2023 Kruger National Park

 

 

Ubuntu is an African philosophy that describes how human beings can live with each other. Ubuntu is the essence of a human being, the divine spark of goodness inherent within each being. It also promotes interdependence on each other. We live on earth, and we are dependent on the habitat, air, water, animals, and the environment which also influence our health status including health prevention and promotive measures. 

This paper will describe how Ubuntu as an African philosophy can be used as a health-promoting vehicle. 

The study involves a participatory action research design that triangulated both approaches and used varying data collection and analysis methods. Methods to ensure trustworthiness, ethics, validity, and reliability were applied.

The results show how information can be disseminated within communities from one source to the other through the available community connections. This can be achieved by the development of indigenous songs, role-play, and speeches. Indigenous preventive methods and available resources from our own environment are key to health promotion strategies Workshops are central in the application of Ubuntu values and principles hence important in the transmission of health-related information within communities.

 
A CONFERENCE RESEARCH PROJECT: Immerse Yourself in Emergence
 
This your opportunity to be a part of the more comprehensive whole resulting from this year’s conference. We want to transcend traditional conference participation into an enduring activity by inviting you to engage in reflective professional practice as you prepare for, attend, and implement your experiences emerging from the conference.
The conference theme is "Systems Thinking for Professions". The aim is for professionals to share their systems practices with their colleagues. As systems professionals we know that our way of doing things often differs from that of the professional stereotype. We like to see ourselves as thinking outside of the box. But “which box?”, I hear you think. Do we know what we have in common? Most people reflect on generosity and similarity when asked about their ISSS family experience. Before, during and after this conference, we will explore this matter a bit deeper.
Four of us are working together to better understand systems practice by professionals. We are: Roelien Goede, conference host, president  and professor at the North-West University (NWU); Dr Olaf Brugman, Vice President of this conference; Gary Smith, Vice President, Systems Practice; and lastly but in a sense most important, Stephany Peterson. Stephany is a PhD student at University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Canada. Her PhD is in Interdisciplinary Studies (Complexity; Integration and Implementation; Metaresearch). Her background in Sociology, coupled with her interest in reflective practice and the dynamics of academic conferences, makes her an ideal researcher to help us achieve our research goal. She is one of our featured new members in this newsletter. This research project will be registered at both the NWU and UNB. 
The aim of our participatory action research (AR) project is to develop a framework for systems practice in professions. Our interpretive research methodology echoes ethnographic AR aims to learn with the conference participants. We want to co-reflect on their systems practice journey to find common themes. Our research project will start before the conference through conversations with speakers. During the conference, we will collectively test assumptions and co-create with participants. After the conference we will reflect and corroborate our findings with the participants. Our work should develop into a contribution to systems practice by professionals.
This conference is unique in the history of ISSS conferences in that it is the focus of a research project in itself. This represents your invitation to join us as part of this journey. Tell us about your expectations in contributing to our living theory. After registration we will reach out to invite your consenting participation.
 
Introducing: Stephany Peterson
 

 
For those familiar with vintage Canadian CBC television, think of me as the two-legged version of The Littlest Hobo. Fitting in everywhere, I belong nowhere. This is in part what I have deemed a 'disposition for interdisciplinarity'. As a public scholar in critical research, teaching, and service across many ways of knowing, I aspire to serve as steward - rudder - for emergence of the more comprehensive whole. From a meta level, I consider this as integration and implementation of knowledge, mobilizing many ways of knowing to address the most pressing and urgent issues we face with the question, “what don’t we know that matters?”
My contribution is not expertise in component parts of problems; rather, my heart beats for eternally questioning and investigating the underlying processes common to any problem that meets the condition of complexity emerging from systems capable of producing it.

 

 

 

Systemic consciousness: New horizon for systems practice
Raghav Rajagopalan
 
Abstract:

