1. Bertalanffy Center awards prize to Edgar Morin

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of complexity thinking, the Bertalanffy Center will award a prize to Edgar Morin.

The award ceremony will take place at the forthcoming European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, on 10th of April 2012, 20:00, in Lecture Hall B at the Campus of the University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna (entrance free).

Edgar Morin will hold a keynote on “Complex Thinking for a Complex World – About Reductionism, Disjunction and Systemism”.

The laudatio will be given by Rainer E. Zimmermann.

2. IASCYS publicly welcomes five new members

The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetics Sciences (IASCYS) will be holding a public reception, in which official certificates for the appointment of members to the academy are presented to five new members. These are: Edgar Morin, Ervin Laszlo, Rainer E. Zimmermann, Robert Trappl and George Soros. (Unfortunately, Edgar Morin and George Soros won’t be able to attend)

The reception will take place on Thursday, April 12^th at 6 pm, Lecture Hall B, court 2.10.

3. Stephan Schulmeister confirmed as speaker

The widely known expert Stephan Schulmeister from the Austrian Institute of Economic Research has confirmed his presentation in Symposium U., titled “The current Crisis as Implosion Process”.  You can find the presentation here.

>> This is a message from Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Chair of the EMCSR 2012 <<

Dear Participants and Attendees,

this year’s EMCSR is coming closer, only a few more days until we all gather in Vienna. With this, I would like to pass on some relevant news and information to take with you next week.

Stefan Blachfellner and I produced a program in PDF format for your convenience. You can download it here. You don’t need to print it off, as you will be provided with a copy when you register on location in person next week.

We were able to add another Symposium U. Austrian economy experts will discuss the economic crises of today in a systems perspective.

Last minute changes to the schedule will be announced via updates on the website.

As you might already know, all confirmed presentations are available online. We would like to ask you to prepare yourself by reading those presentations that are scheduled in the same track, as we feel it would facilitate discussions.

Robert Bichler is in the process of creating the book of abstracts. We would kindly ask you to help him finalize it. He will address you personally, in case something is not quite right with your abstract or if information is missing.

Have a look at the “venue” part on our website. This will help you find your way. There are also some suggestions for visiting other places in and around Vienna, if time allows.

Registration opens at 8 am on Tuesday April 10th. However, there will be the possibility for those arriving later to make use of late registration at 10 am (after the opening event). You can find registration times for the following days in the program.

And lastly, outside guests are welcome to join the social event. Tickets can be purchased at the registration desk.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any further questions!

Wishing you a pleasant journey!

Best Regards,

Wolfgang Hofkirchner

Chair of EMCSR 2012

The speaker profiles include interesting background information, as well as answers to questions we asked them about their fields of research. They is a great opportunity for everyone attending EMCSR 2012 to learn more about our speakers and the topics of our meetings, cybernetics and systems research, from individual standpoints. At best, we’d like you to get excited about meeting them in person in a couple of weeks in Vienna!

We hope you enjoy the blogpost series and welcome any feedback you might have!

Here are out first four (in no particular order):

Ranulph Glanville

British freelance researcher and theoretician in both architecture and cybernetics.

“Most of all, I would like cybernetics to be valued for its beauty, not for its utility. It is time we stopped admiring utility: it leads to the material culture we live in.”

Symposium E Chair

Symposium E Topic:
An Online Conversational Learning Environment Based on Quasi Entailment Mesh (with Burak Pak)

Carlos Gershenson

Mexican researcher with a wide variety of academic interests, including self-organizing systems, complexity, artificial life, evolution, cognition, artificial societies, robotics, and philosophy.

“I am inspired by people who dare to think different and manage to get it right.”

Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Symposium L &M Chair

Symposium M Topic:
Living in Living Cities

Zdenka Zenko

Slovenian researcher specialized in innovation management, system theory, methods for creative thinking and decision making, research in entrepreneurship.

“Systemic thinking makes my life more manageable.”

