Special Integration Groups (SIGs)

 

A Special Integration Group is not a Special Interest Group. See Special Integration Groups Purpose. Special Integration Groups may jointly focus on common interests (at a distance) over the year, and/or join in formal discussion at the annual meeting. Groups congregating in designated sessions at an annual meeting may be placed into one of two categories:

For more information on SIGs, consult the ISSS Bylaws.

 

Please contact the following SIG chairs for further information and any questions you may have about their work or submitting a paper in the Annual Meeting.

 

 

The focus of the AR SIG at ISSS is on the application of action research approaches to Systems Sciences where Action Research is defined as “a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a participatory worldview which we believe is emerging at this historical moment. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions of pressing concern to people and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities”. (Reason and Bradbury 2008, p. 4).

If you would like more information about this SIG, please email Eve. 

 

 

Balancing individualism and collectivism addresses the social and environmental justice challenge to live sustainably and well by:

considering the consequences of our social, economic and environmental policy and governance decisions for this generation and the next;

testing out ways to improve representation, accountability and re-generation.

It addresses the need to take into account the ethical implications of policy and governance decisions in the short, medium and long term based on testing out the implications for self, other and the environment.

 

The work of West Churchman on a Design of Inquiring Systems provides an approach to balancing individual rights and responsibilities with collective rights and responsibilities by working through questions that consider the implications of policy decisions by means of ‘what if’ scenarios that take into account the perceptions, values and narratives of diverse stakeholders ( irrespective of socio-demographic and cultural characteristics). A policy decision that supports social and environmental justice is informed by the axiom that we can be free and diverse to the extent that our choices do not undermine the rights of others and the environment in this generation and the next.

 

 

The special integration group in Critical Systems Thinking and Practice is a multidisciplinary and challenging area that represents an alternative approach to understanding human, social, and political issues, from multiple perspectives. The scope of the SIG goes beyond the boundaries of traditional management sciences. On the one hand, it involves a reflection on issues emerging from current systems thinking and practice from contemporary philosophy (e.g., post-structuralism, critical theory, postmodernism), and other social disciplines. On the other, it also includes research that although systemic in orientation is mainly grounded in those disciplines. Our aim is to take advantage of the multidisciplinary background and theoretical approaches of the participants, to generate a meaningful dialogue to inspire future research.

 

 

Globally, the proliferation of digital technologies (mobile, social media, cloud, big data, robotics, Internet of Things and so on) has reached astounding levels. In this SIG, the discussions will be around the foundational system concepts that will aid in creating successful systemic interventions using digital technologies. 
The world at large is witnessing a massive pace of digitization. Organizations are using digital to transform social interactions, customer relationships and communication with customers. The corner stone of digital technologies has been the ability to manipulate meaningful information in order to change the way a meaningful endeavor is undertaken. 

In the digital eco-system, it is often the case that distributed geographies, end-user age groups, customer preferences, emerging technologies, interconnectivity levels, dynamic and challenging environments, near real time response and rich customer experience dictate the success or failure of a digitization endeavor. In this scenario, it is often difficult to identify the cause and effects that leads to a successful endeavor. Without the ability to perform any form of analysis, organizations have to depend on trial and error to succeed. 
This SIG addresses formulating a systemic intervention that can be utilized to digitize different domains such af architecture, engineering, development, maintenance, deployment and integration. 

 

 

ISSS prides itself on being “among the first and oldest organizations devoted to interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of complex systems, and remains perhaps the most broadly inclusive."  There is an urgent need in society for greater systems literacy, and the more diverse the membership of ISSS becomes, the more likely systems literacy will increase across disciplines as well as genders and cultures.

