94,673 research outputs found

    Conversation, Design and Ethics: The Cybernetics of Ranulph Glanville

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    One of the major themes of Ranulph Glanville’s work has been the intimate connection between cybernetics and design, the two principle disciplines that he has worked in and contributed to. In this paper I review the significance of the analogy that he proposes between the two and its connection to his concerns with, firstly, the cybernetic practice of cybernetics and, secondly, the relation between cybernetics and ethics. I propose that by putting the cybernetics-design analogy together with the idea that in cybernetics epistemological and ethical questions coincide, we can understand design as not just a form ofcybernetic practice but also one in which ethical questions are implicit

    Design research as a variety of second-order Cybernetic practice

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    > Context • The relationship between design and science has shifted over recent decades. One bridge between the two is cybernetics, which offers perspectives on both in terms of their practice. From around 1980 onwards, drawing on ideas from cybernetics, Glanville has suggested that rather than apply science to design, it makes more sense to understand science as a form of design activity, reversing the more usual hierarchy between the two. I return to review this argument here, in the context of recent discussions in this journal regarding second-order science (SOS). > Problem • Despite numerous connections to practice, second-order cybernetics (SOC) has tended to be associated with theory. As a result, SOC is perceived as separate to the more tangible aspects of earlier cybernetics in a way that obscures both the continuity between the two and also current opportunities for developing the field. > Method • I review Glanville's understanding of design, and particularly his account of scientific research as a designlike activity, placing this within the context of the shifting relation between science and design during the development of SOC, with reference to the work of Rittel and Feyerabend. Through this, I summarise significant parallels and overlaps between SOC and the contemporary concerns of design research. > Results • I suggest that we can see design research not just as a field influenced by cybernetics but as a form of SOC practice even where cybernetics is not explicitly referenced. > Implications • Given this, design research offers much to cybernetics as an important example of SOC that is both outward looking and practice based. As such, it bridges the gap between SOC and the more tangible legacy of earlier cybernetics, while also suggesting connections to contemporary concerns in this journal with SOS in terms of researching research. > Constructivist content • By suggesting that we see design research as an example of SOC, I develop connections between constructivism and practice

    Towards an anarchist cybernetics: Stafford Beer, self-organisation and radical social movements

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    In the early 1960s, a number of anarchist writers showed an interest in cybernetics, in which they saw the tools for better articulating radical forms of self-organisation. Discussions on the connections between anarchism and cybernetics did not advance very far, however, and by the 1970s the topic seems to have fallen off the anarchist radar. With an increase in interest in cybernetics over the last few years, this paper picks up where these debates left off and highlights some key points of contact between cybernetics and anarchism that have the potential to advance radical accounts of self-organisation. Based on a theoretical appraisal of the core texts and arguments in the debate around anarchism and cybernetics, the paper shows that the way in which hierarchy is formulated in cybernetic thought has a crucial impact on anarchist theory and practice and aids both academic approaches to social movements and, importantly, anarchist and radical left praxis. In addition, it provides a response to the critique of cybernetics in critical management studies that stands as a barrier to taking cybernetics seriously as a contribution to radical understandings of organisation

    Fruits of Gregory Bateson’s epistemological crisis: embodied mind-making and interactive experience in research and professional praxis

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    Background: The espoused rationale for this special issue, situated “at the margins of cybernetics,” was to revisit and extend the common genealogy of cybernetics and communication studies. Two possible topics garnered our attention: 1) the history of intellectual adventurers whose work has appropriated cybernetic concepts; and 2) the remediation of cybernetic metaphors. Analysis: A heuristic for engaging in first- and second-order R&D praxis, the design of which was informed by co-research with pastoralists (1989–1993) and the authors’ engagements with the scholarship of Bateson and Maturana, was employed and adapted as a reflexive in-quiry framework.Conclusion and implications: This inquiry challenges the mainstream desire for change and the belief in getting the communication right in order to achieve change. The authors argue this view is based on an epistemological error that continues to produce the very problems it intends to diminish, and thus we live a fundamental error in epistemology, false ontology, and misplaced practice. The authors offer instead conceptual and praxis possibilities for triggering new co-evolutionary trajectories