The polycrisis creates a renewed expectation that systems practitioners provide leadership. Are we up to it? This paper reviews the underpinning foundations of current systems thinking and practice. We focus on problem-solving, overly rely on rationalism, and depend on “knowledge” to move ahead. Assembling testimony from a wide swathe of diverse wisdom traditions, crucial fronts on which systems thinking and practice can be advanced are discovered. The referenced disciplines include – action research, models of consciousness/mind, perennial wisdom traditions, indigenous wisdom, trauma-informed practices, healing traditions, and arts-based research. Ideas like holism and enactive cognition – core concepts in systems thinking – do not translate robustly into systems practice. Yet these principles are deployed in other traditions. There are techniques to interrogate the validity and usefulness of objects and formulations in the inner reality of the mind, just as we validate outer reality. Further techniques examine the relationality of the “inner” to the “outer” in dynamic interplay: such witnessing is aware, or reflexive, enactive cognition. These practices are available in approaches outside the slender paradigm of modern rational thinking, a blip in human civilizational history. Western rationality, including systems thinking, believes all consciousness rests on intentionality. The author terms this orientation as the Striving Mind, and introduces two other orientations – the Abiding Mind and the Nescient Mind. Engaging these supports critical reorientations: seeking correct questions instead of “problem-solving”, meta-rational knowing vs “rationalism”, and accepting not knowing/staying with the trouble vs “dependency on knowledge”. These fundamental paradigmatic reorientations are demanded by the polycrisis – a transition well underway, and create a ‘systemic consciousness’. Gaps in the interpretation and theoretical development of other wisdom traditions deter the adoption of useful methods into systems practice. A careful, engaged and compassionate inquiry across these domains can offer a rich understanding for the future development of systems thinking and practice. 

 

 

• What is my total cost?
  • Your total cost  is your flight to Johannesburg + your flight to Skukuza + conference fee + accommodation fee+ two restaurant dinners (other dinners are included)+ additional game drives / game walks to be reserved after arrival
  • Your conference cost depends on your status - refer to the table in the "Registration" section of this page
  • Your accommodation:
    Conference participant: $125 per night including breakfast [first 80]
    Additional person in room $55 per night including breakfast+ Conservation fee of $25 per day for those not registered for an ISSS event
     
• Which meals are included?
  • If you are in the first 80 registrants your breakfast is included. Thereafter it is self-catering in a bungalow. There is a supermarket in the camp with everything you need.
  • All lunches are included during STiP workshop and main conference days.
  • On the 18th and 20th dinners are included in the form of a local braai (BBQ) On the 21st dinner is at own cost in the restaurants. The supermarket has lots of snacks.
• Exactly where is the conference - and where should I stay?
  • The conference is in the Skukuza lodge in the Kruger National Park. Accommodation is in the Conference Lodge with an overflow in the Skukuza Rest Camp. We pre-booked your accommodation and you need to reserve your room as well as that of any guests during the registration process.
  • The Kruger National Park is an area of 2 million hectares where wild life has freedom to roam the bushveld of Southern Africa. More information on this world-famous conservation area is available at: https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/.
•  What should I bring? 
  • We compiled a checklist of most essential items to pack for your trip before leaving home. 
    IMPORTANT: There are very limited shopping opportunities in the Kruger National Park. Please familiarize yourself with the Skukuza Safari Lodge beforehand.  
    • Travel documents

      
      

      • Certified copies of your passport and visa pages to carry separate from your passport and visa in your hand luggage
      • Printout of your travel and health insurance
      • Proof of conference registration to be mailed to participants by 4 June 

      Medication

      • Malaria medication 
      • Mosquito repellent 
      • Sunscreen lotion
      • Your prescribed and chronic medicine (with copies of their prescriptions)
      • General medication for cold and/or flu, immune booster, allergies
      • Add some band aids
      • The winter air in South Africa is dry which may cause allergies and irritation 

      Electronics
      

      • Mobile phone charger and chargers for other electronic devices (including laptops) 
      • Conversion plug (see Q&A on website)
      • Small rechargeable electric light

      Clothing
      

      • Daytime temperatures in the KNP are mild but game drives and walks are really chilly. 
      • Wind resistant jacket for game drives and walks (neutral colours please)
      • Warm base layer for nights
      • Hat and/or sunglasses for game drives and walks
      • Best is to dress in layers 
      • Johannesburg is cold and dry this time of year, while Cape Town is cold and wet

      Please do the following before leaving home:
      • Activate your bank cards for international use
      • Activate international roaming on your mobile phone if you want to
      • Please join the Signal group for the main conference
      • Please join the Signal group for the STiP Workshop 
      • When joining these groups, please update your photo and name for security purposes
    • Also note that you will be receiving the following mails soon:
      1. An e-mail requesting you to fill in a google form (please complete a separate form for every participant and guest)
      2. An e-mail containing instructions on uploading your conference paper onto the journal system in order for us to produce the booklet of abstracts and proceedings

      Those of you arriving by air will be met at Skukuza Airport according to your flight times for transfer to the Lodge. 
       
      Looking forward to seeing all of you in three weeks' time!