University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, Slovenia

Symposium N Topics:
- ISO 26000 on social responsibility supports solving the global socio-economic crisis (with Matjaz Mulej, Vojko Potocan & Anita Hrast)
- Complexity and management of inventions to innovations (with Matjaž Mulej)

Andree Piecq

Therapist, teacher, trainer and speaker in systems analysis from Belgium. Also, the General Secretary of The European Union for Systemic.

“I would like to see the systemic approach to go out of the expert cenacle without loosing its characteristics, and without become an empty theory.”

The European Union for Systemic

Symposium Q Topic:
Systemic theoretical knowledge applied to practical action: Strategies to manage human organization in a crisis context

Copyright: Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science

Since we had a closer look at the beginnings of Cybernetics with regard to the Macy Conferences a couple of weeks ago, we now contribute this blogpost to Systems Theory, its history and background especially with regard to the pioneer in this area of research, Ludwig von Bertalanffy.

(This post serves more as a collection of public online resources for further reading rather than trying to give a holistic historical picture of Systems Theory and Systems Research itself.)

Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian-born biologist and system theorist, who left behind a precious legacy: a new way of “seeing” and thinking that he called General Systems Theory.

• Some information on Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the founder of the General Systems Theory, from which Systems Theory as we know it today emerged, provided by the International Society for the Systems Sciences.
• This is a section on the website of the BCSSS that gives an overview of General System Theory, Systems Theory, the Nature of Systems and the Systems Movement.
• A paper on his life and background.
• Here is brilliant post appreciating Ludwig von Bertalanffy and his work, calling him a ‘neglected genius and one of the greatest scientists’.
• In case you would like to dive even more into Ludwig von Bertalanffy, here is a book about him.

On the history of Systems Theory:

• Alexander Laszlo compiled a manuscript about the origins and development of Systems Theories. You can download it here.
• This blogpost by a scholar from Japan is a brief history of Systems Theory.
• “The History and Status of General Systems Theory” is a journal article by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy  from 1972 in The Academy of Management Journal.

Do you know of more links to valuable online resources? Please share with us in the comments!

This first part introduces you to some of our keynote speakers. We hope they put you into the mood of the conference and motivate you to get to know the speakers in person in a few weeks!

(Click on the names to be directed to the individual profiles)

Ervin László
Club of Budapest and Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University
Topic: Information and Coherence in Nature and the Cancer of Human-World Incoherence

Péter Csermely
Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Topic: Crisis responses and crisis management: what can we learn from biological networks?

Merrelyn Emery
Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, and Fred Emery Institute, Melbourne
Topic: Ross Ashby Memorial Lecture: Open or closed systems – Bridging the gap

Péter Érdi
Complex Systems Studies, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, and Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Topic: Forty years in Biocybernetics. Luigi Ricciardi memorial lecture

(Photo Credit Post Banner: © Scott Camazine)

The Macy Conferences were ten meetings of scholars from different academic disciplines held in New York between 1946 and 1953. They were initiated and organised by Warren McCulloch and the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. The main purpose of these meetings was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind.

Source: http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/history/Macy10Photo.htm

The first conference, which was entitled ”Feedback Mechanisms and Circular Causal Systems in Biological and Social Systems” was attended by an unprecedented network of great minds at the time:

• William Ross Ashby; psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics
• Gregory Bateson; anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist
• Julian Bigelow; pioneering computer engineer
• Heinz von Foerster; biophysicist, scientist combining physics and philosophy and architect of cybernetics
• Lawrence K. Frank; social scientist
• Ralph W. Gerard; neurophysiologist and behavioral scientist known for his work on the nervous system, nerve metabolism, psychopharmacology, and biological basis of schizophrenia
• Molly Harrower; pioneering clinical psychologist
• Lawrence Kubie; psychatrist
• Paul Lazarsfeld; sociologist and founder of Columbia University’s Bureau for Applied Social Research
• Kurt Lewin; psychologist, often regarded as the founder of social psychology
• Warren McCulloch (chair); psychatrist, neurophysiologist and cybernetician
• Margaret Mead; cultural anthropologist
• John von Neumann; one of the foremost mathematicians of the 20th century
• Walter Pitts; logician and co-author of the paper that founded neural networks
• Arturo Rosenblueth; researcher, physician, physiologist and a pioneer of cybernetics
• Leonard J. Savage; mathematician and statistician
• Norbert Wiener; mathematician and founder of cybernetics

An incredible collection of guests attended the Cybernetics Group sessions during their seven years of existence. Among them were Max Horkheimer, the head of the Frankfurt School, and Claude Shannon, “the father of information theory”.

