Fwd: Chance to create a new book on social systems and design
James Martin
James
From: Gary Metcalf <gmet...@interconnectionsllc.com>
Date: Sun, May 6, 2012 at 12:34 PM
Subject: Chance to create a new book on social systems and design
To: nelso...@cal.berkeley.edu, Hawk David <davi...@comcast.net>, pe...@redesignresearch.com, Alexander Laszlo <the...@mac.com>, jp2co...@aol.com, "Kathia C. Laszlo, Ph.D." <kla...@saybrook.edu>, Doug Walton <dcwa...@gmail.com>, Ken Bausch <k...@globalagoras.org>, Jack Ring <jri...@gmail.com>, Debora Hammond <ham...@sonoma.edu>, minlii...@gmail.com, davidi...@gmail.com, International Council on Systems Engineering <mart...@gmail.com>, Jim Spohrer <spo...@almaden.ibm.com>, just...@us.ibm.com, Staffans Aija <aija.s...@aalto.fi>, katri.p...@opendesign.fi
Cc: Kyoichi Kijima <kij...@valdes.titech.ac.jp>
Dear Colleagues,
We have the opportunity to create a new book about social systems and design. I need to know if you are interested in contributing. Final drafts of chapters have been requested by December 2012.
By way of background, Jim Kijima was approached by Springer Publishing in Tokyo to help create a new, edited book series about systems science. The proposed title of the series is “Translational Systems Sciences.” (The term “translational” has been most used in medicine, apparently, but a quick explanation can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_science.) The series is expected to include at least five volumes, but that could be expanded significantly. Jim has asked me to edit the first volume in the series, which would be related to social systems and design. I believe that he plans to edit the second volume about the science of service systems. Future volumes are still in discussion.
My thought about this first volume is to include various approaches to social systems design, with a focus not just on their histories but primarily on how they have evolved, and how they are being used today (in concept or in direct practice.) The chapters should help to explain (to the degree possible) the original context and intent of those approaches. Latter chapters would describe current work which is aimed at the same intents but using new approaches in different contexts. Ultimately, (1) how have we tried to design the social systems in which we live, (2) what have we learned about doing so, and (3) what are we doing now?
My first, rough outline for possible contributors and chapters is listed below. That will obviously change according to the final mix of papers submitted. If you have suggestions for additional or alternative authors and topics, I am still very open to those at the moment. Where potential authors are listed in multiple places I need to know the topics in which you are most interested, and the authors that you think are best suited to that topic (or alternatives that you would suggest.) Some chapters will be coauthored, but there could be different chapters about the same topics by different authors. Given the requested timeline (final drafts by the end of the year) we will need to begin work on the actual writing and collaborating as soon as possible.
At present, I do not have any specifications or limitations about the length of contributions, or of the volume in total. In general, I would look for each contribution / chapter to be anywhere between 10 and 30 pages. (Longer is not always better, but some topics will need space to cover the necessary ground.)
FIRST OUTLINE:
1. Social systems and design – an overview (Gary Metcalf)
2. Design as a human attribute (Harold Nelson)
3. What we’ve missed about systems and design (David Hawk)
4. From design to social systems (Peter Jones)
5. Ackoff, Banathy and Laszlo: Different approaches or different worlds? (Alexander Laszlo)
6. Russ Ackoff: Idealized Systems Design (John Pourdehnad)
7. Bela Banathy: Design, evolution and dialogue (Kathia Laszlo / Doug Walton / Ken Bausch / Gary Metcalf)
8. John Warfield: A Science of Generic Design (Aleco Christakis / Jack Ring)
9. From Interactive Management to Cogniscope (Aleco Christakis / Ken Bausch)
10. The Tavistock imprint on organizational design (Debora Hammond / Minna Takala / David Ing / Merrelyn Emery / Gary Metcalf)
11. Systems design in organizational change (Doug Walton / Harold Nelson / ???)
12. Systems engineers as designers of human systems (INCOSE Systems Science Working Group)
13. Smarter Cities / Smarter Planet as processes of design (Jim Spohrer / Justin Cook)
14. Community design in Latin America (Kathia Laszlo)
15. Emerging designs in Finland and Africa (Minna Takala)
16. Teaching social systems design (Aalto University faculty / Saybrook University faculty / U. Penn faculty / Open University faculty…)
I look forward to hearing from you about (1) your interest in the project, (2) your availability for contributing to it, and / or (3) your thoughts about the book as a whole.
Sincerely,
Gary S. Metcalf, Ph.D.
InterConnections, LLC
President, International Federation for Systems Research
1408 ½ Central Ave.
Ashland, KY 41101
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James