A global community connected through systems theory, science, and practice 

 
 
"To gain knowledge, we must learn to ask the right questions; and to get answers, we must act, not wait for answers to occur to us."
 
ISSS Past President Anatol Rapoport
 
 
 
 
 
 
The ISSS is a community of researchers, learners, and practitioners who are devoted to transdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of complex systems and the application of systems approaches for transformative change.
 
Conceived in 1954, the ISSS advances systems science theory and application by connecting and enabling researchers and practitioners, and disseminates the knowledge of systems to a global audience. 
 
As an international society we are exploring ways to translate this website into other languages. You can enter the website address here https://translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=es&op=websites to start a machine translation process.
 
 
 

Conference 2024

The ISSS 2024 Conference will be in the third week in June will be at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington D.C. USA
 

ISSS Intro & JOIN NOW

 
 
 
Short video introducing the ISSS and this website. Click bottom right of player to go full screen.
 
 
 

Membership

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ISSS President

The ISSS President for 2023-2024 is Michele Friend PhD. 
 
Incoming Address given at ISSS 2023 Conference, Friday 23 June 2023.
 
 

Calendar

ISSS Book Club
Thursday, October 19, 2023
12:30pm to 2pm
The purpose of the book club is to explore the systems science literature in depth, so books are read over several months, with monthly reading assignments of approximately 50-100 pages....
ISSS Book Club
Thursday, November 16, 2023
12:30pm to 2pm
The purpose of the book club is to explore the systems science literature in depth, so books are read over several months, with monthly reading assignments of approximately 50-100 pages....
ISSS Book Club
Thursday, December 21, 2023
12:30pm to 2pm
The purpose of the book club is to explore the systems science literature in depth, so books are read over several months, with monthly reading assignments of approximately 50-100 pages....

ISSS News Articles

18th Congresso Brasileiro de Sistemas
Posted on Jun 13th, 2023
 
26 e 27 de outubro de 2023
Belo Horizonte/MG
Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
 
 
The 18th Brazilian Congress of Systems will present the theme "Systems in Conversation", whose objective is to promote interactions between the different research groups associated with systemic and cybernetic thinking in Brazil, based on Gordon Pask's theory of conversation. These interactions will provide the exchange of ideas and experiences, with the aim of mapping and understanding the production of these groups.
The event will be structured around a previous meeting, inspired by parallel conversation models such as the Sintegration protocol proposed by Stafford Beer. In this meeting the different areas of interest and speakers will be discussed and defined.
The Congress will be hosted for the first time at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and will take place at the UFMG School of Architecture in a hybrid format, providing face-to-face and digital meetings. This approach gives participants greater flexibility and allows for participation by people who might not otherwise be able to attend in person.
We hope that this event will provide an environment conducive to the discussion of relevant topics and the creation of new connections between participants, contributing to the advancement of systemic and cybernetic thinking in Brazil.
 
Abstracts will be accepted in English
 
Chamada de trabalhos

O Congresso Brasileiro de Sistemas tem o prazer de anunciar a abertura das inscrições para a submissão de trabalhos para a próxima edição do evento. Buscando uma alternativa ao tradicional agrupamento por áreas e disciplinas de pesquisa e atuação propomos a articulação dos trabalhos em torno de conceitos ou princípios que permeiam a prática sistêmica e cibernética como campos eminentemente transdisciplinares. Tais conceitos apresentados no gráfico a seguir surgiram das dinâmicas conduzidas no pré-evento realizado no dia 27/05 e buscam priorizar a dimensão conversacional que envolve toda a organização deste 18º CBS.
 

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Activities

ISSS members are engaged in a number of activities around the world. Read more  at https://www.isss.org/activities/
 
Many member activities are collaborative in nature and also involve partnerships and collaborations with other organizations:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Systems Science Working Group
Systems Literacy
Systemic Action at the Village Level to encourage and support sustainable development.

Conference 2023

The 2023 Meeting and Conference is now over.
 
 
Visit the Memories of Kruger page for the story of the conference including the booklet of abstracts, photos and videos.
 
Visit the original Conference Webpage for more information.
 
 
The 2023 Conference was at the Skukuza Lodge in Kruger National Park in South Africa in June 19-23 June 2023. 
 

World of Systems

The ISSS is one of the oldest organizations dedicated to the study, development and application of systems science, systems thinking, cybernetics and complexity science. 
 
 
We are assembling lists of organizations, social network pages and groups, and also maps of the evolution of the field of systems and cybernetics. Here are some examples
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Please email me with comments, additions or corrections. Peter D Tuddenham peterdtuddenham at gmail.com

Meeting Proceedings

We Remember

We Remember
 
 
Loet Leydesdorff 1948-11 March 2023
Tim Haslett - February 10 2023
John Friend - November 2022
Mick Ashby 1963 - October 2022
Klaus Krippendorf 1932 - October 2022
Ralph Stacey 1942 - 2021
Steven E Wallis July 29, 2021
James Robert Simms, December 5, 1924 - Saturday, May 22, 2021
Humberto Maturana 1929 - May 2021
Mary Catherine Bateson 1939 - 2 January 2021
Charles Bocage died 21 August 2020
Peter Caws  May 25, 1931 - April 20, 2020 (ISSS President 1966) 
Joe Simpson - June 2020
Jack Ring  - April 2020
Enrique Herrscher 2019
Charles Francois 2019
 

Systems Science & Applications Spotlight

Members of ISSS are researching and applying Systems Science in a variety of situations and circumstances. we are creating a temporary Editorial Board to decide what new research and application by ISSS Members to feature here. For more information please email webadmin@isss.org

AAAS Affiliate

AAAS Logo
 
In 1954 the founders of the current ISSS met at meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They decided to start the Society for General Systems Theory later renamed Society for General Systems Research and now called the International Society for the Systems Sciences. One of the early group of founders and first presidents of our society in 1957,  Kenneth Ewart Boulding  was President of AAAS in 1980