See this link for a more complete listing of the attendees and guests.

The foundation for the conferences was laid in May 1942, when the key participants met to exchange ideas, which created the enthusiasm and motivation to hold the Macy Conferences a few years later after the war. Attendance for the initial small meeting was by invitation only, and the two topics on the agenda were hypnotism and conditioned reflex. As soon as the war ended, Bateson contacted Fremont-Smith, pushing for some sort of conference to follow up on the concepts from the 1942 meeting.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of comprehensive documentation on the Macy Conferences. Part of this derives from the fact that the first five conferences were never formally documented with published proceedings.

Follow the links below to find out more in-depth information about the Macy Conferences (which also served as sources for this blogpost):

Summary: The Macy Conferences by the American Society for Cybernetics 

Macy Konferenzen (in German)

Macy Conferences on Wikipedia 

Book: Cybernetics | Kybernetik The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953

Today we would like to present two of our biggest supporter organisations, the International Society for Systems Sciences (ISSS) and the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR). Their background is not only of personal interest, but also historically important. So without further ado, let us introduce you to them:

International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)

The ISSS is among the first and oldest organizations devoted to interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of complex systems. Founded in 1954 by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, and Anatol Rapoport.

The initial purpose of the society was to encourage the development of theoretical systems with the following principal aims:

• to investigate the isomorphy of concepts, laws, and models in various fields, and to help in useful transfers from one field to another;
• to encourage the development of adequate theoretical models in areas which lack them;
• to eliminate the duplication of theoretical efforts in different fields; and
• to promote the unity of science through improving the communication among specialists.

Until today, the ISSS has expanded its scope beyond purely theoretical and technical considerations to include the practical application of systems methodologies to problem solving. It now provides a forum where scholars and practitioners from across the disciplinary spectrum, representing academic, business, government, and non-profit communities, can come together to share ideas and learn from one another.

Its 56^th annual meeting is taking place on July 15-20 2012 at San Jose State University, California.

Meet David Ing, President of ISSS:

1. What does the ISSS mean to you?

The ISSS is a diverse community of systems thinkers with a depth and breadth of insight into the world, unlike any other professional organization I have encountered.  They are lifelong learners with a natural curiosity and wisdom, with a welcoming style of openness and sharing amongst experts and novices alike.

2. Why should other people show interest in the ISSS? What will they experience or learn?

The ISSS provides opportunities to learn in interactive collegiality, beyond disciplinary lines.  Marshall McLuhan said “One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in”.  As someone who works in business and technologies, I learn from biologists and ecologists.   People who join ISSS meetings should always expect to encounter a point of view that they hadn’t previously considered, so they will gain more insight into the way the world works … or could work.

3. What is your current position or responsibility with the ISSS?

I’m the president of the ISSS through July 2012.  I’m leading the development of the program for the 56th Annual Meeting of the ISSS, scheduled for July 15-20 in San Jose, California.  The theme for the meeting is “Service Systems, Natural Systems”.  There’s more information at http://isss.org/world/sanjose-2012 .

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International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) 

The IFSR was founded 1981 and is a non-profit, scientific and educational agency, constituted of member organizations from various countries. The overall purpose of the Federation is to advance cybernetic and systems research and systems applications and to serve the international systems community.