 

 

 

 

The World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health in their constitution is: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” We employ the Chinese five elements systems theory to categorize health systems into physical health (Earth), mental health (Wood), emotional health (Fire), behavioural health (Metal), and spiritual health (Water). This Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Systemic Healthcare Engineering theory can be applied according to the viewpoint of any particular observer. Further study reveals that the same structure could be also applied to the levels above and below the particular observer level, as well as the interactions between the levels. http://www.yinyangbalance.asia/blog/?p=2282

 

 

Hierarchy Theory views systems as a set of ordered levels with a governing-governed relationship between the levels wherein the hierarchical levels are the sub-units of the whole system of interest. Further, the levels within the hierarchy are defined by the scale of observation chosen by the researcher (observer) and exploring this process of choice of scale is also of interest within the SIG. 

 

Hierarchy theory has many applications across variety of disciplines including, but not limited to chemistry, biology, mathematics, botany, and systems. According Ahl and Allen, hierarchy theory helps scientists and scholars distinguish between mere semantic differences and situations where data could indeed indicate which is superior between two truly competitive theories. 

 

Work in this SIG covers fields of research whether natural systems or social systems. Focus on both theory or practice are welcome. Administrative hierarchies, nested and non-nested hierarchies, the dimensionality of hierarchies, organizational and observational hierarchies, and hierarchies of control, are among suitable topics to explore and address. There is also great flexibility with new and original research and theory. 

 

 

 

 

 

Systems thinking can be quite clean and predictive...until you include those messy elements we call...humans. This SIG is dedicated to analysis and synthesis of systems that take the human factor into perspective, including our unique motivations, secret agendas, relationships and opinions. We're interested in your papers and presentations that help provide understanding of or at least exposure to the complexity of humans in corporations, family units, non-profits, government agencies and social structures.

 

Human systems inquiry builds upon the work in social systems design by Churchman, Ackoff and Checkland as well as the critical systems thinking work done by Jackson, Ulrich, Flood and Midgley.

 

Churchman has been the most articulate and most effective advocate of ethical systems theory and morality in human systems inquiry. Churchman says that systems inquiry must be value-oriented and it must be guided by the social imperative, which dictates that the technological efficiency must be subordinated to social efficiency. He speaks for the development of methods by which to verify ethical judgments.

The principle purpose of the living systems (LSS) group is to investigate all things that live from the very small, such as cell, to and including societies to discover universal phenomena applicable to living things and to develop a living science equivalent to “hard sciences” like physics and chemistry.

Papers are requested that address the development and application of a living systems science. The living systems special integration group (SIG) has been in existence for many years and has significant results.  However, many problems remain that need to be addressed.  Although both information and knowledge are essential for things to live, they do not have universal accepted precise and uniform definitions and usage.  They also cannot be measured.

Precise definitions and measures for both knowledge and information have been developed.   However, like the existing sciences such as physics, chemistry and electrical fundamental phenomena their measures must be accepted by the users of these sciences.  

 

Systemic Change Is the challenge of the 21st century. What are however the successful practices facilitating systemic change in social systems, organisations and societies? The OTSC SIG is dedicated to explore the conditions of the possibilities for effective and sustainable change. 

The OTSC SIG is inviting practice-oriented papers that relate systems and cybernetics to changing organisational and societal issues in reference to a bigger systemic picture. Hence the guiding question is on the improvement and innovation of change.

Methodologically references to praxeology, action research and action learning are as much welcome as modelling and scenarios, especially taking into account the digital transformation and its implications for practices and social trends. However, unlike the SABI SIG the focus is more on change and learning than on future blueprints.

 

 

The Relational Science (RS) SIG pursues a general systems inquiry into the nature and origin of complexity, wholeness, and life following the theories of mathematical biologist, Robert Rosen and a recent synthesis called R-theory. We approach the subject from the perspective of causality of and beyond material process, similarly to Aristotle's 'higher' causes, but as context for the dynamical causes. The focus is on cyclical causality as a natural fundamental, modelled as a natural modelling relation itself and using category theory to describe information-related inverse entailments (generally not allowed in mechanisms). In the theory there is a structural entailment (well known as dynamics from classical approaches) and a functional entailment (which is the causal inverse, describing how functions emerge from state and context). A recent synthesis called “R-theory” defines this cyclical relation between all four causes as "holon", which thus becomes the new fundamental unit of analysis, as opposed to the classical approach of defining material states and structures as the fundamental. The result is an extremely powerful and applicable description of nature from a holistic perspective, explaining sustainability and the existence of life and consciousness, as well as the natural reduction of generally interactive systems to mechanisms. In further developing these ideas, alternative approaches, applications, and tests are rigorously considered.