    A Proof of Stability of Model-Free Control

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    International audienceCybernetics involves Control Theory and Control Practice. From its roots, Cybernetics has always been intimately to Control. The paper is devoted to the proof of an important theorem for the development of control: the closed loop stability of control laws that are calculated in the framework of model-free control. Everyone knows the importance of control in the field of Cybernetics [1]

    The art of conversation: design cybernetics and its ethics

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    Purpose This paper discusses ethical principles that are implicit in second-order cybernetics, with the aim of arriving at a better understanding of how second-order cybernetics frames living in a world with others. It further investigates implications for second-order cybernetics approaches to architectural design, i.e. the activity of designing frameworks for living. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the terminology in the second-order cybernetics literature with specific attention to terms that suggest that there are ethical principles at work. It further relates second-order cybernetics to selected notions in phenomenology, pragmatism and transcendental idealism. The comparison allows for conclusions about the specificity of a second-order inquiry. In line with the thematic focus of this journal issue on the framing of shared worlds, the paper further elaborates on questions relating to the activity of designing “worlds” in which people live with others. Findings The paper highlights that a radical openness toward the future and toward the agency of others is inscribed in the conception of second-order cybernetics. It creates a frame of reference for conceiving social systems of all kinds, including environments that are designed to be inhabited. Originality/value The paper identifies an aesthetics grounded in the process of living-with-others as an ethical principle implicit in second-order cybernetics thought. It is an aesthetics that is radically open for the agency of others. Linking aesthetics and ethics, the paper’s contributions will be of specific value for practitioners and theoreticians of design. Considering second-order cybernetics as a practice generally dealing with designing, it also contributes to the wider second-order cybernetics discourse

    Triple-loop learning and conversing with reality

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    Purpose: Three levels of learning developed by Gregory Bateson in the tradition of second-order cybernetics have in-part been translated in terms of double-loop and triple-loop learning, particularly in the tradition of systems thinking. Learning III and triple-loop learning have gained less popularity since they deal with less tangible issues regarding virtues of wisdom and justice respectively. This paper provides a learning device – the systems thinking in practice heuristic which helps to retrieve the cybernetic concern for wisdom in association with an often forgotten systems concern for real-world power relations. Approach: Using ‘conversation’ as a metaphor the heuristic is introduced based on three orders of conversation. Drawing on ideas of systemic triangulation, another heuristic device – the systemic triangulator – is used to surface issues of power in the three orders of conversation. Some manifestations in using the systems thinking in practice heuristic for supporting postgraduate systems learning are demonstrated. Findings: Some key complementarities between conventionally opaque cybernetic issues of wisdom and systems issues of power are revealed, and used proactively to explore more effective coaching of systems thinking in practice. Implications: Cybernetics and Systems thinking may benefit from being grounded more in understanding, engaging with, and transforming social realities. The heuristics provide practical experiential and meaningful learning through conversation, and more social premium for the study of cybernetics and systems thinking. Originality/value: The heuristics – systems thinking in practice, and the systemic triangulator provides an innovative cyber-systemic space for learning and action

    Organization Cybernetics for Railway Supplier Selection

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    The comprehensive stimulation for this research arises from the necessity to continually understand and investigate the Information System (IS) discipline body of knowledge from organizational practice. Specifically, in this study, we focus on comparing a few available excellence frameworks, data analytics, and cybernetics approaches. Such knowledge and skill practice in the IS field is predominant for both IS research and teaching. On the other hand, to propose a relevant performance reporting model using data analytics and cybernetics that entail a body of knowledge and skill is crucial for the development and transformation of organizational excellence. Yet, it helps to design an online real-time organizational dashboard that produces knowledge for its application and decision-making within an organizational practice. IS discipline in an organization is comparatively young and its specification in academia as well as in practice is rapidly changing, we focus on the practical design, and IS structure for organizational excellence through employing information technologies

    Cybernetically informed pedagogy in two tertiary educational contexts : China and South Africa

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    Abstract: Discussing cybernetics as an enacted practice within specific contexts, the paper identifies key similarities and differences of two cybernetically informed approaches to tertiary education in the distinct contexts of China and South Africa..
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