Conference 2004

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Leafcutters building a system

‘System’ - a collection of elements connected to form a whole.

Systems Thinking holds the ideas of emergence and hierarchy, communication and control.

Systems practice uses these ideas to design and manage complex processes and constructions for the benefit of individuals, organisations and society.

Conference 2004

The 2004 conference took place on the 7th and 8th September.

CITIZENS AND GOVERNANCE IN THE KNOWLEDGE AGE
THE CONTRIBUTION OF SYSTEMS THINKING AND PRACTICE

St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford, UK.

Co-sponsored by COGS and SPMC

Humberto Maturana and Pille Bunnell were keynote speakers for this highly sucessful conference.

The conference was dedicated to facilitating conversations about the use of Systems Theory and Practice relating to:

“..understanding and addressing issues arising from the knowledge-based society and the new forms of relationships between it and citizens and also between citizens and institutions”.

Biographies: Humberto Maturana - Pille Bunnell

The 2004 Conference was a great success.


Humberto Maturana receiving a Gold Medal


	Pille Bunnell talking on "The Practice of Theory and Practice"

We were delighted and honored to have Humberto Maturana and Pille Bunnell as our keynote speakers at the 2004 conference.

Humberto Maturana was presented with a UKSS Gold Medal in recognition for his outstanding contribution to System Sciences.

Our thanks go to Frank Stowell and Keith Sawyer and the committee for the task of organising the conference and to John Mingers who chaired the committee that produced such a high quality programme.

Slideshow: Start / Stop

Format

The conference format was planned around a Theory day and a Systems Practice day.

Systems Theory (Day 1)

0900 Registration and coffee (Mary Ogilvie Foyer)

0930 Welcome UKSS President: Frank Stowell

0945 Humberto Maturana - chair Yasmin Merali
"What Guides What We Do, Reason or Emotions?"
1045 Discussant: John Mingers

1100 Angela Espinosa et al. - chair Frank Stowell
"Cybernetics and Participation. From Theory to Practice"
1145 Discussant: Donna Champion

1200 Lunch (Dining Hall)

1245 Alberto Paucar-Caceres - chair Tony Gill
"Language, Emotions, Poetic Language and Autopoiesis"
1330 Discussant: Pille Bunnell

1345 Joanne Tippett - chair Paul Ledington
"Think like an Ecosystem - Embedding A living System Paradigm Into Particiatory Planning"
1430 Discussant: Leroy White

1445 Tea (MOF)

1500 Martin Reynolds - chair Trevor Wood-Harper
"Churchman and Maturana: Enriching the Notion of Self Organisation For Social Design"
1545 Discussant:Paul Lewis

1600 Dermot Casey and Cathel Brugha - chair: Alberto Paucar-Caceres
"Implications of Knowledge Economy For Citizens. An Empirical Exploration Using Systems Science"
1645 Discussant: David Bustard

1700 Presentation of UKSS Gold Medal to Humberto Maturana (JM)

1715 Tea (MOF)

1745 Master Classes:

Peter Checkland (Rm1)
Soft Systems In Action

Ray Ison (THG)
Systemic Inquiry revealing and conceling Metaphors

Leroy White (SFRm)
Voices and values: A case study on using a participatory approach in public services

1945 Dinner (Dining Hall)

Day 1 Finish and BAR (College Bar)

Systems Practice (Day 2)

0900 Registration and coffee

0930 Pille Bunell (Mary Ogilvie Theatre)
The Practice of "Theory and Practice"

Does theory inform practice, or does practice inform theory -- or is neither either nor both the case? In my engagement in environmental consulting and in post graduate teaching I have come to question the appropriate relationship between what we distinguish as "theory" and "practice". Further I have come to believe that this pair of distinctions is often limiting and sometimes misleading; that is it leads to consequences that we may not desire. I will present the grounding for my concerns and offer a different way of regarding the intertwingled lineages of our arising worlds. And ... I will refrain from presenting a theory of "theory and practice2.

1015 Case study

1100 Coffee (MOF)

1115 Completion of case study and feedback from Ray Ison

1145 AGM (Mary Ogilvie Theatre)
and
Practice paper (Rm 1) Jorg Burgi - chair Mark Winter
"Systems theory to influence moral/ethical behaviour of SME's"

1215 Lunch (Dining Hall)

Practice Streams

	Stream 1 (Rm1)	Stream 2 (MO)
1315	Cathy Farnworth "Creating quality relationships in the organic food chain"	Keith Sawyer "A Software Demonstration of a Soft to Hard Methodology"
1345	Discussion	Discussion
1400	Peter Bednar et al "Contextual analysis in practice"	Jim Brown & Petia Sice "Towards a research design"
1430	Discussion	Discussion
1445	Tea	Tea
1500	Neil McBride "Using SSM in Systems Integration"	Lynn Akers-Smith "The Road Less Travelled - the role of SSM in recovery from Alcoholism"
1530	Discussion	Discussion
1545	Ian Roderick "Reflections on Systems Thinking for CSR Sustainability and Emergent Democratic Processes"	Geoff Peters "UKeU another failure for systems?"
1615	Discussion	Discussion

1630 Plenary Conf / Programme chairs (Mary Ogilvie Theatre)

1700 Conference closes

MO - Mary Ogilvie Theatre, MOF - Mary Ogilvie Foyer
Rm1 - Lecture Room, THG - The Green Room, SFRm - Springfield Room

Programme committee

Chair: John Mingers, University of Kent
Leroy White, University of Bristol
John Brocklesby, University of Wellington
Magnus Ramage, Open University
Yasmin Merali, University of Warwick
Frank Stowell, University of Portsmouth
Donna Champion, University of Loughborough
Sue Holwell, Open University