{"id":409,"date":"2017-10-07T22:35:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T22:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=409"},"modified":"2017-10-19T21:56:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T21:56:44","slug":"c1-page-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/c1-page-3\/","title":{"rendered":"C1 &#8211; Page 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-409\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-409-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-409-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-button panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-button so-widget-sow-button-atom-01aba267e6d3-409\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t><div class=\"ow-button-base ow-button-align-right\"\n>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/c1-page-2\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"sowb-button ow-icon-placement-left ow-button-hover\" \t>\n\t\t<span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sow-icon-fontawesome sow-fas\" data-sow-icon=\"&#xf104;\"\n\t\tstyle=\"\" \n\t\taria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-409-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 20pt;\">What is a system?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-409-0-2\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-0-2-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-button panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"2\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-button so-widget-sow-button-atom-40024cd54427-409\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t><div class=\"ow-button-base ow-button-align-left\"\n>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/c1-page-4\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"sowb-button ow-icon-placement-left ow-button-hover\" \t>\n\t\t<span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sow-icon-fontawesome sow-fas\" data-sow-icon=\"&#xf105;\"\n\t\tstyle=\"\" \n\t\taria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-409-1\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-409-1-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-image panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"3\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-image so-widget-sow-image-default-8b5b6f678277-409\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"sow-image-container\">\n\t\t<img \n\tsrc=\"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/C1-systems.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/C1-systems.jpg 800w, https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/C1-systems-300x113.jpg 300w, https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/C1-systems-768x288.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" alt=\"\" \t\tclass=\"so-widget-image\"\/>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-409-2\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-409-2-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-2-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child\" data-index=\"4\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">What is a system? This word crops up in so many places. How do we recognise a system when we see one?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><div id=\"panel-409-2-0-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_video panel-last-child\" data-index=\"5\" ><div style=\"width:100%;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-409-1\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/youtube\" src=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FZaZS4bMKgM?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FZaZS4bMKgM\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/FZaZS4bMKgM<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-409-3\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-409-3-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-409-3-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"6\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>In brief<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">We use the same word, system, to describe so many different patterns of arrangement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Examples of systems: telephone, IT, digestive, solar, social, legal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Some are physical, material, hard. Others are abstract, conceptual, or soft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Let\u2019s start with some the characteristics of systems:\u00a0a boundary of some kind, where the system ends; the system has purpose \u2013 it does something, probably transforming A into B; a system can be said to be \u2018more than the sum of its interdependent parts\u2019, it has \u2018emergent properties\u2019, results come out of the way it behaves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Fritjof Capra argues, in the Web of Life, that, to describe systems, biology provides better metaphors and images than machines and technology. According to Capra, and borrowing from the way living organisms are organised, systems:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Are self-starting and self-organising;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Have a life process;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Have a semi-permeable boundary, where things flow in and out, where the boundary is a point of relationship, rather than an enclosing case;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Are dissipative \u2013 changing but staying the same, staying the same but changing;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Are nested within other systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Gregory Bateson talks about systems having the property of \u2018mind\u2019 \u2013 able to communicate \u2018information of difference\u2019, to respond to changes, to learn from these. He also argues that there is no \u2018stuff\u2019, just a never-ending process of cause and effect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Similarly, Ralph Stacey suggests organisations are not hard structures, but complex responsive processes, constantly unfolding and changing, mediated by conversation and communication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Key point: systems have emergent properties arising from, and greater than the sum of, their interdependent parts<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>In practice<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Notice systems, as you go about the place.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Try to \u2018describe\u2019 some \u2013 what is going on?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">What is the system for, what emerges from it? Is this predictable or unpredictable?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Where are you putting a boundary? What happens there \u2013 as things flow in and out? How does the system change if you move the boundary?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">How does the system sustain itself, what information flows and how does it respond?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">What are the \u2018rules of the game\u2019?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">David Bohm (1996)\u00a0<em>On Dialogue\u00a0<\/em>Routledge, UK<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Fritjof Capra (1997)\u00a0<em>The Web of Life\u00a0<\/em>Flamingo<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Gregory Bateson (1972)\u00a0<em>Steps to an Ecology of Mind\u00a0<\/em>University of Chicago Press, USA or Noel G. Charlton \u2013\u00a0<em>Understanding Gregory Bateson<\/em>\u00a0 (2008) State University of New York Press, USA<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/complexityandmanagement.wordpress.com\/about\/\">Ralph Stacey<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Stephan Harding (2006)\u00a0<em>Animate Earth\u00a0<\/em>Green Books, UK<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Humberto Maturana Rumesin and Francisco J. Varela (1992)\u00a0<em>The Tree of Knowledge \u2013 the biological roots of human understanding\u00a0<\/em>Shambhala Publications Inc<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>In-depth (bullet point summary from the video, above)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Biology may offer useful metaphors for understanding systems - as per Fritjof Capra.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">The characteristics of biological systems include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Autopoeosis: systems are self-starting, as per the development of cell membranes<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Self -organisation<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Patterned<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Dissipative, as per the mathematician Prirogine: meaning that parts change, but the whole remains the same, e.g. a fountain, a river, cells in organisms, organisations and social arrangements<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Exist far from equilibrium not tending toward equilibrium<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">With a \u2018life process\u2019: systems maintain their own concept of what that system is. We bring our reality into being, what we believe to be objective reality is simply socially agreed between us, e.g. a table is not a table to an ant<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Properties emerge from the system: it is greater than the sum of its parts, the results of combinations are different from that which is combined, e.g. sodium and chlorine to make salt<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Other points from Capra:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Social structures reflect basic life structures - social arrangements reflect how cells organize, as per Maturana and Varela, who say social systems copy the fundamental building blocks of our own bodily systems<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>What we can learn from Complexity theory<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">The machine metaphor is dead<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Events in nature are non-linear<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Things exist, for the time being, in a steady state 'basin of attraction', but then may 'tip' into different patterns or behaviour<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Simple mathematical equations in nature produce great complexity, e.g. fern leaves<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Small changes may produce great effects. These effects may be felt a long way from their causes<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">The future may be uncertain, unpredictable, but it is not random - there is \u2018path-dependency\u2019, that is, what has gone before limits what can happen next<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">System hierarchies work from the bottom - one level erects a level above it to serve its needs<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Sub-atomic physics suggests we seem to be moving closer to Buddha's idea that ultimately there is nothing, that the observer affects what is observed and that life is an endless chain of causation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Other thinkers: Gregory Bateson \u2013 Steps to an Ecology of Mind.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Key points:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">There is no 'stuff' - just a series of relationships and causal chains, either symmetrical or complementary<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Many systems have the property of 'mind', especially organic systems<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Characteristics of mind:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">A sensing mechanism, providing:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Information of difference<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Ability to respond<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Ability to build a memory from response<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Ability to repeat response<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">This does not need not be 'conscious'<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">To understand an over-arching system of which we are a sub-system, we will need to become that system. This implies that we can never fully understand the greater system within which our system is nested.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>James Lovelock \u2013 Gaia theory<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Earth itself has properties of mind<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">It is self-regulating - has maintained its temperature and atmosphere over millennia<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">It has feedback loops<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Positive (re-enforcing) and negative (balancing)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">It is not conscious (as far as we know!)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Others<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Prirogine \u2013 systems are dissipative (ever changing yet stating the same, staying the same yet ever changing (see Capra, above)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Maturana and Varela - Social systems reflect the fundamental building blocks of life, such as the symbiotic cell, of which we have knowledge at a deep level within ourselves<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Bohm\u00a0- we are all part of a whole. The idea of a hologram may provide a better metaphor for the universe.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">we reflect the whole universe in each of us<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">we are emanations in the form of energy from the implicate whole<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">our purpose is simply 'to be' - I am, therefore I am.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Deep ecologists<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Rachel Carson (1962)\u00a0<em>Silent Spring\u00a0<\/em>Houghton Mifflin, USA<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Aldo Leopold \u2013\u00a0<em>Sand County Almanac<\/em>(1949) OUP, UK<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arne_N%C3%A6ss\">Arne Naess<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Stephan Harding \u2013\u00a0<em>Animate Earth\u00a0<\/em>(2006) Green Books, UK<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a system?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-409","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemslearning.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}