Contemporary applications and changing appreciative settings
This event took place on Friday 14 May at the Open University and was attended by members of the Vickers family, scholars working with Vickers’ ideas, systems practitioners and others interested in his work, including numerous members of the SPMC network.
The first half of the event was taken up with presentations from different academics talking about the relevance of Vickers' work to them today. This was chaired by Geoff Peters and Ray Ison from the Open University and Frank Stowell from the University of Portsmouth.
Speakers included Peter Checkland (University of Lancaster), Garrath Williams (University of Lancaster), Richard Varey (University of Waikato), Nick Winder (University of Newcastle), Margaret Blunden (University of Westminster) and Jim Whitman (University of Bradford). This was followed by contributions from the Vickers family and his former colleagues, and the formal presentation of his papers to the Open University Library and Learning Resources Centre. The Vice Chancellor, Brenda Gourley, and the Librarian, Nicky Whitsed spoke on behalf of the Open University
The papers given by the various speakers will be published in a forthcoming special issue of Systems Research and Behavioural Science, to be edited by Ray Ison.