 

We advance this work through research, collaboration and Fellowships, reporting annually to ISSS. For example, In 2016 Dr. Roberto Poli (UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Systems) organized a two-month Fellowship in South Africa on relational theory. The 2016 ISSS conference and SRBS yearbook were organized according to these ideas of a "whole" system. In 2018 Leonie Solomons convened a special working group in Sri Lanka to consider the nature and origin of structure. Dr. Mary Edson led IFSR Team 6,  which completed a book in 2016 using relational theory to develop a framework for Systems Research. This SIG addresses the Rosen relational theory frameworks, applications and tests. Examples of included topics are listed below.

Development: Category theory logic of complex systems, holons, inverse 'functional' entailment, cyclical causality, etc.; Critique and comparison with other theories; Role in General Systems Theory and systems philosophy.

 

Application and Testing: Sustainability science & Ecological niche modeling; Information science and socio-ecological informatics; Evolution theory and origins of life; Cosmology and physics: Vedic meta-science and pre-historical civilization; 2nd Order Cybernetics (entailment of consciousness); Psychology and spiritual inquiry.

 

Education: Basic principles for K-12, especially under the heading of "system literacy" and "ecological literacy"; Undergraduate and Graduate curricula; Public outreach and application to daily life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This SIG Socio-Ecological Systems & Design intends to help advance a sound epistemology and methodology for socio-ecological systems design in conjunction with socio-technological systems design. At the interface of science – humanities – engineering/design we investigate the interdependencies of natural – social – technological systems to develop appropriate design competencies for future oriented life concepts and thrivable ecologies, a flourishing planet, meaningful technologies, and futurable humanity.

The SIG addresses all those disciplines involved in an integration of knowledge through trans-disciplinarity in order to advance the specific disciplines, informed by the General Systems Approach. The SIG follows its agenda of conducting research that takes the complexity of both ecological and social systems into account and extends the subject matter into the paradigm of design and Gestaltung as living and learning system. We are aiming at developing theories, strategies and designing systems of design in a newly framed environment, to support advances in Anticipating Futures and Sustainability Leadership.
The SIG address topics such as: 
•    Evolutionary systems, theories of living systems and theories of social systems
•    Biological, systemic and computational design strategies
•    Bio-digital Technologies and Applied Artificial Intelligence in Socio-Ecological Systems
•    Biomimicry and Materials Technology applications in Socio-Ecological Systems
•    Architecture and Spatial Design
•    Urban design (e.g. sustainable urbanism, smart cognitive cities), and regional development
•    Biodiversity, agriculture and rural development
•    Designing and governing biosphere reserves and nature sanctuaries
•    Design of supply networks in public services (e.g. energy, water, traffic and public transport, information technologies and telecommunications, health care, and education infrastructures) and value networks in business services
•    Designing Innovation and Business Ecosystems (cross-overs welcome)
•    Designing research and development systems and governmental systems to address the challenges of future-oriented thriving ecologies.

 

Students from approximately high school to post-doctoral age are cordially invited to join the activities of the Student SIG. The goals of the Student SIG include: to foster interest and excitement for the systems sciences among students; share and articulate ideas from many different disciplines; and to synthesize a collected “student” view of the Society’s past, present, and future.

What makes this SIG unique, is the opportunity to integrate many varied disciplines and backgrounds into a student presence within the ISSS. Distinguished members of the society will also be invited to come speak to our SIG to further present their ideas. It is essential that student participation be established in order to introduce students to the workings of the ISSS, to create a contributing student membership, and to perpetuate the work of the ISSS in the future.

