News: Complexity, Democracy & Sustainability

Monday, February 27, 2006 - 04:19 PM

July 9-14, 2006 @ Sonoma State University. The 50th anniversary conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences offers an opportunity to celebrate and reinvigorate a half-century of interdisciplinary collaboration and synthesis.



• Complex Systems and the Roots of Systems Thinking
What can the sciences of complexity teach us about social justice and sustainability?

• Self-Organization and Living Systems
What is the nature of the relationship between information and consciousness?

• Ecological Systems and Sustainability
How do we manage information in a way that fosters effective decision-making processes?

• Social Systems Design and Practice
How do we nurture organizational structures that serve human needs while also protecting our resources for future generations?

The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is unique among systems-oriented institutions in the breadth of its scope, bringing together scholars and practitioners from academic, business, government, and non-profit communities to explore what Gregory Bateson has called the "pattern that connects."

These past fifty years have produced a tremendous richness and breadth of research into the nature of complexity, from the scientific study of complex systems to interactive approaches in management and community development. Building on this impressive heritage, the 50th annual meeting of the ISSS aims to convene leading thinkers and practitioners from across the spectrum of systems-related fields in order to nurture an ongoing synthesis of theory and practice, to cultivate a more integrated understanding of the challenges confronting humanity, and to envision possible paths toward solutions.

The theme for this anniversary conference, “Complexity, Democracy, and Sustainability,” is an attempt to capture some key dimensions in the broadly defined field of systems research. Following an opening keynote from Fritjof Capra on Sunday evening, July 9.

Both the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC), the Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches (ACASA) and the International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM2006) will be holding annual meetings in partnership with the Sonoma conference; and representatives from other related organizations will be participating in the program, including the System Dynamics Group, the Santa Fe Institute, the New England Complex Systems Institute, the Institute for Intercultural Studies, the General Evolution Research Group, and the Center for Organizational Dynamics (University of Pennsylvania), among others.

1. 1 SIG 1: Systems Applications in Business and Industry
2. 2 SIG 2: Hierarchy Theory
3. 3 SIG 4: Systems Philosophy and Ethics
4. 4 SIG 12: Epistemology and Metamodeling
5. 5 SIG 16: Information Systems Design
6. 6 SIG 17: General Theory of Systems
7. 7 SIG 19: Medical and Health Systems
8. 8 SIG 20: Living Systems Analysis
9. 9 SIG 21: Designing Educational Systems
10. 10 SIG 24: Human Systems Inquiry
11. 11 SIG 29: Evolutionary Development
12. 12 SIG 33: What is Life/Living?
13. 13 SIG 34: Women and Children
14. 14 SIG 35: Systems-Specific Technology
15. 15 SIG 36: Organizational Transformation and Social Change
16. 16 Systems Science Basis for Systems Pathology and Systems Biology
17. 17 SIG for Students
18. 18 Exploratory Groups and Forums
1. 18.1 Systems Approaches in Arts-Informed Inquiry
2. 18.2 General Evolution Research Group
3. 18.3 Gregory Bateson Forum
4. 18.4 The Design of Economic Systems in a Service Economy
5. 18.5 Aging Systems: An Integrated Study of Humans, Organizations (Corporations) and the Universe
6. 18.6 Systems Education Paper Session
7. 18.7 Session on Global Agoras
8. 18.8 Scholarly Session on Terror, Torture, Secrecy, Propaganda, Democracy, and Peace Development
9. 18.9 Integrative Study Session on Terror, Torture, Secrecy and Peace
10. 18.10 Foundation of Information Science