	policy, organisations, population health improvement, global health, poverty, economics, outcomes

group - population
BIG PICTURE (above)

My source:  HIFA2015 list

2nd iConference Workshop on Sociotechnical Systems

Workshop: “Keywords of the Sociotechnical”
Organizers:
Steven Jackson, University of Michigan;
David Ribes, Georgetown University;
Sean Goggins, Drexel University

We invite participation in the 2nd iConference Workshop on Sociotechnical systems, to be held prior to the iConference on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana-Champaign on February 3, 2010. To see “who we are”, check out the facebook group – “Researchers of the Sociotechnical” or our website at http://www.sociotech.net .

You may register here: https://www.ischools.org/conftool/

In 1975 British cultural historian Raymond Williams published his influential pocket dictionary Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. The text tackled the most difficult, contested and often under explored terms in his field: culture, agency, technology, etc. Today studies of sociotechnical systems finds itself at a place not unlike where British Cultural Studies was in the early 70s: a meeting place for scholars of multiple disciplinary backgrounds deploying concepts and tools whose commonality (and separateness) of meaning has yet to be fully established.

What are the words that transcend the sectional interests of, say, organizational science and HCI, CSCW and science and technology studies? When an HCI researcher and a social informatics scholar say ‘system’ or ‘design,’ are they really talking about the same thing? Relatedly, how do we go about attaching these keywords to concrete socio-technical research
problems in our diverse disciplinary traditions? How do we go about transforming a cross-field coincidence of research objects (Wikipedia, eScience, social practices in pervasive computing spaces, and countless others) into a mutually informed set of research problems?

This workshop will provide a venue to gather and discuss our intellectual traditions, research objects, and vocabularies in order to elaborate and clarify the keywords of the sociotechnical.

*Studying Sociotechnical Systems*

The workshop builds on and extends efforts that have included the 2008 & 2009 Summer Research Institute of the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST). These Research Institutes, supported by the National Science Foundation and held at the University of Michigan (2008) and Syracuse University (2009), brought together a diverse set of researchers from fields as diverse as science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, management and organizational studies, library and information science, sociology, social informatics, and computer science, to begin exploring and framing a future research agenda centered on socio-technical research.

David Ribes, Ph.D.
Communication, Culture & Technology (CCT)
Georgetown University
http://davidribes.com

Additional links:

The Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST) [and above image source]

h2cm: windows on the mind, body, society and State

h2cm is not just a window and handle on the mind and that of patients and carers.

h2cm can reflect (as per its original purposes):

• health and social care policy;
• the aspirations of local care communities and economies;
• signs, symptoms - priorities;
• care plans, actions and care pathways;
• research objectives;
• procedures;
• ethical deliberations;
• recovery, relapse prevention;
• information requirements;
• learning objectives;
• and outcomes.
• ...

HOW Hodges' model can achieve this...?

Now that IS the question that can really open the windows, whether you believe in four or five....


Image source: with thanks to - FineArtAmerica.com: and the artist of -
I Marry Your Mind to Lights Window, Stephen Lucas

Foundations, projects, corners and cornerstones

Ok, so you have a new project - that's great!

Yes, we are going to build something - outstanding!

Sounds marvellous!

We are going to use up-to-the-nanosecond project management tools.

And you're going to do it by the book, charts and real-time tags.

Yes, with a dash of intuition plus - you know - gut instinct!

Well sure, pleased to hear that too.

We will take account of history, learn the lessons -
we've a researcher onboard you know?
Building a world-class team that's all fleet of foot and mind.

We'll tick all the boxes, check all the corners and leave no stone un-turned.

Truly admirable, but how many boxes and corners have you got and how many cornerstones* will you need?

Eh?

Hey listen up. Corners are for losers,

naughty children

and people lost in the dark.

Nobody is going to be stuck standing in the corner on this one!

Oh - right.

Well good luck....

Image sources:
'Cornerstone office': Cornerstone Corp. Center
Dan Flavin: at Artnet.

Inspired by the word 'cornerstone' and Untitled (Corner Piece) 1969 on visit to Tate Liverpool, 25 September 2009 (not the piece illustrated above):

Flavin made a number of works intended to be shown in corners, engaging directly with the architecture of the gallery. His use of commonly available fluorescent tubes enabled him to explore light as a non-physical material, animating gallery walls. The size of the work was determined so that the units could be fastened in the centre only, without having to be anchored to the floor. The artist rejected any symbolic significance of the object, insisting that it was simply a form that made good use of a corner.

Question: How many corners are there in Hodges' model?

*Cornerstones: here referring to stakeholders, sponsors, owners, partners, investors, builders, architects, designers...?

Lupina Award in Health System Dynamics

The Health Policy Special Interest Group (HPSIG) of the System Dynamics Society is proud to announce the -

Lupina Young Researchers Award in Health System Dynamics

- which will be presented for the first time at this summer's 2008 International System Dynamics Conference in Athens, Greece. The award is sponsored by the Lupina Foundation of Toronto, Canada, and will be accompanied by a check in the amount of CAN$5000. The award will be presented to the recipient (or recipients) during the HPSIG meeting on the Sunday afternoon meeting just preceding the conference (July 20th this year), and a brief announcement will also be made to all conference attendees at a plenary session.

This award will be given to people at early stages of their careers to encourage them to do further work in health system dynamics. In the event that the winning paper represents the equal work of two young researchers, or if there is a tie among papers, the cash prize may be subdivided. The work considered for this award must be accepted as a paper for presentation at the International System Dynamics Conference. Papers are self-nominated, and to be eligible, the author(s) must either be in graduate school or have completed their educational training no more than five years prior to paper submission.

Authors need not be members of the System Dynamics Society and may, in fact, specialize in other methodologies and use them in their submitted papers. But their work must:

• Focus on dynamic phenomena in health systems and problems,
• Demonstrate technical quality and clear presentation, and
• Provide original insights derived from a dynamic analysis.

The winner(s) must be present at the Sunday HPSIG meeting to receive their prize, and be willing to discuss their winning work at that meeting.

For (latest ...) Conference details please see -

http://www.systemdynamics.org

[Ever since watching an Open University programme on Catastrophe Theory in Prisons (+New Scientist article?), running early microcomputer fractal graphic programs for hours and reading Gleick's book on Chaos and others; I've been fascinated by dynamic systems. This is a marvellous field for young researchers to explore:
asking new questions of old answers ...]