 

 

 

SIG: Systemic Innovation, Engagement, and Leadership - Chair: William Smith Email: william.smith@odii.com
By focusing on the dynamics of emergence at the interface of human, technological and ecological systems, the LaSI SIG explores conditions that enable the emergence of self-directed sustainable networks of socio-technical systems.  What are the conditions that give rise to such systems of systems, and what are the requisit systemic leverage points and systemic nurturance spaces that allow them to blossom into thriving communities of impact?  By considering issues of connective and collective intelligence and applying insights from the nascent field of collaborology, the LaSI SIG seeks to identify and nurture patterns of thrivability and to design the socio-technical platforms needed to support them. You are cordially invited to contribute a paper and/or poster for presentation in the LaSI SIG. Areas of interest in the SIG are:
Specific projects of health and thrivability that have the potential to synergize with other initiatives. 
Communities of such projects and initiatives. 
Systems thinkers who can model the two previous levels and foster their learning dynamics.

 

 

SIG: Systems Applications in Business and Industry - Chair: Vacant
The business world is facing increasing complexity and uncertainty. Systemic concepts and solutions provide guidance for teams, groups and organizations to better deal with highly interdependent natural, technological, social and political systems. The key audience are researchers, managers, consultants and others interested in fields such as: Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Problem Solving, Risk Management and Marketing. In this SIG, we address key concepts and principles from Systems Theory, Cybernetics and Complexity Research, such as: Systems, Networks, Feedback, Self-organization, Adaptation, Innovation, Purpose, Communication, Cooperation and Coevolution. Typical methods and frameworks are Problem Structuring, Soft Systems Methodology, Causal Loop Diagrams, System Dynamics, Network Analysis, Viable System Model, Design Thinking, Agility and Reflective Practice. 
How can systems thinking support sense-making in complex and uncertain situations, reduce unintended consequences and support resilience, innovation and flourishing?
What are systemic solutions for corporate social responsibility and sustainable development?
How can the field of systems and complexity science help to improve theoretical foundations of organization theory, management research and economics?
What are systemic approaches for transforming management education and create leaders ready to address the challenges and needs of tomorrow?

 

 

 

Complex engineered systems arise from the collective and purposeful work of people. Yet, their realization and management often results in non-desired and/or unexpected emerging characteristics and/or behaviors.

In this SIG we seek:to better understand the systems engineering worldviews that dominate systems engineering practice in the field,

 

Systems engineering practice can be broken down into three distinct realms: 1) engineering of systems, 2) process and control of systems, and 3) program management. The science and practice of these three realms has been studied extensively. However, their holistic integration, especially at their intersections, where human activity systems are key to their performance, is still to be explored in more detail. With that in mind, we can establish that complex engineered systems arise from the collective and purposeful work of people by following the three systems engineering practice realms. Yet, their realization and management oftentimes results in non-desired and/or unexpected emerging characteristics and/or behaviors.

Within that framework, this SIG explores:

 

 

Systems Philosophy is the philosophical component of Systemology, the transdisciplinary field concerned with the scientific interest in all kinds of systems.  Systems Philosophy is one of the four major strands in Systemology, alongside Systems Science, Systems Engineering and Systems Practice.  The central focus of Systems Philosophy is the search for a scientific worldview that could guide analysis and action in a complex systemic world, such we can attain the systemic values of justice, freedom, social welfare and environmental stewardship.  This SIG provides a venue for developing and discussing ideas, strategies, frameworks, opportunities and challenges relevant to developing and applying effective systems philosophies.

We address any of the traditional concerns of Systems Philosophy.  The SIG on Systems Philosophy aims to stimulate and coordinate work on the philosophical underpinnings of systems worldviews, theories and methodologies, and thus contribute to the work needed to establish the systems perspective as a mainstream view, and hence for the potential of the systems perspective to be realized. 

The Systems Philosophy SIG provides a forum where systemologists can discuss and develop ideas concerning: