https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia -- July 12th - 17th 2009 en-US Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2009, Brisbane, Australia 1999-6918 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1211 The field of systems grew out of, and then parallel to, science in many ways. In continuing its focus on general principles and the unification of science, though, through a search for isomorphies, much of the value of work in systems may have been missed. Systems are formed around patterns of organization, and the ability to affect specific systems ultimately lies in the ability to recognize and affect those patterns. Despite the early rejection of reductionism, most models and many principles used in systems still rely on characteristics applicable to physics. Softer forms of design and modeling have tended to be vague and non-specific. This paper recommends a next advance in systems, focusing on basic principles of organization at the level of unique systems. Gary S. Metcalf Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1123 Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that employs the use of higher plants for the clean up contaminated environment. Phyto extraction, the use of plants to extract toxic metals from contaminated soils, has emerged as a cost-effective, environment-friendly clean up alternative. The present study aimed to find a suitable plants species for use in cleaning up the soil in industrial regions. In this work we were studied crop species, which are cultivated by farmers of North-India. The effects of different concentration of copper were studied in two varieties of wheat (T. aestivum L., var. UP 2338 and var. PBW 373), mustard (Brassica juncea L.) and radish (Raphanus sativus L.) plants. The study included an assessment of heavy metal accumulation in root, shoot and leaf, effect of copper stress on growth parameter (root length, root and shoot dry weight), photosynthetic pigment content, bioaccumulation coefficient (BAC) and the activity of anti-oxidant enzymes. Results demonstrated that plant species were differ significantly in Cu uptake and translocation. Efficient Cu uptake was observed by the roots in all plants. A high metal content in roots, due to localization of ions in the apoplasm. The highest Cu++ ions accumulated in the roots of radish plant. Root growth was higher in brassicaceae plants (i.e. mustard and radish), as compared to the plants of poaceae family (T. aestivm). High concentration of copper (50-100 µM) had a negative effect on growth of all plants. Copper exposure also influenced biochemical and physiological parameters. Administration of excess of copper was followed by an increase of Cu accumulation in leaves, and associated symptoms of toxicity. Typical symptoms of Cu toxicity developed 30 days after the beginning of treatment. Chlorophyll concentration was decreased in response to heavy metal toxicity. Activity of anti-oxidative enzymes e.g. peroxidase and catalase were increased in response to oxidative stress. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) was used for analysis of heavy metal in soil and plant samples. Tested plant species were grouped on the basis of their accumulation capability of heavy metal. The results of this research showed that radish and mustard plants of family brassicaceae are hyper accumulator plants that can concentrate heavy metals in their different parts, thus they can be used for remediation of polluted area. Study also showed that potential of metal accumulator plants for extraction of metal from soil occur up to a certain level of concentration, after that when the concentration of metal increased the phyto extraction rate of metal or bioaccumulation coefficient (BAC) were decreased. Dr. Gunjan Garg Dr. Sanjay Kumar Kataria Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1220 As part of New Zealand’s obligations to the Kyoto Protocol, New Zealand has developed an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as a mechanism to reduce its national greenhouse gas footprint, and to encourage and support global action on climate change. The forestry sector in New Zealand was the first sector to enter the ETS, effective from 1 January 2008. So far forest owners in New Zealand have been slow to join the scheme. To investigate this situation further, a systems thinking group model building workshop was held to discuss the effects of the ETS on the New Zealand forestry value chain. A qualitative system dynamics analysis was undertaken, whereby a range of relevant issues were generated by a group of stakeholders, and based on these a set of causal variables were identified. These showed a strong bias towards an economic viewpoint of the basic issue being examined. Causal loop diagrams were made from these variables, and the dominant loops were briefly analysed. This paper will discuss some of the insights gained from the project to date. Tom Adams Robert Y Cavana Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1289 Change is inherent to both social and natural systems and their interaction. The complexity of the dynamics of change and uncertainty associated with linked social-natural systems and their multi-scalar and spatially variable nature is widely recognised as adversely impacting on liveability and sustainability in many contexts. Institutions and policies that have traditionally been concerned with managing our social and natural systems for liveability and sustainability are being challenged by the complexity of the policy problems now being faced as well as the growing pace and magnitude of change and the uncertainty that it embodies. An important element of the response to this change is an emerging shift in public policy from uncoordinated hierarchical top-down sectoral or program-specific approaches to more ‘holistic’ regional approaches that emphasise inter-sectoral coordination and cross-scale co-operation. Several disciplines and inter-disciplinary fields have shown an interest in the dynamics of this change identifying the complex, multi-level and nested nature of the governance at the regional or territorial level. Much of this work however has focused on sector-specific issues or particular programmatic policy initiatives, and seldom provides a more holistic examination of the complexity of the overall system of multi-level governance in practice at the regional level and the related challenges and opportunities for supporting livability and sustainability more effectively. Drawing on the concepts of complex systems and adaptive governance in a regional policy context, this paper addresses this gap and reports on the first of three case studies examining the current nature and future options for regional governance in Australia. Based on a case study of the rural and remote region of Central Western Queensland in north-eastern Australia, we examine the nature and emerging trends of the existing system of regional governance and consider its potential for enhancing regional capacity to adapt to change and support liveability and sustainability in rural Australia. Jennifer Bellamy A.J. Brown Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1283 Rapid change is occurring in regional (non-metropolitan) areas in relation to a wide range of natural and human-mediated forces and is taking place at various temporal and spatial scales. Attempts by governments of different persuasions to confront the challenges have partially succeeded or failed altogether. A novel and integrative approach is required to analyse, plan and manage the sustainable use of ecosystems, resources and biodiversity in regional systems. Based on systems thinking concepts, especially from cybernetics and complexity science, the approach, termed systemic regional development, is put forward in this article. Robert Faggian Victor Andres Sposito Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1236 Biobased lubricants are an attractive alternative to conventional petrobased lubricants due to a number of their physical properties including: renewablility, biodegradability, high lubricity and high flash points. Biobased lubricants have not replaced petrobased lubricants due to their higher cost, oxidative and thermal instability and limited temperature applications. Research has been done to improve the physical properties of biobased lubricants. Dupont has bioengineered soybean seeds to yield soybean oil that is more oxidatively stable. The Prileshajev Epoxidation Process was developed to increase the oxidative stabilty of soybean oil. The Amberlyst 15 Catalyst was used to Reduce Pour Point of Vegetable Oil. Biobased lubricants are generally more expensive than petrobased lubricants, but their increased lubricity allows for monetary savings through a decreased energy input requirement. As biobased lubricants are derived from vegetable oil, careful work must be done to balance the allocation of crop used to make lubricant. Currently there is not enough arable land to support the widespread use of biobased lubricants, so a collaboration of industry and government policy must be used to promote the use of biobased lubricants. Adam Ing Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1296 The global impact of an ever-increasing population-base combined with dangerously depleted natural resources highlights the urgent need for changes in human lifestyles and land-use patterns. To achieve more equitable and sustainable land use, it is imperative that populations live within the carrying capacity of their natural assets in a manner more accountable to and ethically responsible for the land which sustains them. Our society’s very survival may well depend on worldwide acceptance of the carrying capacity imperative as a principle of personal, political, economic, educational and planning responsibility. This theoretically-focussed research identifies, examines and compares a range of methodological approaches to carrying capacity assessment and considers their relevance to future spatial planning. It also addresses existing gaps in current methodologies and suggests avenues for improvement. A set of eleven key criteria are employed to compare various existing carrying capacity assessment models. These criteria include whole-systems analysis, dynamic responses, levels of impact and risk, systemic constraints, applicability to future planning and the consideration of regional and local boundary delineation. This research finds that while some existing methodologies offer significant insights into the assessment of population carrying capacities, a comprehensive model is yet to be developed. However, it is suggested that by combining successful components from various authors, and collecting a range of interconnected data, a practical and workable systems-based model may be achievable in the future. Murray Craig Lane Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1251 There is a shift in economic thinking from a growth model with its constellation of competition, scarcity and deficiency, to a co-operation model that emphasizes steady-state, abundance and satisfaction. The dominant economic paradigm of corporate capitalism went from recession into meltdown on September 12, 2008, when the Cheney/Bush administration let Lehman Brothers fail. The new Obama administration is transforming the way people talk and do politics. Following both orthodox Milton Friedman monetarism and conventional Keynesian fiscal thinking, the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration are throwing trillions of dollars into the economy in an attempt to stop the bank hemorrhaging enough to create new lines of credit. If the entire economy is severely deflating, as housing foreclosures continue, driving down the value of assets of large banks, the Obama administration will have to shift to a more pragmatic analysis than traditional Keynesianism. The next economic system needs to focus on masses of people living in large cities and small towns. Components of a viable social information structure in a computer age include: using public sector employee salaries as the benchmark for private sector wages, the tax structure, and the pricing structure for housing, transportation, utilities and other necessities; adequate public light rail transportation; computa, a personal economic grid to manage an individual’s personal data, and create a confidential aggregate database for social policy analysis and evaluation; local governance via a socio-economic-environmental plan; and local decision taking based on information developed through the Viable System Model of Stafford Beer. Jon Li Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1162 This paper describes an example of integrated socio-ecological systems management that is underway in Central Canterbury, New Zealand. Canterbury is New Zealand’s largest region comprising approximately 17% of the country’s land area. The region currently accounts for approximately 60% of all water allocated for consumptive use in New Zealand and 70% of the nation’s irrigated land. The ‘wicked’ problem greeting researchers in 2004 was a community divided over the sustainable development of its water resources as these resources approached full allocation potential. The context for this situation is resource management legislation (the Resource Management Act 1991) with integrating intent but fragmented and under-resourced implementation until recently, which has inhibited integrated understanding of relevant social, economic, cultural and ecological systems before the pressures escalated in processes to allocate a resource deemed increasingly scarce and valuable. To add value to recent processes at multiple spatial extents led by the devolved resource management decision maker (the Canterbury Regional Council), a multi-disciplinary group of researchers and stakeholders of place, interest and regulation embarked on a collaborative approach to consider the challenges of sustainable water allocation in Central Canterbury. Significant progress has been made despite participation challenges for those also involved in the continuing adversarial processes and those requiring quick answers to complex questions. Collaboration has occurred via meetings of various scale and focus, written research reports, meeting reports, peer reviewed literature and a website. A key achievement to date has been the assimilation of a wide variety of knowledge and information for a catchment/watershed-focussed historical information project. One output from this process involves the combination of qualitative and quantitative knowledge on a key intermittent river in the catchment to identify river connection potential prior to the commencement of river flow recording. This extended river connection record was then analysed alongside multiple scales of natural and human drivers to address an information gap relating to the rise and dramatic decline of New Zealand’s greatest brown trout fishery. Trout are particularly relevant to water allocation due to a section of the resource management legislation that seeks to protect trout (and salmon) habitat in a sustainable balance between water abstraction and fishable/swimmable water bodies. The new hydrosystem information was then added to other relevant information and utilised in a system resilience assessment based on the Panarchy framework. This information is currently being structured in a way that enables analysis of interconnections with other relevant socio-ecological systems such as riparian zone functions, the opening regime of a large lake at the base of the catchment, and potential institutional arrangements for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of currently allocated water. At the same time, all statutory agencies with responsibilities in the catchment are working with a community trust to poll the community on a choice between three potential futures for the lake and its catchment. A long term aim for these processes is the creation and implementation of an integrated catchment management plan which is significantly supported by regulatory agencies and the community. This would indeed be a wicked (in the best sense of the word) solution to a ‘wicked’ socio-ecological system problem. Brett Painter Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1247 Relational theory is an extension of Robert Rosen’s relational complexity. Its development implies a fundamental, four-quadrant ‘holon’ structure in nature based on nested modeling relations and their structure-function epistemology. Holons comprise and are comprised of other holons, thus providing a robust holistic analysis of nature at all scales. The four quadrants of the holon correspond with Rosen’s theory, Aristotle’s four causes, Ken Wilbur’s analysis of social hierarchies, and Vedic principles employed in quantum physics. Two quadrants of the holon define mechanistic science while the other two account for complexity. To use this view of nature as an analytical method and informatics architecture, each quadrant must have its own methods and tools. The mechanistic components are well developed but the relationistic ones are not. Quadrant II represents intrinsic potentials in nature, and it corresponds with the concept of the ecological niche in Ecology. The ecological niche is thus indicated as having central importance in ecology and relational theory. We are in a good position for rapid development of Quadrant II, which requires a robust and general method for ecological niche modeling. Such a method is being developed and is described here as the General Ecological Niche (GEN) model. Once this general method is established in Quadrant II, development of Quadrant III methodology for interactions of niche potentials and their aggregation into system attractors, may also be accomplished. Coupling models in all four quadrants of the relational holon will provide an entirely new form of analysis and informatics that is appropriate for studying complex and living phenomena. Urgent development of this architecture is recommended to address ecosystem problems. John Kineman Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1249 Science, at its best, is supposed to be a set of tools, constructed by humanity for use in improving our quality of life, our chances for survival, and the survival and welfare of our progeny. In all of those pursuits, sustainability really is not optional; it is required. Sustainability must be the cornerstone for any kind of planning for future outcomes that we want to use our science to achieve. To do other than that is both irresponsible and foolish. However, even when our intentions are planted firmly on the tenets of sustainability, we still need to be able to trust the tools we intend to use to do the jobs we are asking of them. Chief among those jobs is scientific modeling and prediction. Any proposed therapy we want to consider implementing in local or global ecosystems, for example, will need to be tested in models first—before we decide to risk implementing such a therapy in the natural world. We need to know that the models used are actually capable of accurately predicting what would happen in ecosystems, in social systems, physiologies, psychologies, etc. All of these systems involve living organisms and/or interactions between living organisms in critically important ways. Currently, our science is based on a presumption, buried deep in the foundational theory upon which all science rests, that all systems in the universe are “just like machines” and, therefore, have only the behavior potentials that machines have. All machines are purely reactive in their behavior potentials: In such a world, causality flows from past through present towards future—just as time is also presumed to do—in a linear, unidirectional fashion. In that scenario, there is no way for the future to act, in any causal way, on the present. But, that is clearly not how life works (The fact that this paper is being written now, months before the conference it is to be presented at, offers one proof of that.) If life is not “purely reactive”, what does that mean for science? Do we hold on to our scientific presumptions about the universe and conclude that aspects such as life and the human mind must therefore be supernatural in origin and potential? Or do we turn around and take a hard look at our tools, instead. What happens if we discard the notion of “The Machine” as an appropriate model for all systems in the universe? The reactive paradigm of science need not be discarded: It will remain just as applicable to certain types of systems as it ever was— BUT—we are no longer limited to ONLY that. We are then free to expand our scientific capacity in order to study relations between interacting “things”, study the impact of changes in such relations on causal outcomes, and to develop some new tools that will be capable of helping us truly learn about the anticipatory nature of living systems. This will allow us to build far better models of them, as individual organisms or as populations within environments, which can accurately represent their true capabilities in interactions of myriad types, in the natural world. Only then will we really have a hope of being able to trust in the predictions our tools offer us as we try to decide how to proceed. In short: We need to think ahead, individually and collectively—more so now than ever before in human history. The margin for error is growing thinner as our population increases. The old dictum from carpentry applies: Measure twice, cut once. Just as importantly, we will need the right tools for the job. It is a salient truth that the issue of “sustainability” is not a reactive concept; it is an anticipatory one. Judith Rosen Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1237 Community environmental management (CEM) is increasingly seen as a solution to complex environmental issues facing regulatory authorities. Little is written in the literature about how CEM programmes should be evaluated given the complex relationship between community participation and environmental outcomes. CEM programmes have much potential, but the lack of evidence-base means that their role in resource management is not necessarily well understood. This paper reports on action research that developed and trialled a systemic CEM evaluation methodology that blends three evaluation paradigms: stakeholder, goal-based and organisational. Jeff Lawrence Foote Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll Maria Hepi Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1264 In this paper a systems approach to evaluation is proposed. It is argued that many evaluations fail to achieve a comprehensive assessment because they are essentially reductionist in nature; only focussing on limited aspects of an organisation and/or they emphasise the performance of the parts over the whole. The argument is advanced in this paper that a systems-based approach to evaluation must put the study of the whole before that of the parts. It should stimulate an organisation’s ability to learn by reflecting on the efficiency and efficacy of the interactions between its parts and the effectiveness and ethicality with which it engages with other systems in its environment. A systems approach will use a variety of different systems models to ensure that the evaluation is comprehensive, knowing that any one will be limited in terms of what it enables us to see. It is argued that at least four types of systems model are relevant. The first two can be called ‘mechanistic’ and ‘organic’ and they concentrate on building the internal capacity of an organisation. The second pair, ‘stakeholder’ and ‘ethical’ models are focussed more upon aspects of the organisation’s external relationships. Having established the four generic categories of evaluation, a summary is given of some ‘emerging’ forms of evaluation that may be drawn in to help us better achieve our aim of creating a truly systemic form of evaluation. Moving closer to the ideal of being truly systemic demands more than simply adding new and emerging forms of evaluation to our took-kit. A commitment to holism requires that we take a more critical look at how we might implement systemic evaluation in practice and critical systems thinking offers some guidelines for managing methodological pluralism in practice. Amanda Gregory Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1181 This paper begins with the proposition that most project managers are dealing with complex systems. Complex systems are defined as systems with numerous stakeholders, nonlinearities, multiple interdependencies and feedback systems. Typical nonlinearities are often unanticipated changes in the scope of the project, the dismissal of project managers, shedding people with critical labour skills or the termination of credit arrangements with banks. The interdependencies are the relationships between project management, the suppliers and contractors, the clients and the other stakeholders. The feedback systems most common to the success and failure of project management are the rework cycles and their impact on both the demand for labour and the final budget and completion date. The paper outlines a methodology for project management that integrates a number of systems thinking tools into the project management process. Tim Haslett Shankar Sankaran Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1130 This paper places focus on explicit consideration of sustainability issues in transport decision making by presenting and using a developed “Decision Simulation Technique” (DST). This technique can be used by an analyst to ‘scan’ a transport planning problem with regard to what in DST terms is called a sustainability strategy. This scanning can serve the purpose of informing a group of decision makers before they actually have to deal with, for example, the choice among a number of alternatives that have all been formulated as being relevant. The main focus of the paper is to illustrate how the DST can indicate which one from the set of alternatives will in fact be the ‘best’ seen from the viewpoint of a sustainability strategy, before they are all scrutinised by the decision makers. The paper consists of three parts. The first part describes the various concepts and elements of the DST together with the principal steps that have to be followed when applying it on a concrete case. In the second part the potential of the DST is demonstrated by its use within an ongoing study. Thus the DST is applied on a new rail investment study on a section with four alternatives being part of a proposed new high speed rail line in Southern Sweden. The third part of the paper is concerned with a principal discussion of incorporation of sustainability in transport planning. It is argued that ‘explicating’-techniques such as the DST compared to more traditional ways of doing this – here denominated implicit consideration of sustainability – can be useful for many different planning problems where the treated rail case is just one example. Finally, the paper offers some conclusions and a perspective on the future use and development of the DST. Sara Lise Jeppesen Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1234 This paper proposes a theory based on pragmatism and multiple discourses for the design of technology-enabled collaboration. The practical value of the theory is explored in the context of an intervention enabled by Group Support Systems (GSS) in regional governance and comprehensive urban planning. Qualitative measures were obtained of the degree of confusion (lack of understanding) and conflict (lack of trust) before and after the meeting, and participant performance and satisfaction with electronic discourse. The focus question is “Do electronic discourses enhance participant’s understanding and trust in scenario planning?” James Sheffield Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1245 Critical systems thinking originated with the purpose of questioning power imbalances and facilitating a reflective and systems oriented approach to some of the most complex issues we face. Sustainability is one such issue which brings with it the challenge of integrating social, environmental and economic dimensions of a situation. Liveability is often the primary motive driving an individual or communities desire for improvement. This paper suggests that one of the main ways that this desire for improvement can coincide with sustainability lies in the ability to identify and propel virtuous cycles in which both sustainability and liveability are enhanced. Among the development sector there is increasing recognition of links between the environment and aspects of development such as poverty alleviation, health, income generation and agriculture. Whilst furnished with a diverse range of perspectives and approaches, development practice is in need of ways of conceptualizing the interaction between sustainability and liveability that emphasise the opportunities for improvement in human and ecological well-being that exist in this space. For decades, the rural development sector has been developing practices aimed at fostering participation, mutual learning and sustainability. This paper offers a contribution to expand on and improve these practices. The paper focuses on rural development and identifies both virtuous and vicious cycles of liveability and sustainability which are relevant to development practice. Critical systems thinking is proposed as a way for rural development practitioners to conceptualise the integration of economic, social and environmental dimensions and, in doing so, support participant communities to nurture and foster virtuous cycles of sustainable liveability. Four desirable attributes of a critical systems thinking approach to rural development are identified based on development literature, critical systems literature and the authors’ research into sustainability in semi-rural communities in Vietnam. These four attributes are described and compared with existing rural development practices which seek to foster virtuous cycles through learning oriented and participatory processes that recognise the connection between the human and non human world. The four attributes are: a systems thinking approach; an ethical base to action and choices; critical reflection of process and purpose and appreciation and application of diverse views and approaches. Through these four attributes a synthesis of rural development practice and critical systems thinking is offered as a means of moving toward sustainable interactions between the human and non-human world. This paper also offers an invitation to further dialogue on these ideas and concludes with suggestions for further learning. Tanzi Smith Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1208 A recurrent guideline in many of the systems approaches to intervention is the need for exploring different alternatives. This guideline is present despite the different types of tools, the different paradigms or the arguments behind it. The purpose of this paper is not to contradict this, but to provide new arguments to this need that can be applied to the whole range of tools. The arguments shown here use ideas from language pragmatics and a combination of philosophy of action and complexity theory. What is central to the arguments presented is the concern with the intentions of the agents. In light of those, it is claimed that the advantages in the exploration of alternatives are hindered if they are not used in an intentional way. Jorge Ivan Velez-Castiblanco Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1156 Sustainable development has taken centre stage in our global conscience. Until recently, we have been focused on economic prosperity, driven by the mechanistic worldview of the scientific method. Once the cracks appeared, as a society, we have been looking for a deeper meaning and approach to life. Through a literature review, the paper proposes that current ‘experts’, using the engineering profession as an example, are not able to address the wicked problems confronting us, since they prevail within the reductionist mode of knowledge production. We need design thinkers - who are natural systemic practitioners -to solve systemic problems, which is characterised by sustainable development. Rui Helder Dos Santos Martins Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1158 We know the laws, ordinances, decrees and other normative acts that regulate the community life in contemporary societies, are issued by many state agencies, which generally try to give answers to people's needs. The democratic states produce and issue rules that create rights and obligations for members of a given society. This laws are generated by a number of agencies and institutions, leading to a very complex regulatory environment, where often jurisdictions are overlapped and more than once the same subject is regulated, sometimes coherently and other contradictory. That is why the main purpose of this paper is to sketch the idea of a tool that provides a holistic point of view for the issuing process regulations and laws to regulate community life. It is expected that, if this tool is implemented with an appropriate legal instrument, all the draft or proposed legislation should count with a preliminary study on the impact that this rule will have on the environment where will be applied. And here we understand that the meaning of environment as such broad is possible: the natural environment and the social one. With this proposal, urgently we try to reduce the asymmetries that are currently generated by the current regulations process; even by considering the asymmetries produced by the current economic system. Ricardo Andrés Frias Tariana Maia Gessaga Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1230 Value, from the point of view of customer, is defined as the customer’s subjective evaluation, adjusted for cost, of how well a good/service meets or exceeds expectations. Nevertheless, some aspects must be considerate, such as: quality, speed, and flexibility; these factors are considered in the value equation. In this work are explained what it is the value equation. Jorge Ivan Mendez-Diaz Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla Gilberto J. Vazquez-Espinosa Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1244 We propose a complex integral model of environmental transdisciplinary action-research processes through interinstitutional networks for the National Polytechnic Institute, NPI (Instituto Politecnico Nacional, lPN), a large and influential Mexican public university. The great quantity of interrelated factors which characterize turbulent socio-environmental phenomena in today’s world, need to be observed and studied as processes of great complexity, from different worldviews as cognitive phenomena that require a transdisciplinary gaze. The program of the interinstitutional research network is being designed and implemented, through a gradual participative integral or systemic action-research or iterative cybernetic process. Today, at the NPI, there are several research and action networks working on environmental problem situations. This program, links research networks with action networks through a systemic transdisciplinary process, in which a heterogeneous group of professors, students, authorities and administrators participate with research-action projects at different units within the institution. The results of the projects can also be applied in public, private and social organizations. The environmental action-research network program is comprehensive, it is oriented towards research, design, implementation, and diffusion of a series of integrated synergic technological solutions or ecotechniques, to solve water, energy food, waste, housing, education and health problems under a conscientious vision of integral and sustainable quality. Ignacio E Peon-Escalante Claudia Hernandez Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1164 This paper provides the findings of a current study to locate the similarity and/or differences between two epistemologies: Critical Systems Thinking (CST) and cultural ecofeminism. Selected texts from authors in each field were coded and compared using the Constant Comparative Analysis (CCA) Grounded Theory method. The texts revealed a multitude of similarities between the two bodies across a range of concepts including systems thinking language; challenges to positivist science, reason and instrumentalism; ethics and morality and praxis. From the initial synthesis of the data, several principles towards one feminist-systems theory of practice are emerging. Anne Stephens Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1126 While most people support sustainable development, many believe that its benefits must be weighed against other objectives such as economic growth and consumer desires for recreation, comfort and status. However, sustainability is not an option but a requirement. Any economy that is not sustainable will go bankrupt: any biological system that is not sustainable will die. Human societies are living social systems that completely depend on their environments for the resources needed to survive. But evolution is a ruthless process: most of the species and human societies that have ever existed are extinct because they either destroyed their environments or could not adapt to changing conditions. Our industrial societal system is designed for constant expansion. While this model was viable in a world of few people and many resources, it is now obsolete because the global economy is consuming more resources and discarding more waste than our planet’s ecosystems can sustainably produce and recycle. In the coming decades a combination of global warming, resource shortages and species loss will create growing environmental, economic and social crises. This is a global emergency. If we continue with business as usual major ecosystems will collapse by mid-century. This will destroy the global economy and end our complex civilizations. But disaster is not inevitable. At the same time as industrial civilization has outgrown its biophysical limits, a new type of sustainable societal system has begun to evolve. Systems-based views, values, social structures, technologies and economic processes are rapidly emerging. The future is our choice: if we fail to act our children will be doomed to live on a dying planet; if we make the right interventions we can accelerate the evolution of a holistic societal system. Constructive intervention is possible because societal systems do not have random designs. Human societies have evolved through distinct stages (historical ”ages”). Societal systems with similar worldviews and structures emerge and endure in each age because they have environmentally relevant configurations. Their congruent and stable patterns constitute system attractors. For example, similar conditions and stages of development created the long-lasting agrarian kingdoms of Egypt, China, and Central America. Societal systems are unified and organized around worldviews, which are overarching conceptions of reality that explain the place of humans in the world. Worldviews and cultures (learned traditions of thought and behaviour) provide meanings and symbolic tools for organizing the social institutions that in turn organize and regulate group and individual behaviours. For this reason the key to the evolution of a sustainable global system is the spread of a holistic worldview – a systems perspective that recognizes the interdependence of all life on Earth. Evolution always involves both individual and group selection—since the survival of a species depends on group fitness, competition between individuals usually occurs within a wider framework of group (and ecosystem) cooperation. Most people are willing to make sacrifices for their children, community or faith. In times of war entire societies are asked to subordinate their personal desires to the needs of their nations. In the long history of humanity, the individualism of our consumer culture is an aberration. The survival of our species is now at stake. This threat has the potential to unite humanity around a common task—developing a sustainable culture and economy. Our challenge is to clearly explain the global emergency and provide alternative pathways to a viable future. If we recognize that a systems-based worldview is the key to the organization of a sustainable society, we can help develop congruent social structures and technologies. Once a new system attractor has evolved, rapid structural transformation will be possible. Graeme MacDonald Taylor Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1182 In many countries, particularly Australia, there has been a steady decline in the number of workplace injuries, but the number never seems to reduce below a certain level, approximately 10 compensable injuries per 1000 employees. A mantra of systems dynamics states that the structure of a system is ascertained by understanding the pattern of observable events that result from that system. However, one’s understanding of the pattern of events is influenced by the world view that underpins one’s view of the pattern. Pepper’s four world views or hypotheses offer a framework for discerning a system’s patterns: If one views the world through a Formism lens, one sees categories of similar and different events. A Mechanistic world view causes one to see controllable machines with inputs, outputs, processes and feedback. An Organicism world view sees the world as an organism evolving in response to the environment while a Contextual world view sees operators in the world who influence the environment and are influenced by it in a continuous cycle. The events of significance to occupational health and safety (OHS) are workplace injuries. The pattern of events is used to determine the causes of injuries and to elucidate the structure of the system that caused the injury. The causes of the injuries determine how you structure your control systems to prevent further injuries, how you establish your management system, even what risk equation is needed to calculate the risk associated with the injury events. Yet how, or whether, you recognise the pattern is determined by your world view. This paper describes how the various world views influence the practice of OHS and suggest a framework for a pluralist approach to the control, management, research of, and learning about OHS issues. Susanne Tepe John Barton Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1284 Are the concepts: livability and sustainability contradictory? Can they coexist? Or even exist in collaboration? The associations between livability and sustainability are not clear. Their mutually exclusive or independent relationship to each other is often debated. (Bosch, 2009) The purpose of this paper is to make implicit notions about the links between livability and sustainability explicit. The emergence of such awareness is possible as evidenced by transformation of interpersonal interactions among those engaged in a conscious process of systemic knowledge acquisition through Action Research methods (McTaggart, 1990, McNiff, 1996, Argyris, 1999) for the purpose of responsible self management in daily living on multiple levels of social organizations: dyadic, family, community, workplace organization, etc. Such awareness can contribute to accountable behavior among those individuals and communities that learn how to implement and practice System oriented Action Research behavior as a life approach and skill set for daily living. The integration of system knowledge acquisition and Action Research methods in the service of sustainable livability development will be demonstrated through case examples of individual, family, homeless shelter, school and hospital organizations as learning organizations. All case examples involved a learning process that stemmed from different crisis etiologies. They are discussed in systemic conceptualizations that illustrate the connections between systemic thinking, livability and how sustainability notions (Gibson, 2005) and accountable practice emerged as an integral component of daily living practices on all levels of organizations. Both quantitative and qualitative data that demonstrate this developmental process and change from living to sustainable living will be presented. Argyris, C (1999) On organizational learning. Malden, MA: Blackwell Business. Bosch, O. (2009) Making liveable, sustainable systems unremarkable. ISSS Announcement McNiff, J., Lomax,P., Whitehead, J.(1996) You and Your Action Research Project. Routledge, London and New York, Hyde Publications. McTaggart, R. (1990) “Involving a whole staff in developing a maths curriculum” in P.Lomax (Ed.) Managing Staff Development in Schools: An Action Research Approach, Clevedon: Multi-Lingual Matters, 70-81. Gibson, RB., Hassan, S., Holtz, S., Tansey, J.,Whitelaw, G. (2005) Sustainability Assessment. Criteria and Processes. Earthscan. London, Sterling, VA Tamar Zohar Harel Copyright (c) 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1308 Jennifer Wilby Copyright (c) 2009-07-06 2009-07-06 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1172 The ongoing economic crisis world around has asked for a theoretical understanding and deep analysis of what have been wrong in our economic system in specific and social system as whole. Discussions in many forums and mass media have mostly focused on a level of first order casual-effects such as bank and credit system in relation to house loans and car industries, and where and how much the stimulating packages should be distributed, etc. This is what I called a liveability level problem. A second order understanding of fundamental systems structure and social subsystems relationships however, have not been much addressed properly. This is what I called the sustainability problem. This paper will propose an epistemological model based on cybernetic feedback principle and the Activity Theory to interpret the second order problems that deeply embed in our social-economic system structure. So the liveability and sustainability are coherently discussed within a socio-cybernetic system. The first part of the paper introduces shortly principles of feedbacks from cybernetics, especially understanding the behaviours of positive and negative feedbacks. Then, the Activity Theory and related concepts from social autopoietic theory are introduced. The aim of introducing those concepts is to provide the basic elements/components to the construction of a double-loops feedback model in the second part. In the last, the current economic crisis is interpreted based on the constructed model, to verify the usability of the proposed model. Guohua Bai Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1246 Ever since 1996, J.-J. Blanc, the author, made an extensive research on "Systems science" that induced to his developing a new systemic paradigm in terms of a transdisciplinary approach to "Living systems" that he named “The Bioethism” (see note 1). It is meant to support the acquisition of a large understanding of living systems' origin, of their natural structure and their adaptive behaviors meanings. Their species bonds and evolution trends, while permanently interacting with environmental events for survival, require actions-reactions from ago-antagonistic signals and stimuli. Endogenous within their body milieu and exogenous while confronted with conditions of ecosystemic and sociosystemic environments, living beings are closely linked with and affected by - a) cosmo-planetary and terrestrial meta-dynamic forces, - b) their specific biological individuality and social traits and statuses accounting for the biodiversity of species behavioral and evolutionary trends emerging from the set of the biological metadynamics systemicity. For example the drastic extinction of species, except some bacteria, when the Earth became a "snowball" from a nearly total glaciation (-600 Mo/y) and, on the contrary, an extraordinary explosion of marine species bearing new functions (- 545Mo/y) The survey in the different scientific disciplines concerned with the actual "Science of Systems", shows too many scientists developing the living systems' knowledge of reality in the strict philosophy of human "reason" (logic and metaphysics) under an anthropocentric practice. Excepted are, of course, those works directly concerned with biological disciplines, biochemistry and physicochemical physiology and when individual and societal emotions are taken into consideration so as to support a paramount and pragmatic understanding of survival rules and necessities. An adequate learning for a sustainable development of societies, respecting the required survival diversity needs, is here based on a new general theory the author called “The general theory of meta-dynamics systemicity". A new theory that relies on the whole body of forces and dynamics that made and makes physicochemical and biological moves and objects to exist and sustain at the different dynamics levels of the Universe. By essence, the dynamics levels are: atomic and cosmic, galactic, stellar, planetary, terrestrial and biological. Though diverse in structure and mechanism, they are all interrelated and provoke intricate moves and fluxes of differential retroactions from which emerge various object "postures" (behaviors). Bound to adapting their behaviors to permanent environmental changes, objects (eg. the planet Earth) and living beings survive within the constraints and effects of dynamics differential retroactivity. These feedbacks, in cycles, induce to the repetition of moves and fluxes, the "meta-dynamics systemicity", a term analogous to "velocity", referring to dynamical behaviors. However, systemicity must be understood as successive and/or parallel retroactive ago-antagonistic, convergent differentials moves making emerge whole bodies of adaptive results while confronted and coevolving with environmental changes. At Life's level, the set of meta/intra-dynamics systemicity sustains survival at biological, physiological and psychological intricate sublevels. Consubstantial and interrelated with the cosmic , galactic, stellar, planetary and terrestrial meta-dynamics, the biological "metadynamics systemicity" is participating in the whole of universal systemic effects feedbacks. Thereby, universal forces and fluxes permanently influence physicochemical reactive dynamics and permanently affect the biological world within its intra-dynamics systemicity moves. A world that is retroactive from emergent results affecting living creatures' survival choices so as to adapt their behaviors supporting their temporal sustainability. Consequently, an overview upon the entire body of universal interdependent bio-physicochemical mechanisms, moves, processes and streams, interwoven within "3D networks", shows that survival abilities and performances are epigenetically provided with meta-dynamics resulting effects of systemicity. The convergence of cosmo-planetary forces (thermodynamic, magnetic, gravitational…) and terrestrial conditions (geologic, geochemical, geophysical, geo-climatic…) is retroactively sustaining the Earth and the living's own meta-dynamics survival means (biotope equilibrium, local ecosystems biodiversity, food chains,… sustainable behaviors, reproduction , …) thanks to processes that have a "re-seeding" ability. Furthermore, the biological world of individuals and societal systems (family, group,…) cannot survive but within dynamic equilibriums that are inevitably interdependent. Social groups are subject to chaotic effects of the thermodynamic entropy and by their meta-dynamics, intradynamics and subdynamics drives, which make permanently emerge and temporally sustain differential behaviors. This work, having required several communications, describes largely here the general systemicity of principles that support living beings survival. A large work that refers to the complexity of cosmo-planetary, terrestrial and (in this part three) the biological meta-dynamics systemicity, a meta-driver that participated in the origin of Life. And, for billion of years, participated in the building up of the Earth's and a Life's adaptable sustainability confronted with fluxes and moves of universal forces. The set of meta-drivers with synergetic moves sustaining systemicity cycles, were and are permanently adapting to changing environmental events occurrence, which values have to be viewed in the short and long term. At the stage of this work process, the communication stands for "The biological meta-dynamics systemicity" and, in the conclusion, assumes the fundamental objectivity and realism of a "General Theory of Systemicity". Jean-Jacques BLANC Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1148 This paper outlines a sequence of sixteen management diagrams that demonstrate both the rationale of the specific Action Research change method and the underpinning structure of the strategic planning process that has emerged at Greyhound Racing Victoria the body responsible for regulating the $3b industry in Victoria. The management diagrams are devotedly and unashamedly based on Stafford Beer’s (1972; 1979; 1985) original drawings. Managers who follow the philosophy and methodology outlined here, do need to discover their own diagrams and the levels of understanding that they might need to transform their thinking into a strategic planning platform for their own businesses. The required levels of understanding of any theory-based method will vary according to organisational hierarchy. And so while this paper is aimed at the upper levels of management, it must be as clearly understood that according to the structure of the method, its fundamental principles should apply recursively, at all hierarchical levels of the organisation. It is for this reason that the diagrams start at an elementary standard and aggregate to differing levels of complexity. The first eight diagrams trace how employees at GRV came to an understanding of the structures that lead to the formation of the PICCO formats. The terminology used is simple and uncomplicated. With absolute respect to Beer, this level of simplicity is nonetheless required for three very important reasons. The first reason is that the fundamentals of the diagrams need to be comprehensible for a broad range of employee competency levels. The second reason is that these diagrams need to be both practical and useful at differing hierarchical levels of management. The third reason is that in keeping with the first two reasons, employees are able to focus on a single method. In accord with Argyris and Schon (1974) employees can then make conscious use of the diagrams and the PICCO formats to learn and manage their responses to organisational issues in practice. John Stephens Tim Haslett Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1214 After-sales spare part service is a competitive differentiator and a source of profit enhancement in OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) telecom firms. By seeking greater differentiation, more loyal customers, and higher margins and profits, the OEM needs to develop a more effective service-to-profit supply chains. But, predicting service requirements, inventory needs, supply chain parameters, etc. is extremely challenging. In order to tackle and mitigate this kind of problems and to have a more holistic approach of the system, this paper shows how to build the structure of the after-sales service supply chain going from strategic to operational issues using a Viable System Model (VSM) approach. Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla Mauricio Flores-Cadena Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros Isaias Badillo-Piña Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1243 Many leaders, organizations and communities wrestle with complex problems, where work needs to span boundaries. Those boundaries can be external and socially constructed around administrative units, jurisdictions or cultures. They can also be internal, segmenting leaders’ roles and identities so that they feel they need to shift behaviours in different environments. For leaders who have chosen to work horizontally and span boundaries, such identity management can be challenging. This paper draws from a recent, larger study that explored ways in which respected, boundary-spanning leaders understood and worked with boundaries. These participants were selected through a referral process in which nominators described how nominees fit the study’s criteria. In addition to being respected for their work in complex, boundary-spanning environments where they had relatively little or no positional authority, participants needed experience as formal leaders in hierarchies so they could compare the two types of environments. Participants came from fields including environmental sustainability, counter-terrorism and knowledge management. Midgley is one of the authors who has described boundaries as fundamental to systems thinking. One of the findings from the larger study was that participants collectively used 10 inter-related strategies for their work with boundaries in complex environments. These strategies were presented through a lens of Midgley’s theory of boundary critique. This paper adds to that study by exploring key informants’ perspectives about internal boundary work and identity management. It assesses whether there were links to the overall strategies used for external boundary work. Although this exploration is preliminary, it appears there are many parallels between external and internal boundary work. These parallels can be understood as turning leadership outside in: using leadership strategies suited to work with external boundaries in order to learn and develop as a person and leader through the management of multiple identities. Alice MacGillivray Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1255 Janet Judy McIntyre-Mills Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1288 Hierarchical systems are understandably of great interest because of the apparent difficulty in understanding them. They are, by their very nature, the result of some kind of evolution, whether of themselves or of some precursor or template. In many ways their developments parallel the evolution of organisms, in their environmental sensitivity and their existential dependence on some kind of relative cost function. Natural evolution is notorious for scavenging earlier evolved characteristics in its search for survivalist advantage, and consequently a current hierarchical instantiation may be far from its evolutionary template, and may consequently be inadvertently driven to extinction. A major source of this estrangement derives from a primary support for the establishment of hierarchy: the belief that formal fractionation of a large group of elements can lead to stronger cohesion and a more unified purpose. But where does this apparent contradiction come from? How is it that we can believe that the best way to unify a system is by splitting it up? In this paper we address the appearance of this phenomenon in the natural world, and relate its implementation to examples from many domains of systemic study. Ron Cottam Willy Ranson Roger Vounckx Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1192 A central finding in innovation research is that firms seldom innovate in isolation. Interaction with other agents such as customers, suppliers, competitors, regulators and various other private or public organizations contributes to the search of novelty by firms. A ‘system perspective’ is useful in understanding and analyzing such interactions. As shown by research scholars of innovation, the concept of system has been intensively explored but it arises several issues: first, the appropriate level of analysis and the closely related issue of identifying the actors or components, second, the measurement of the system. These issues are discussed with the respect to the interpretative hierarchy theory that adequately deals with complexity through a self-reflective process of observation and description. It provides us with some possible associated solutions, (i) the multi-level architecture of order and (ii) narratives on technological innovation. In turn, it fosters the hierarchical deployment of the ‘innovation system’ concept at the firm level and its empirical illustration through the emergence of clinical innovations in medical imaging in particular. Finally, we suggest that firm managers need an appropriate holistic approach to closely capture these emergent clinical solutions associated with lead user interactions. Jerome GALBRUN Kyoichi KIJIMA Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1294 This paper examines the raison d’etre for a new hierarchy of ethics and morality to emerge for the socio-environmental systems now re-emerging post the era of enlightenment. These are significant to post-modern human leadership in a 21st Century world. In this world knowledge creation (epistemology) and distribution plays an increasingly significant part in the process of extracting and distributing the useable energy that ontologically exists both on and off our planet. Ethics and morality arise from our need to give defensible meaning to the choices we take in relationships relevant to these processes whither it be epistemologically in conjunction with others of our own kind, our in ontologically supporting the real planetary and universal resources in which we are embedded. Rationality alone is insufficient to resolve the conflicts of choice then faced. Ethical challenges have a huge role to play in stabilizing the sustainability of our planet and ourselves. The choices so faced are never between the clearly right and the clearly wrong. Then there is no choice. True choice comes faced with the apparently right and the apparently wrong or more complexly with choices between the apparently wrong and the apparently wrong. We simply do not have the omnipresence to distinguish between these. Yet, frequently we are faced with such choices. Such conceptual choices are at the very heart of Hierarchy Theory. This stems as Ahl & Allen, (Ahl and Allen, 1996) tell us from the necessity we feel to observe and order the universe in a manner useful to our understanding in support of action As hierarchy theory makes evident the “hierarchical structures” then observed are more a function of our capacity to observe than of any real ontologically accessible “processes” underlying them. This paper presents a hierarchy of ethics that can be totally compatible with each other provided they are applied at the appropriate level with the hierarchy we describe. If applied outside their own level they are self destructively incompatible. Ethical standards in our sense are not only not universals but necessarily different for different position in the hierarchy. However this is not ethical relativism for the standards required are not flexible within a particular level of the described hierarchy. Brian John Hilton Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1312 This paper will present a research project, which integrated approaches from systems modelling and systems science with the methods and tools from the discipline of epidemiology, producing outcomes for the management of international health policy and emerging (and re-emerging) infectious disease (EID). The aim of this research was to provide additional insights into the management of EID, alongside the aims of enriching the practice of systemic practice and epidemiology. The project began with gathering of qualitative ecological and epidemiological data and qualitative human data on risk factors for EID, which were then collated and analysed prior to developing a model of an international health policy framework. Outcomes included: 1) the demonstration that there are contributing risk factors in the emergence of infectious disease not addressed in current policy making procedures for EID; 2) the design of a systems model to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative data for the modelling process, and recommendations for reviewing current and future international health policy frameworks for EID. The implications of this are important in reviewing current EID policies. Further work in this area is suggested to develop the sophistication of the systems model and develop implementations for comparison using both system dynamics and agent based modelling. Jennifer Wilby Copyright (c) 2009-08-12 2009-08-12 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1143 In 2006, 98 percent of New Zealand residents lived in households with telephones - either landline or cell phone or both. In 2006 New Zealand’s population was just over 4 million people. Therefore, in the order of 80,000 (2% of 4 million) did not have telephone access. If we consider that dialup access is the minimum internet standard required to be part of a digital world, these people are less likely to be served by the New Zealand government’s digital strategy. The questions addressed in this paper are: (i) What issues arise for those people who live in the margins of society when considering New Zealand Government’s national digital strategy; and (ii) How does the New Zealand Government’s national digital strategy address issues that arise for those people who live in the margins of society. These issues will be explored by considering four hypothetical cases: Psychological disability. In this case subject A, who has bipolar disorder but has the intellectual capacity, the knowledge and skills to access the internet is considered. This particular psychological disorder places A in a lower socioeconomic status as A can only work during the small personal windows of opportunity between mood swings. Impaired intellectual ability. In this case subject B has family support, but learning disabilities, lack of life skills, and lives in the family home with financial support. Homelessness. Subject C is considered to belong to the invisible homeless population – moving between temporary accommodation and living – but not sleeping on the street. The elderly. Subject D has never even used an ATM, owned a cell phone, or operated a computer and lives on a pension. These four hypothetical cases will be analysed systemically using a Sustainability to Liveability model (STLM) that incorporates core systems properties: communication, control, emergence and structure (Checkland, 1984); and four other properties: whole system, socioeconomic status, ICT access and personal coping mechanisms. Results from this study suggest that both sustainability and liveability have different meanings for each subject studied. Kay Fielden Pam Malcolm Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1241 The effectiveness of a computer-based information system can be defined in terms of its ability to support effectively the functions of the system it serves. In fact, a basic principle for the design of computer-based information systems stated earlier (Kampfner, 1997) asserts that in order to provide effective function support, a computer-based information system must be compatible with the structure, dynamics, and adaptability of the system it supports. The effect of computer-based information processing on adaptability can be associated with its effect on the interdependence of the subsystems of the system it serves. In fact, a basic architecture design principle favors the adaptability of the system as a whole (Kampfner, 2008) by appropriately reducing subsystem interdependence (Conrad, 1983). In this paper we propose a top-down approach to the design of computer-based information systems in which the architecture design principle is applied first in order to find an architecture that favors the adaptability of the system being supported by the information system. The effective support of function support must then be achieved on the basis of this architecture. Roberto R Kampfner Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1103 Communication systems are used to send information from one place to another through different media: the space, optical fiber, metallic wiring, etc. The most common systems are television, radio, infrared, satellite, telephone, and voice on IP, just to name a few. The general idea is to continuously improve the way of transmission, in order to assure that the addressee gets the information generated by the source in a fast, cheap, safe and truthful way. The model used in this article consists of five stages: first is the Reference Projection, in which a problem in the system is detected, using the techniques of Kawakita Jiro (TKJ), analytical hierarchal structuring and the principle of Pareto; in the normative planning the mission of the system is established; in the strategic planning a solution for the detected problems is proposed; the organizational planning describes the resources needed for the problematic case to be solved; and the fifth stage is an evaluation about the feasibility of the solution. CIRILO GABINO LEON CIRO DAVID LEON EDUARDO VEGA Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1213 The changes of the conditions in the society that we have experienced during the last twenty years are extensive. The transition is characterized by the conversion of our materialistic culture into a new technological paradigm dominated by information technology. There are several important characteristics for the societies that are created by the new technology, such as for example digitalization, miniatyrization and deregulation. Another important characteristic is that networks of different kinds are created within most different areas. To compete with other entities, many companies cooperate in networks when they find that their own resources are insufficient. Geographical distances between the companies in a network are less important than cultural or organizational proximity to develop social practices. There are many advantages with cooperation in networks. The cooperation offers a possibility to share costs and risks and facilitates the work to keep a jour with constantly new information. The networks also have a role as door keepers. It is advantageous to be part of the network, but it is increasingly difficult to survive outside the networks. The basic entity is thus no longer an individual company but a network. My focus in this paper is on specific kind of virtual network, Solution Sharing Networks. In such networks organizations share knowledge and resources around a solution to a specific problem in their environment. The problem is thus a central demand that serves as a basis for the social practices that are formed within the network. But what is it really that encourages people to cooperate in a Solution Sharing Network? Uses-and-gratification-theory may be used to explain how people use different media to complete their needs. The theory may be seen as a paradigm that originally was used within media and communication research to determine motivation by studying the use of mass media, but some researchers have also suggested that the theory may be used to clarify how people use electronic communication environments to fulfill their needs. Several aspects of needs have been presented, such as for example cognitive needs, affective needs, personal integrating needs, social integrating needs and tension releasing needs. Cognitive needs may be one of the most important motivation factors to take part in the cooperation of a virtual network. This means that the kind of information available in the network as well as its quality must be a most important success factor for the cooperation in the network. But the evolution of the network may also lead to that other kinds of needs may also be fulfilled. The purpose of this paper is to take uses-and-gratification-theory as a basis for analysis of cooperation in s Solution Sharing Network. Using that analysis some models illustrating the cooperation will be presented. Ann Lind Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1212 Information is available and all around us as never before. At the same time we experience changes – changes that has a great impact on the whole society, companies and institutions as well as on individual human beings. But changes is nothing new. Already Herakleitos told us panta rei – everthing is floating. The changes today occur however more rapidly than before. The production life cycles are shorter and many companies experience that the information about their products soon becomes outdated. That makes it necessary to find communication channels that facilitates frequent contacts between providers and customers. During the last decade information technology has provided us with new possibilities for communication. Using the Internet companies can reach customers all over the world just as easily as the next door neighbour. Internet has thus changed the communication pattern and also opened a global target area for the companies. Also customer behavior has been greatly influenced by information technology. Previously customers were more dependent on initiative from the vendor where the vendor sent messages to the customer. The vendor was thus active and the customer had a more passive role. The customer was in that way exposed to vendor activities without any possibility to escape or defend himself or herself. Today the situation is different. The relationship between vendor and customer is regarded from another perspective where the customer has a more active role. It is the customer who has the power to decide when and what to buy and from what vendor. In this way the initiative is to a great extent transferred from the vendor to the buyer. The role of the vendor is to make his or her merchandise available to the customer and expose the products and their qualities to the customer. Communication between the vendor and the customer could thus be seen as taking part on a kind of arena where the vendor puts messages for the customer to take up or leave at his or her discretion. Nevertheless most communication models do not picture that aspect. They tend to be more related to the previous perspective whith an active vendor and a passive buyer. The purpose of this paper is to look further into the character of vendor-customer communication and to evaluate some contemporary communication models in relation to such communication. Using this evaluation the paper presents and argues for models that are built on a communication between vendor and customer taking place on an arena where messages are displayed and picked up. Bertil Lind Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1165 Throughout history astrology has functioned symbolically to represent Man's attitude to and understanding of Nature. When Man disconnects himself from Nature, Self and the Cosmos, this disconnection is made evident through a decline or dismissal of interest in astrology. The paper argues that this disconnection makes astrology at times seem like a 'superstitious vulgarity', to use St Augustine's view of astrology. Many others over the centuries have discounted astrology in a similar manner. Yet, at other times in history, astrology has been held in high regard and recognised to be serving an important role in reconnecting Man to Nature, Self and the Cosmos. The present ecological crisis is perhaps a reflection of a psychological crisis - a sign that the modern decline of astrology has progressed too far. The paper concludes with suggestions for how the emerging interest in systems thinking might enable modern man to reconnect with astrological thinking, and therefore Nature, Self and the Cosmos Zheljana Peric Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1240 A telecommunication system is one of the most important kind of infrastructure to support a country national development. That is why is convenient to design an evolutionary system in order to have a system which has the ability to evolve according the changes of technology, social needs and better knowledge. The complexity of this system makes necessary to apply system thinking, strategic thinking, knowledge management and many techniques for achieving the participation of the community. A system approach allow us to identify the main subsystems that should be considered: from the technical point of view, radio, television, telephone, satellite and data communication. In this paper it is proposed to modify the present telecommunication system (TCS) of Mexico to achieve the biggest increase in its value for Mexican people. Almost always the formulation of strategies and public policies of the system are defined in public institutions without the participation of the telecommunication community. In this case, the proposition is that knowledge management should be considered in stock and in practice for solving the problem. In the first solution all the available information is put together in a center place, for every one to access on demand. The second application is based on a evolutionary conversation to create new ideas and new knowledge for the future system. Besides of that it is necessary focus how the information is going to be sent from one place to other through different media: The technical requirement is to improve the way of transmission, in order to assure that the information generated by the source gets the address in a fast, cheap, safe and truthful way. The proposed schema is a solution for implementing the application of the main principles and techniques of Knowledge Management . This schema is enough flexible to use different planning models and many different techniques for assure the participation of people. Elvira Avalos Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1256 This paper presents a brief exploratory research work on the structure of Systems Science. To guide the exploration through the jungle of domains, concepts, theories and methodologies, the Domain of Science Model developed by John Warfield was used as a compass. Given that Systems Science is itself a system, it is researched like a conceptual/real system, considering the consensual points of view expressed by theoretical and practical systemists in congresses as well as in traditional and recent research documents. The exploration research helped to identity and elucidates the main components of the body of knowledge, which integrate the Systems Science as a whole, such as: The domain of the Systems Science The conceptual space and language of Systems Science The theoretical relations inside the Systems Science The methods of the Systems Science Isaias José Badillo-Piña Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla Ignacio Enrique Peon-Escalante Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1232 The tourism is an important generator of economic spill and represents one of the main economic activities in the world. The study of this phenomenon at the present time requires a revaluation of the conceptual models that have been used for this aim, with the purpose of generating a holistic vision in its analysis. In this paper, some contributions and applications made to Tourism from the Theory of Systems, are approached and discussed. In the end we aiming to generate a new conceptual model of the tourist system under the perspective of the contemporary Science of Systems, considering that tourism has evolved toward more dynamic and more complex postures where the elements of the system that emerge of its interior, are integrated to different scales, and show a coherent structure when they are compared with the whole. It is concluded that the Science of Systems provides new elements and tools for the theoretical and praxiological approaches of the tourism. Abraham Briones-Juarez Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1206 At present, Indonesia’s regional economic growth strategy and related sectoral policies still do not adequately consider sustainable environmental management aspects. The empirical consequences of this condition are the emergence of negative impact in the form of ecosystem degradation due to increasing exploitation of natural resources. In the case of deforestation, excessive soil erosion and degradation of the watershed catchments area could decrease reliable river flours. Unstable landscape and rivers alignment increased risk of catastrophic landslides and, excessive sediment transport reduced irrigation conveyance capacity. All of those contribute to decreased water availability for irrigation and public utility as well as increased public goods losses. In the paddy fields, there is a tendency that productivity of irrigated lands becoming smaller over time. This research aims to develop a strategic regional policy model for rice production through maintaining sustainability of local irrigation systems. The integrated model includes governmental functions as well as social institutions. This research uses the ‘Soft System Methodology for Policy Research’ to analyze current irrigation policies, applied Strategic Assumption and Surfacing and Testing (SAST) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Expert Survey was conducted to implement Interpretative Structural Modelling (ISM) technique and was supplemented with farming surveys and field observations. The result of this study is expressed as conceptual model, which is the strategic policy for sustainability in regional irrigation management covering both rice cultivation and watershed areas. The model of sustainability development used Comhar principles which are Good Decision Making, Satisfaction of human needs by the efficient use of the resources, and Equity between countries and regions. The effective application of the model requires better regional regulation and supervision, as well as community participation supported by coordinated efforts of various technical departments in the region. Sources of various funding should be adequately available for infrastructure rehabilitation, re-forestation, irrigation maintenance costs and farm credits. Monitoring and evaluation activities will be carried out by local Irrigation Commission. Eriyatno Eriyatno Sjofjan Bakar Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1225 Ricardo Barrera Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1161 UNESCO has recommended the launch of pilot projects to use biosphere reserves as learning laboratories or spaces to address the gap between biosphere reserve knowledge systems (scientific, experiential, and indigenous) and the imperative for wider sustainable development. In this regard, a pilot project in the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve (CBBR) in northern Vietnam has been initiated. The project has three major aims that address: • the needs of UNESCO/MAB and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) initiative by contributing to sustainable development knowledge and education globally; • the environment (e.g. biodiversity), livelihood of people (e.g. poverty alleviation) and economic benefits (such as sharing in the revenue from a booming tourism industry); and • the adoption of policies and processes by Government and management bodies to ensure that long term sustainable management will become institutionalised and ongoing. This paper discusses the use of systems thinking concepts and tools in creating learning laboratories for sustainable development. The biosphere reserve and sustainable development literature as well as the learning laboratories for sustainable development concept will be briefly described. The importance of systems thinking methodology and applications to deal with ever-increasing complexities of sustainable development will be discussed. A Causal Loop Model of Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve integrating policy, social, environmental, and economic dimensions has been developed to identify key leverage points and where systemic interventions will be most effective (potential research projects). This model also serves as a platform for research collaboration through alliances and multi-disciplinary teams to address the various domains, leverage points, and interventions identified. The model and approach could serve as a pilot for other biosphere reserves in Vietnam and globally. Nam Cao Nguyen Ockie J.H. Bosch Kambiz E. Maani Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1235 Recently, two Koreas try to improve relations with each other in many subsystems. The exchange of matter-energy and information in non-political areas appears to have developed significantly in recent years. This development is very significant to take a close look at the subsystems that process the energy and information in the current relations between South and North Korea. The main objective of this study is to examine the efficiency in living systemic analysis of two Korean relations to overcome the predominant frameworks in South Korea. And it is to suggest the merit of living systemic analysis of two Korean relations data Youn-soo Sim Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1239 A new form of strategic management is required for developing the social enterprise and appreciating the management of social enterprise from systemic perspectives. In this paper, we argue that participatory action research should focus on the process of problematization that explores the nature of the social enterprise (SE) in order to explore new sorts of “questions and problems” in given situations. Systemic perspectives enable us to appreciate systemic knowledge, which is the holistic understanding of complex nature of management of communities and organisational learning. In this paper, the process of problematization is demonstrated through the application of problem-solving approaches, that is, Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and Checkland’s soft systems methodology (SSM) to understand and create a business model for SE, facilitate debate amongst participants, and generate systemic knowledge about the transformational processes of social enterprise in Korea. Jae Yu Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1248 The perception and awareness of the possibilities of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear ("CBRN") emergencies is constantly growing. These dangers are in most cases not directly detectable by human senses and as a consequence no inborn or trained refle- xes of reaction exist. One has to explicitly design and validate(!) special procedures (’Best Practices’) to detect and to counter such dangers. These Best Practices have to be specifi- cally trained, especially under near-realistic yet safe conditions. Modern technology allows to simulate actual situations (including the use of simulated tools) and the consequences of various courses of action in a realistic way. The overall goal of the SimRad.NCB project is the development and utilization of trai- ning tools for First Responders for all aspects of an intervention in emergency situations, including technical procedures, management, team coordination, etc. By taking a process view these interventions can be dissected into individual emergency processes and their subprocesses. This allows a pin-pointed substitution of some individual activities by a simulation, ranging from coarse approximations up to near-realistic simula- tions using Mixed Reality technology. This paper is an evolution and expansion of [Chroust et al., 2008] and will specifical- ly emphasize the process point of view of these response actions and the corresponding simulation possibilities. Gerhard Chroust Stefan Schönhacker Karin Rainer Markus Roth Peter Ziehesberger Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1215 A complex system has constituents interacting in a nonlinear way. A complex biological system is the human brain, which function is based on the communication between neurons, if there is a mistake in the communication between them, it can cause epilepsy. Epilepsy affects from 1% to 2% worldwide population. Fractal Geometry is used to analyze electroencephalograms (EEG) from epileptic patients to determine where the epileptogenic region is located to make a surgery to the epileptic patient. In this work fractal geometry is applied (using four self-affine trace methods: R/S analysis, Roughness-Length, Variogram, and Wavelets), to study temporal series generated by EEG from data that refers to people that do not have epilepsy but have had a neurological problem and epileptic patients. After doing the fractal analysis, it is concluded that for all complex signals (EGG) under studying, the best methods to analyze epilepsy are R/S and Variogram, because they were the solidest to every analyzed channel, in addition to be the nearest to the average values from the four self-affine trace methods. Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros Teresa Ivonne Contreras-Troya Cinthya Ivonne Mota-Hernández Beatriz Trueba-Rios Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1201 This paper proposes a robust multivariable control design by intelligent control that uses a fuzzy neural network by producing robustness capable of automatically controlling gain against a conventional, fixed PID control system. This structural feature of the proposed controller forms a nonlinear deviation compensator using fuzzy neural networks. Therefore, in multidimensionality the inverse dynamic model portion of the control law is referred to as a linearizing and decoupling control law. This method uses a control law where parameter response leads to critical damping and adaptive changes in gain according to time, making it possible to decouple mutual interference in each multivariable system. Yoshishige Sato Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1209 Incidents of workplace bullying are on the rise in the American workplace. Researchers have compared recent concerns about bullying to those expressed about sexual harassment twenty years ago. Statistically, though, bullying occurs far more often than does sexual harassment; in fact, the U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey (2007) reported that bullying is four times as prevalent as illegal, discriminatory harassment. This paper explores the evolution of employee legal rights in American organizations, with a specific focus on parallels between the serious organizational problems of workplace bullying and sexual harassment. It also examines the legal, legislative and policy protections currently available to employees both in the United States and internationally, proposed systemic changes, as well as likely prospects for change in the immediate future. Teresa A Daniel Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1217 An initiative to transform or redesign a service system can be centered on envisioning a future that may be explicit or implicit, shared or tacit. When that future represents a discontinuous change from the current state, detailed analysis from a single frame (e.g. process modeling) may mislead or confuse collective choices and priorities. Four envisioning engagements – across a variety of service businesses – are reviewed as case studies to surface commonalities in approach. Success in the engagements has largely been attributed to the sequencing of consultations into sequential phases of induction, abduction and then deduction. Challenges to adoption of this three-phase approach are outlined, as a departure from current practice in envisioning innovations. Following an inductive style of description, conclusions are presented with theoretical saturation of research concepts based on the philosophy of phenomenology. David Ing Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1187 A system failure model to prolong system lifespan is proposed, for the purpose of preventing further occurrence of these failures. The authors claim such a methodology should have three features. First it should clarify the structure of failure factors, second it should surface hidden failure factors using statistic method especially corresponding analysis and finding the way to change. The proposed methodology is fundamentally different from the one to identify the root cause of the system failures in the sense of that it encompasses system failures as a group not as a single event. An understanding system failure correctly is crucial to preventing further occurrence of system failures. Quick fixes can even damage organizational performance to a level worse than the original state. In this sense the proposed methodology is applicable over the long time spans and therefore could be useful to confirm the effectiveness of the counter measures without introducing any side effects. Then an application example in IT engineering demonstrates that the proposed methodology proactively prolong system life learning from previous system failures. Takafumi Nakamura Kyoichi Kijima Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1171 John Molineux Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1109 Yong Pan Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1185 Managed supply chain systems typically begin from business-to-business relationships which over time expand to encompass more and more parts of the chain. Harland (1996) first classified supply chains in terms of four sequential levels of management and integration: a firm’s internal integration (level 1); buyer - supplier integration (level 2); through - chain integration (level 3); and network integration (level 4). Globalization has spawned cross hemisphere and cross country supply chains that operate in a far more dynamic and influential external environment than ever before. Evidence is accumulating that this external environment significantly impacts on supply chain performance at all four levels of integration, but in different ways at each level. It impacts least at level 1, and most at level 4. This paper shows that in level 2 and 3 China-Australia agrifood supply chains, the influence on whole-of-chain performance of the external environment of the country itself is more powerful than the influence of within-chain relationships. This finding suggests that firms engaging in relationship management at the chain level need to take a more holistic approach. Managing within-chain relationships is necessary but insufficient unless it is done in the context of the chain and its external environment as a dynamic system. Ximeng Sun Ray Collins Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1238 The audience is often not explicitly named as part of a research study, but the framing of the research and the written results tend to be targeted toward particular addressees, without recognition of the impact of the boundaries. As researchers, we often think of this issue as one of “communication.” We acknowledge that if our studies are to be understood more broadly, we must learn to write the results in non-scientific terms for a different audience. We do not often consider that research aimed at our traditional audiences may fail to consider the factors that could be the most crucial for the broader objectives our research is trying to achieve. It is within this context that a case study in benefit / risk illustrates the impact of framing and boundaries on the outcomes included in research. A current public debate in the UK and, to a lesser extent, in the US over the use of mammography screening for breast cancer reveals a great deal of well-intended information but not very much clarity. On its surface, defining the outcome of mammography as a benefit or risk would seem to be a straightforward exercise. However, the relative merits as discussed below would suggest otherwise. Marilyn A Metcalf Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1190 The Australian Government is implementing a number of Super Clinics. There is considerable government expectation that these Super Clinics will do well. Townsville is one of the locations for a Super Clinic. The design of an overall systems thinking framework to make sense of the system called the on-going improvement in the operation of the Townsville Super Clinic is investigated. This system has most, if not all, of the complexities that a system can have. Thus, a sophisticated systems thinking framework to help guide the on-going improvement is a must. Richard Monypenny Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1291 Jean-Paul Ngana Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1115 Papernumber: 001 (Assigned by Journal editor) Towards a Systems based Spiritual Philosophy for the 21st century Victor MacGill 12 Marama Street Musselburgh Dunedin New Zealand victor@vmacgill.net In the Western World over the last 300 years or so, spirituality has become a casualty in the development of human knowledge. Traditional Christian religion has tended to become rigid in its formulation, maintaining a worldview that sees the earth as the centre of the universe and ‘man’ as God’s special creation given dominion over the earth and everything in it. Reductionist science has taken us to the opposite extreme, seeing the world as a mere rock in an obscure and unimportant part of the cosmos brought into being by sheer random events. Both traditional religion and reductionist science separate us from the world we live in and see the earth and everything in it as available for our use as we please. These views have led to immense levels of pain and destruction at all levels of being. We need a new vision that returns our dignity as human beings so we can truly play our role as integral parts of a bountiful planet and a meaningful universe. There are many other spiritual visions that have been with us for thousands of years that retain our links to the environment and have much to offer us and may help us regain our balance. We can incorporate aspects of these forms of ancient wisdom into our vision for this new century. Systems Theory introduces a new way of looking at the world where we recognise that the old ways of separating ourselves from our world will no longer work. We must accept our place in nature and acknowledge and work with the complexity that is inherent at all levels of our existence. The new science of Systems Theory may help provide a framework for such a worldview and guide us as we co-create a spiritual vision to lead us into the extremely challenging 21st century. A systems view embeds us firmly within nature and places a responsibility on us to work appropriately with each other and with our natural environment. It gives us a place of dignity in our world. A systems based approach recognises the place of chaos in our lives and gives us the hope of emergent possibilities of what we can become. This paper explores these ideas and develops some principles that may help see how Systems Theory might play its role in redefining ourselves for the coming years. Victor Ronald David MacGill Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1197 Leadership has a key role in organization by developing and directing structures and systems. Spiritual leadership is an emerging approach in organizational leadership literature. In context of spiritual leadership, there are many models and patterns that each them describe a kind of spirituality in leadership of organizations. Spirituality has a unity in itself but different people understand it in different ways. Spirituality is necessary for organizations and they need to develop a spiritual system to satisfy human resources. Here, there are some questions: how we can classify them or identify their types? How can organizations use spirituality through leadership to develop a system? This paper reviews some spiritual leadership models, and provides a typology about them. The typology includes identifying meanings, motives; definitions and typification of different spiritual leadership models in literature of organization and management. This is to do through a typological analysis, and supposes a spiritual system based on spiritual leadership. Hamid Reza Qasemi Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1257 In this paper, the concepts data, information and knowledge are examined and linked with Charles S. Peirce's semiotic categories. The overall aim of the paper is to propose a Peircean semiotic framework that can be applied to database design generally. The more specific ideas developed in the paper are discussed in relation to a database being developed in the area of weed risk assessment at the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) in Australia. The argument runs as follows: For a database to be used effectively as a learning resource by its target audience(s), a designer needs to distinguish between the concepts data, information and knowledge. These concepts, it is suggested, can be linked with Peirce’s ‘three grades of clearness’, which in turn, are derived from Peirce’s triadic categorical framework, that is, his semiotic. Following Peirce, then, it is argued that if the logical role of each categorical concept is muddied, strategic action and organisational learning by the target audience(s) will be made increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Thus, in communicational terms, the author notes first that data falls into the category of Firstness, and as such, it has no meaning at all. In terms of the application examined, weed risk assessment data must be combined with an organisational structure if it is to become information. Information is therefore linked by the author to the category of Secondness – a resisting structure is identified which defines the data’s relevance and makes it something that is useable. Along similar lines, information can be put to use where it is deemed necessary, but its strategic value is entirely uncertain. Thus, it is only at the level of knowledge, which is linked by the author to the category of Thirdness, that we can apply information strategically, that is, with a real-world outcome in mind. Thus, it is argued that while each grade of clearness is necessary to database design, it is only at the third grade of clearness, or at the knowledge stage, that a weed risk assessment database can be used effectively to construct and communicate an ongoing community of enquiry around weed risk science. David William Low Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1199 More than 95 percents of business units in Indonesia are small and micro enterprises (SME). Problem facing by SME beside market and human resource is lack of investment support and less access to the banking sector. A closer investigation of the microfinancing problems reveals that rather than being technological, they are complex combinations of social, economic, cultural, psychological as well as legal and communications factors. This research using system approach, aims to analyze and design the public-private partnership policy to establish microfinancing for less developed regions. The system methodology is philosophically committed to serve as a guide to action and primarily concerned with providing information relevant to a policy decision. Case study and face validation was carried out in model building process using Houghton (2009) generalization principles. This research produced a conceptual framework (BSK model) related to the finding about the importance of institutional linkage between banking and Microfinance Institution (MFI) to set up sustainable SME financing. The linkage structure should be support by government budget for MFI empowerment and SME loan guarantee. Private companies roles is providing low interest credit for SME and CSR-fund to reduce its transaction cost appropriately. This linkage was found useful for smallholder’s farmers and work effectively to reduce rural poverty. The partnership policy must be planned and coordinated well by local government administration with local banks involvement. This study recommend independent MFI rating agency to facilitate capital formation of MFI by the bank. The BSK model was verified in the case of micro credit-KUR scheme linked to saving and loan cooperative units. In conclusion, microfinancing must be viewed as holistic efforts on system that can not be reduced to components that are separable. . BS Kusmuljono Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1261 For several recent centuries the so called free market economy has been found more efficient and providing for more economic development and higher living standard of its users than any other socio-economic model of so far. It was in a deep crisis in 1930 (resulting in the WWII, not Keynesian measures only, which Hitler’s Nazis used, too), and is facing it now again under the name of big depression, financial crisis, etc. These labels are too narrow: it is a general social crisis due to a lack of requisitely holistic values/culture/ethic/norms (VCEN) and behavior (made of monitoring, perception, thinking, emotional and spiritual life, decision making, and action) rather than one-sided and short-term behavior of the influential people and their organizations, including enterprises and governments. This narrowness is based on failure of many to use systemic thinking and behavior due to their over-specialization with a poor capability of interdisciplinary creative co-operation. Consequences include the frequent limitation of the term innovation to the technology innovation alone. Consequences might be dangerous: good technology serving bad/evil/unclear purposes. They can still be avoided – by innovation of culture of one-sided behavior to the one of requisite holism. The current humankind is moving from routine via knowledge to creative society. This is based on a new economy and requires new values/culture/ethic/norms – self-interest realized by socially responsible and therefore requisitely holistic behavior. Social responsibility can and must reach far beyond charity toward the end of abuse of power/influence of the influential persons/organizations in their relations with their co-workers, other business and personal partners, broader society, and natural environment as the unavoidable and terribly endangered precondition of human survival, at least in terms of the current civilization. Social responsibility supports innovation also by upgrading criteria of business excellence, by supporting requisitely holistic behavior and thus it means also a form of innovation of human values/culture/ethic/norms and knowledge, resulting in a requisitely holistic behavior. In a most optimistic scenario, social responsibility can also provide a way toward peace on Earth. It can lead to covering all these urgent humankind’s needs by making co-workers and other people more happy, because it provides to them more feeling of being considered equal and creative rather than abused and/or misused by power-holders. In synergy with ethics of interdependence, because every specialist is complementary to all other specialists as a professional and as a human being, and with the fact than one lives increasingly on creativity, including innovation, social responsibility may innovate society to include social efficiency, social justice and similar VCEN that, among other references, lie at the core of all social teaching called religions, philosophy of moral and ethical behavior, etc. Technology supports rather than creates future and development into it, and can be used with social responsibility or abused/misused with detrimental consequences. The choice depends on the most influential people and their definition of their self-interest as a background of the new economy and humankind’s future. Innovation of values/culture/ethic/norms is unavoidable for the current civilization to survive. Matjez Mulej Stane Božičnik Vojko Potočan Zdenka Ženko Anita Hrast Tjaša Štrukelj Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1305 Jim Gustafson Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1303 In this paper we discuss the effect of computer-based information processing on the adaptability of the systems. Because of the close relationship that exists between subsystem independence and adaptability, the effect that the structure of computer-based information processing has on subsystem independence is central to our discussion. We are focusing here on complex systems that face an uncertain environment and that are controlled and operated by humans with the help of computer-based information systems. This type of systems includes organizations, complex projects, and complex processes and devices controlled by humans with the help of computers. Three closely related, but distinct types of interdependence between the subsystems of a system can be distinguished. The first one is the interdependence between the computer-based information system and the subsystems of the main system it supports. The second type of interdependence is the one that exists among the other subsystems of the main system. The third type of interdependence is between the components, or functional subsystems, of the computer-based information system. These three types of interdependence between the subsystems of a system are clearly closely interrelated. The principle for architecture design presented here provides guidelines for the design of computer-based information systems that enhance the effectiveness and adaptability of the system they support by reducing as much as possible the effect that the various types of interdependence have on adaptability. Roberto R Kampfner Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1304 The line of inquiry on evolutionary learning communities (ELCs) to promote evolutionary development (ED) seeks to identify the conditions by which people can self-organize to learn, design and implement actions that will improve their quality of life and their socio-ecological milieu. In the Fall of 2007, the Universal Forum of Cultures took place in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. This UNESCO sponsored world event offered an opportunity to implement an evolutionary learning community with local citizens to bridge the knowledge of the Forum with the sustainable development needs of the local community. Over two hundred citizens responded to the call to join the “Leaders of Change” initiative. The ELC was conceived as a group of potential social entrepreneurs who came together to learn, identify possibilities, and support each other in the development of projects to translate their vision into action. This article reports on the design, process, and outcomes of the 8 month action-research project as well as the outcomes, reflections from the experience and implications for future research. Kathia Castro Laszlo Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1218 In sovereign based conflicts where secession is threatened, war plays a significant role in levelling the playing field in the bid for and in Peace Talks negotiations. Whilst each opposing protagonist, would prefer to enter Peace Talk negotiations with the upper hand, the greater likelihood is that it is stalemate conditions or subdued victory that is the atmosphere for meaningful Peace Talks. However, the prelude to such conditions is that usually there is an intensity of atrocities. Indeed the greater the perception of the threat of secession, the greater the intensity of war. The question is – is there another way to level the playing field in the bid for Peace Talk negotiations without the carnage and price of war and terrorism. Having recognised the need for operational viability of the (aspiring) Secessionists State, particularly in the form of needing to participate in what is termed the international interoperability systems, this paper proposes there is an alternative to the intensity of war/terrorism. This paper considers the attractiveness of that alternative. It examines the (aspiring) secessionist’s need for international interoperability, for example the need for an international telephone dialling number, recognition of postal destination, passport, banking system. In turn it considers the way that engages the Parent State in response to prevent such achievement. This brings to light the operational relevance of recognition of new States by the international community and the path of positioning and negotiations that the opposing protagonist can engage in. This being the case, this paper proposes a design for assessing that international positioning by each opposing secessionist. It also proposes that such assessment can be used, like the assessment of war, in the bid for levelling the playing field for internal self-determination Peace Talks where territorial integrity is preserved and equality on substantive matters across the communities is achieved. Leonie Marilynne Solomons Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1302 The thermodynamic laws governing open systems necessitate a cost to system complexity. The cost of system complexity represents an energetic debt in the system’s surroundings called ‘entropy debt’. This research begins with the premise that municipalities can be understood as complex, open systems and as dissipative structures. They garner energy (i.e. 'energy throughput') from their surroundings to build internal 'system complexity' such as social order, infrastructure, and communication networks. Regarding natural resources, the entropy debt of community complexity is the impact communities have on their natural environment – defined in this research as ‘community entropy debt’. Environmental impact is problematic when it compromises the ecological integrity of the natural resources upon which communities rely. Given the necessary relationship between energy throughputs, in the form of natural resources such as food, fiber, and fuel, and community complexity, maintaining ecological integrity is paramount to community sustainability. Yet, despite community dependence on the natural environment, air, water, and terrestrial pollution and loss of sensitive ecosystems continue. This research asks, how can an open systems conceptual framework highlight the energetic-entropic relationship between the system complexity of municipalities and the natural environment? How can such a conceptual framework effectively be operationalized and applied to municipalities? Finally, what can an analysis of the conceptual framework parameters reveal about systemic drivers of anthropogenic environmental degradation? First, this research views five British Columbia municipalities through the conceptual lens of the theory of dissipative structures. Second, this research abstracts from the conceptual framework an analogical model comprised of these inextricably linked parameters: 'energy throughput', 'system complexity', and 'entropy debt', to which the corresponding dimensions of municipalities and the natural environment are mapped. Third, this research identifies and applies surrogate measures for each parameter and then compares the data for each municipality. This paper introduces the research and highlights some of the preliminary data. Caroline von Schilling Debra Straussfogel Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05 https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings53rd/article/view/1285 The theory in the Vipassana Noble Eightfold meditation technique of Buddha is believed to be the Theory of Everything. However, Chinese believed that the Taichi Yin-Yang theory is the Theory of the Universe. Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman believed in the unity of all the equations and theories of physics to explain the nature. Could they be the different truth of the universe? Or they are all the truth of the universe but only illustrated in different terminologies? It is believed that the latter one is the case. The links between these theories are illustrated in this paper using modern system and control theories. The evolution of science gave birth to our modern materialistic world. Does this materialism contradict with our spirituality? It is believed that both of them follow the Theory of Everything. All the contradictions arise only because of human beings, who tried to control and manipulate the universe to suit their frame of reference involving cravings, aversions and ignorance. The practice of Vipassana meditation allows us to realize the union of materialism and spirituality, because Vipassana helps us to acquire the ultimate wisdom, to be the master of our own mind, and to be able to make decisions base not on emotions but on compassion. Buddha explained the theory of our universe but said that the ultimate truth cannot be explained in the words and concepts that we use to communicate. Our common senses are based on pattern differentiation. Our communications are based on languages. And the fundamental of all languages are mathematical logic, set theory, and Taichi Yin-Yang system theory, which all are again based on differentiation. Buddha said that the ultimate truth is without differentiation, which is beyond our common senses and our communication abilities. However, Buddha taught a method for everyone of us to experience the ultimate truth ourselves. The beauty of this method is that it is simple, practical and realistic, involving no sectarianism, no imagination and no super-natural power. The method is similar to a virus cleaning program that will eliminates all the impurities within our mind, allowing us to experience the ultimate truth. Even though the ultimate truth cannot be explained in words, the Vipassana method itself is within our basic concepts and hence can be explained in terms of system and control theories. The Taichi, boundary, of this system is the "purification of my mind". According to the Taichi Yin-Yang theory, the Yin-Yang combo will be formed in different parts of the system namely the internal part, and the superficial part which acts as the interface between the internal and the external of the system. Research reveals that the internal Yin component of Vipassana method is equanimity, the balance of the mind, and the Yang component is our awareness. The superficial Yin component is wisdom and the Yang component is compassion. Our goal of regulation is to keep both parts of this system working within the balanced range of the Cold-Hot and Deficiency-Excess spectrum. The preparation stage of Vipassana meditation is Anapana meditation, the concentration of the mind through the observation of the breath. Research shows that the technique requires the observer to fix the frame of reference on the entrance of the nose. Then observe the flow of air during breathing in and breathing out. However, only the polarity of the first derivative of the flow of air at this moment is observed. That is, whether the breath is coming in or going out at this moment. The value of the derivative, the second and higher derivatives, the memory of the past moments, or the prediction of the coming moments should all be ignored. This paper will demonstrate our research of the Vipassana meditation technique as taught by S.N. Goenka globally nowadays, in terms of the Taichi Yin-Yang system theory which is now structured in terms of modern system and control theories with our research. Thomas Sui Leung WONG Jotin KHISTY Timothy A GOLDEN E C Yan HUANG Copyright (c) 2009-07-05 2009-07-05