The Federation

• organizes scientific conferences, tutorials, seminars, workshops and lectures as well as associated exhibitions.
• cooperates with organisations and associations with similar interests world-wide, especially cooperations at national and international scientific events and supports the participation of scientists at scientific events world wide.
• has the following major means of publications: The Journal of Systems Research and Behavioural Science, The IFSR Book Series on Systems Science and Engineering, The IFSR Newsletter, Proceedings of Fuschl Conversations, IFSR W. Ashby Memorial Lectures.
• establishes Working Groups and Project Groups including operation of appropriate data bases and communication means.
• cooperates with standardisation organisations and other standard-producing organisations, including development of standards.
• researches, formulates and publishes opinions to issues of education, training and application in the domain of systems.
• supports education and training in the area of Systems Research and Systems Engineering, in and outside of academic institutions.
• provides information on issues of systems thinking, systems research and systems design to decision makers, to domain specialists and the broader public via all relevant media.

In the words of the president of IFSR, Gary Metcalf, the reason why people should show interest in the ISFR, is that although “a number of the systems organizations have been around for over 50 years, the importance of using systems approaches to deal with massively complex issues is just beginning to be appreciated by leaders and decision-makers. There are many different theories and models which fall under the category of systems, but all share some common traits about working with problems in context rather than in isolation.” Visit Gary Metcalf’s blog here.

Please also meet Prof. Dr. Gerhard Chroust from IFSR and visit his website here:

1. What does the IFSR mean to you?

Realising the global challenges of today and the resulting need for systems theory in 2004, the BCSSS was founded with the aim to inspire the development of systems science. The Center works to advance scientific research in the field of systems thinking and by doing so, revisits General System Theory (GST) as founded by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and others. The focus is the reassessment of the theory in the light of today’s global challenges and to illuminate the course of development systems science has taken since. The Research Center cooperates with every person or organisation supporting the same aim. It also owns the Ludwig von Bertalanffy archive and possesses a collection of publications of the systems movement.

“Unity through Diversity”

The BCSS

• administrates the archive of Ludwig von Bertalanffy and makes it open to the public.
• administrates also other collections which are of interest to the systems movement.
• carries out and supports research projects in the field of systems sciences.
• carries out and supports scientific activities like lectures, workshops, conferences and international co-operations of scientists interested in General System Theory and related fields.

Meet Wolfgang Hofkirchner, President of BCSSS:

1. What does the Bertalanffy Center mean to you?

I see the Bertalanffy Center as one of the means for strengthening international cooperation between those different strands of the systems movement that have developed so far. The problem is that sometimes approaches lost their ability to communicate and to connect to other schools of thought. And often non-systemic scientists and the public don’t see the added value of thinking in a systemic way. The Bertalanffy Center will try to help make evident that the global challenges of today – the crises we face in the world we’re living in – need systemic handling. And for that reason we have to recollect the common foundations of, say, social cybernetics, robotics, systems biology, system dynamics, agent-based modelling, complex systems, radical constructivism and so on, as well as to deliberate on what are the specific strengths of those threads are.

2. Why should other people show interest in the BCSSS? What will they experience or learn?

The BCSSS wants to become a platform for the exchange between representatives of different schools and disciplines and the public. We are the owner of the estate of Ludwig von Bertalanffy who sometimes is called the founder of general system theory. We have got letters and files and manuscripts and tapes and film material that wait for being exploited. I learned already much from reading Bertalanffy in original. I learned new facets of understanding. It’s really striking how up-to-date ideas got buried and how ideas need to get excavated as they are topical today!

3. What is your current position or responsibility with the BCSSS?

I’m the so-called president. I’m elected for the period until end of calendar year 2013.

Please also visit Wolfgang Hofkirchner’s blog, where you can find out more about him, his background as well as research.

This is the official place for updates on the conference, background stories about our partners, supporters and speakers, news in the field of cybernetics and systems research as well as lots of other interesting content with regard to the EMCSR and its official organizer, the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science!

This blog also serves as a connection node for our other social media activities over at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

The meetings have always been a place for interaction and connecting people and their ideas. Our online social spaces act as an extension for our dialogue and we encourage you to take part!

Please also sign up here to the EMCSR newsletter to receive updates and news!

If you have any questions please contact us at mail@emcsr.net!

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(Photo Credit: CC via Jimmy_Joe @ Flickr)