With apologies for cross-posting
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Call for Papers
Critical Management Studies 3 Conference
'Critique and Inclusivity: Opening the Agenda'
7th - 9th July 2003 - Lancaster University, UK
http://www.cms3.org
OR/Systems Thinking for Social Improvement
Critical systems thinking is a holistic approach to problem solving and
as such strives for comprehensiveness in analysis and application
whilst recognising that complete comprehensiveness is impossible. As
critical systems practitioners, we recognise that we take decisions
based on value judgements and limited understandings. These include
judgements about who to include in our analyses, how to conduct our
investigations, how to critique our conclusions, where to "bound" our
thinking, when to act, and so on. By recognising the inevitable
incomprehensiveness of everything we do, and by designing methods that
help us to be more reflective about values, boundaries and
interconnections, we believe that we can improve the ways in which we
engage with others.
Other forms of management problem solving can be understood to have a
less engaged stance. Operational research, for example, has an
action-orientation that for many would be taken as representing a
disengaged, and distanced approach to problem-solving. Its mode of
'engagement' has traditionally been with the objects of the problem,
rather than the subjects. The relationship between OR and systems
thinking has been explored over many years, and we shall illustrate
ways in which OR can be enhanced through a more engaged and reflective
practice which takes on board learning from other fields. While there
is both a 'systems community' and an 'OR community', each with its own
journals and conferences, it is nevertheless the case that many of the
best-known practitioners have had a foot in both camps (e.g.,
Churchman, Forrester, Hall, Checkland, Ackoff and Jackson to name but a
few). Arguably, these practitioners have married the concern with
comprehensiveness from systems thinking with the action-orientation of
OR to create a set of ideas that are increasingly being seen as
essential if we are to begin to tackle the complex social and
ecological problems of the 21st Century.
This stream will give people a chance to explore how they can work
together to enhance systemic practice for the future. Systems thinkers
from all over the world have been active in developing critical and
systemic intervention for social and ecological improvement. It seems
to us that we are experiencing an international resurgence of interest
in systems thinking, and attention is also being turned in countries
all over the world to the question of how to address both global and
local issues of environmental degradation, social exclusion, poverty,
inequality and community fragmentation. It is therefore vitally
important that we share our insights and build a community of
practitioners that can take the research agenda forward. Our aim is
therefore to bring together as many people as possible who are engaging
with these themes, with the intention of promoting an intense and
lively debate with real implications for systems and OR practice in the
service of social improvement. Presentations will span a wide range of
systems ideas, from philosophy and theory through to methodology,
methods and their application in interventions. Systemic practice in a
wide variety of domains is likely to be covered: rural regeneration,
health service management, environmental planning, software
development, knowledge management, disaster planning, information
systems planning, defence strategy, community development,
organisational strategic management, safety planning, and human capital
accounting.
As we enter the 21st Century, it is arguably the case that there is
more need for systems thinking than ever before-we are living in a
truly interconnected world. Therefore, we look forward to an exciting
exchange of ideas in this stream with real implications for social and
ecological improvement in the years to come.
Stream Convenors:
Dr Wendy Gregory
Centre for Systems Studies,
Business School,
University of Hull,
Hull,
HU6 7RX
Britain
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 01482-465960
Fax: 01482-466637
Dr Gabriele Bammer
Fulbright New Century Scholar and
Senior Fellow, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health,
The Australian National University.
Sid Luckett
Director of Academic Programmes
Centre for Rural Development Systems,
University of Natal,
South Africa.
Dr Alejandro Ochoa-Arias
Centro de Investigaciones en Sistemología Interpretativa.
Universidad de Los Andes.
Mérida.
Venezuela.
Ian Roderick
New Academy of Business,
Bristol, UK
Dr Roman Vega-Romero
Posgrados de Administración en Salud y Seguridad Social
Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas
Universidad Javeriana
Bogotá-Colombia
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Dr Wendy Gregory
Research Director
Business School
The University of Hull
Hull HU6 7RX
Britain.
Telephone: (+44)(0)1482-465960
Mobile: 0790 410 6818
Fax: (+44)(0)1482-466637
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
Research website: http://www.hull.ac.uk/hubs/research/index.htm
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