System Envisioning References

AutoPoiesis and SelfOrganization?

WEB Links

Randall's Autopoiesis Paper http://www.acm.org/sigois/auto/Main.html
The Observer Web: http://www.informatik.umu.se/~rwhit/AT.html

Cognitive Science

Devlin (1991) -- Keith Devlin, Logic and information, N.Y., Cambridge, 1991.

Taylor (1982) -- David Taylor, Mind, N.Y., Simon and Schuster, 1982.

Trehub (1991) -- Trehub, Arnold. The Cognitive Brain, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.

Winograd (1986) -- Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores, Understanding computers and cognition, N.Y., Addison-Wesley, 1986.

Cybernetics

Beer (1989) -- S. , Espejo, R./Harnden, R., eds.: “The Viable System Model”, Wiley, 1989

Beer (1994) -- Stafford Beer, “Beyond Dispute”, Wiley, 1994

Clemson (1984) -- Barry Clemson, Cybernetics: a new management tool, Turnbridge Wells, Kent, England, Abacus Press, 1984.

summarizes work by such cyberneticians and general systems thinkers as Stafford Beer, Gerald Weinberg, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, and Ross Ashby.
provides an excellent treatment of Beer’s viable systems model.
presents a set of 22 laws, principles and theorems, of which the most fundamental are the laws of self-organizing systems, feedback, and requisite variety of the regulators of systems.

DesignThinking?

WEB Links

Pangaro’s Seminar “Design for Conversations…”: http://www.pangaro.com/~pangaro/DuP-Sem/DuP-Seminar.html

EconomicSystems?

Jacobs (1967-9?) -- Jacobs, Jane: "The Economies of Cities", Vintage?

Jacobs (1984) -- Jacobs, Jane: "Cities and the Wealth of Nations", Vintage?

1995 Nobel Laureate Robert Lucas announced in his "new growth theory" that "I will be following very closely the lead of Jane Jacobs, whose remarkable book, The Economy of Cities, seems to be mainly concerned ... with the external effects of human capital." In these books, Jacobs describes how economies work in terms of a system of forces and processes, such as "Import Replacement". As acknowledged by Lucas and others, Jacobs ideas provide elements of an alternative foundation for economics, recognizing that cities -- rather than nations -- are the important unit. At the heart of the work are notions from systems thinking and cybernetics such as feedback and variety.

InformationSystemsDevelopment?

Hirscheim (1995) -- Rudy Hirscheim, Heinz K Klein, Kalle Lyytinen, Information Systems Development and Data Modeling: Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations, Cambridge, 1995.

What exactly is information systems development, and what are information systems? The answers to these questions vary significantly depending upon the philosophical stance that you take, as do the consequences both for methodology formation and the effect on end users. Where can Systems Envisioning fit within such a philosophical framework?

InquiringSystems? and LearningOrganizations?

Argyris (1992) -- Chris Argyris, On Organizational Learning, Blackwell Business, 1992.

Mitroff (1993) -- Ian I. Mitroff & Harold A. Linstone, The Unbounded Mind: Breaking the Chains of Traditional Business Thinking, Oxford University Press, 1993.

LivingSystems?

Clark (????) -- Clark, D.D. et al.: “The Use of a Living Systems Analogy in the Conceptual Creation of a Design Catalog”, G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, http://www.srl.gatech.edu/~davec/ISSS/ISSS.html

McDavid? (1996) -- McDavid?, D.: “Information System Envisioning for a New Era”, Workshop on System Envisioning, OOPSLA’96, Oopsla96SystemEnvisioning

Miller (1978) -- James Grier Miller, Living systems, N.Y., McGraw?-Hill, 1978.

Quote: Science is taking on a new aspect which is neither purely physical, nor purely biological. It is becoming the study of organisms. Biology is the study of the larger organisms; whereas physics is the study of the smaller organisms. … The concept of an organism includes … the concept of the interaction of organisms. … There are also organisms of organisms.
purports that systems at several hierarchical levels have a recognizable set of features in common.

Miller (1992) -- Miller, J. G. and Miller, J. L.: “Applications of Living Systems Theory” , Plenum Press, New York, 1992

Metaphors

Hill (1995) -- Hill, R. C. and M. Levenhagen, 1995, "Metaphors and Mental Models: Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Innovative and Entrepreneurial Activities." Journal of Management 21(6): 1057-1074.

Morgan (1983) -- Morgan, G., 1983, "More on Metaphor: Why We Cannot Control Tropes In AdministrativeScience?." Administrative Science Quarterly 28: 601-607.

Morgan (1986) -- Morgan, G., 1986, Images of Organization, Newbury Park, California, Sage Press.

Morgan (1988) -- Morgan, G., 1988, Riding the waves of change. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.

Morgan (1993) -- Morgan, G., 1993, Imaginization. New York, Sage.

Tsoukas (1991) -- Tsoukas, H., 1991, "The Missing Link: A Transformational View of Metaphors in Organizational Science." Academy of Management Review 16(3): 566-585.

WEB Links

Michael Lissack, “Complexity Metaphors and the Management of a Knowledge-Based Enterprise: An Exploration of Discovery”, part of a Doctorate submission in Business Administration, Henley Management College, UK, http://lissack.com/writings/proposal.htm

MirrorWorlds

Gelernter (1991) -- Gelernter, D., “Mirror Worlds: The Day Software Puts the Universe In a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean”, Oxford University Press, US, 1991, ISBN 0-19-506812-2

WEB Links

Lifestreams Project, Yale University, http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html
Mirror Worlds, Yale University, Home Page: http://www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/Linda/mw.html
LINDA Group: http://www.cs.yale.edu//HTML/CS/Linda/Linda.html

PurposefulSystems?

Ackoff (1972) -- Russell Ackoff and Fred Emery, "On Purposeful Systems", Aldine Atherton, Chicago, 1972.

Scenario Writing

Peter Schwartz (1991), The art of the long view; Doubleday; ISBN 0-385-26732-0

--- SocialSystems?

Jacobs (1994)-- Jacobs, Jane. Systems of Survival, Vintage?, 1984.

SystemsThinking

Ackoff (1974) -- Ackoff, Russell. Redesigning the Future, A systems approach to societal problems, Wiley-Interscience, 1974.

Ackoff (1978)-- Ackoff, Russell. The Art of Problem Solving, Wiley-Interscience, 1978.

Ackoff (1981) -- Ackoff, Russell. Creating the Corporate Future, Plan or be Planned For, Wiley, 1981.

Ackoff (1994) -- Ackoff, Russell. The Democratic Corporation, A radical prescription for recreating Corporate America and rediscovering success, Oxford, 1994.

Checkland (1981)-- Checkland, Peter. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1981.

Livingston (1990) -- William Livingston, Friends in High Places, Bayside, N.Y., 1990.

Senge (1990) -- Peter M. Senge, The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization, N.Y., Doubleday/Currency, 1990.

Senge (1994) Peter M. Senge, et al, The fifth discipline fieldbook: strategies and tools for building a learning organization, N.Y., Doubleday, 1994.

WEB Links

Ackoff's "INTERACT" not-for-profit consulting company: http://www.interactdesign.com/
AIM Lab, Univ. of Illinois: http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/Discovery/Mind/sys-thinking.html
Guohua, Bai, “General Systems Theory”, Luleå University, Sweden, Web paper: http://www.ies.luth.se/~bai/adba
Gene Bellinger: “Systems - Understanding the Way”, http://www.radix.net/~crbnblu
Joseph O’Connor: http://www.radix.net/~crbnblu/assoc/oconnor/chapt1.htm
Senge’s Newsletter, The Systems Thinker™: http://www.pegasuscom.com/tstpage.html
System Dynamics Society: http://www.std.com/vensim/SDSOCIET.HTM

UrbanPlanning?

Jacobs (1961) -- Jacobs, Jane, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", Vintage, 1961

Now widely considered to be a classic of urban planning, this book described many aspects of the system that is a city, in what was -- and remains -- a new and exciting manner. Consciously or unconsciously grounded in systems thinking -- forces, feedback loops, etc -- Jacobs demonstrated that even the most ancient of disciplines can end up ignoring "obvious" forces that are actually at play, and thus become a destructive force. A useful analogy for those of us building the software equivalent of cities.

CategoryReferences