permaculture

[Nathan Ayers <ayers.nathan@gmail.com>]

Hardcore post full of multidimensional goodness. Much thanks! Nate

On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>wrote:

> Q: "best short/intro book in terms of presenting, explaining,
> clarifying systems thinking and cybernetics as foundations of design"
>
> <>
>
> http://www.clexchange.org/curriculum/roadmaps/rm1.asp
> which uses a lot of work by Jay Forrester, who was Donella Meadows'
> mentor, on teaching systems in K-12 schools and other educational
> venues.
> Well worth checking out by anyone teaching. I love the bit on the
> class that built a model to demonstrate the plot of "Lord of the
> Flies" where the strength of the boys' fear of the beast rose as faith
> in rescue declined. That's on p14 of
> http://clexchange.org/ftp/documents/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4665-5.pdf
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
>
> <>
>
> http://www.systemswiki.org/ is an invaluable resource for anyone
> interested
> in the application of systems thinking, and a good portal for connecting
> with the thousands of people around the world who have the same interest.
> Hugh Kelly
>
> Hugh Kelly hkelly at permezone.com:
> Here's the reading list so far from respondents on the Systems
> Thinking World group on LinkedIn. The first two were specifically
> highlighted for permaculturists, the last entry as a 'fun, light
> read’. I've included people's comments below. I’ve added Peter
> Checkland’s more recent book “Learning for Action” to the list as it
> looks more like an introductory book than the SSM tome.
>
>  Donella Meadows
> Thinking in Systems: A Primer
> amzn.to/Pfx02K
>
> Peter Checkland
> Soft Systems Methodology in Action
>
> amazon.com/Systems-Methodology-Action-Peter-Checkland/dp/0471986054/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345140305&sr=1-4
>
> Peter Checkland
> Learning for Action
> indiebound.org/book/9780470025543
>
> Patrick Hoverstadt
> The Fractal Organization
> amazon.com/The-Fractal-Organization-sustainable-organizations/dp/0470060565
>
> Stafford Beer
> The Brain of the Firm
> amazon.com/Brain-Firm-Classic-Beer-Series/dp/047194839X
>
> Draper Kaufman
> Systems One
> amzn.to/P0rI8k
>
> Barry Richmond
> An introduction to Systems Thinking with STELLA
>  <http://www.bit.ly/92C3Wn> www.bit.ly/92C3Wn
>
> Jon Walker
> The Viable System Model
>  <http://www.esrad.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/screen.php?page=home>
> www.esrad.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/screen.php?page=home
>
> W. L. Livingston
> Friends in High Places
> amazon.com/Friends-High-Places-W-Livingston/dp/0937063061
>
> Gerald M. Weinberg, Daniela Weinberg
> General Principles of Systems Design
> amazon.com/General-Principles-Systems-Design-Weinberg/dp/0932633072
>
> Gerald M Weinberg
> An introduction to General Systems Thinking
>
> amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking-ebook/dp/B004VS9AUS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1345141807&sr=1-1
>
> Chris Alexander
> Notes on the synthesis of form
> amazon.com/Notes-Synthesis-Form-Harvard-Paperbacks/dp/0674627512
>
> Bela H.Banathy
> Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (Contemporary Systems
> Thinking)
>  <
> http://www.slideshare.net/rsm/designing-social-systems-in-a-changing-world
> >
> www.slideshare.net/rsm/designing-social-systems-in-a-changing-world
>
> Douglas Hofstadter
> Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel,_Escher,_Bach<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach>
>
> Robert Wootton B.A.Hons. • The Fractal Organization by Patrick
> Hoverstadt you should find useful.
> Also "The Brain of the Firm" by Stafford Beer in which the concept of
> the viability of systems is developed should be on the Essential
> Reading list for students.
>
> Allen Woods • While I agree with the previous post. a penny dropping
> book for me is: An introduction to General Systems Thinking By Gerald
> M Weinberg, ISBN 0-932633-49-8 Published by: Dorest House Publishing
> of New York.  Not a light read, but I came to systems thinking via
> Deming et al, with hindsight not a particularly recommended route, had
> I been fortunate enough to be lead by the nose, as opposed to the kind
> of independent bimbling I did, I am sure that this book or something
> like it would have been one of the first would have been in there
> somewhere as directed reading.
>
> Fabian Szulanski • Here go three nice options:
> Systems One, by Draper Kaufman: amzn.to/P0rI8k
>
> An introduction to Systems Thinking with STELLA: bit.ly/92C3Wn
> Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella Meadows amzn.to/Pfx02K
>
> Roger Harnden • I still think that very little has bettered Peter
> Checkland's Soft System Methodology. If your focus is the Permaculture
> community and hands-on experience, then Jon Walker is your man.  [Of
> course, one might think that 'whole systems governance' is a
> contradiction in terms; and, that someone who is to teach a graduate
> class needs more than a 'short/introductory' book ☺☺]
>
> Jack Ring • If you don't understand William L. Livingston III's
> Goal-seeking System model in Friends In High Places, FES Publishing,
> then you aren't there yet. Two or more systems engaged in
> co-evolutionary optimization.
>
> Ilia Bider • I would suggest a companion to Gerry's book "An
> introduction to General Systems Thinking" called "General Principles
> of Systems Design" (by Gerald M. Weinberg, Daniela Weinberg) as better
> suited for the goal.
>
> Patrick Hoverstadt • Thanks for the plug Robert! Knowing a few
> permaculturalists... I think something system dynamicsy should work
> for them, so Donella Meadows "thinking in systems"
> Chris Alexander also goes down well in those circles - "pattern
> language" is a bit chunky, but there's his brilliant little book
> "notes on the synthesis of form" which has "how to design a village"
> as a case at the back.
>
> Fabian Szulanski • Maybe Bela Banathy's work on social systems &
> design can add some value as well:
> http://www.slideshare.net/rsm/designing-social-systems-in-a-changing-world
> <
> http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eslideshare%2Enet%2Frsm%2Fdesigning-social-systems-in-a-changing-world&urlhash=En3w&_t=tracking_disc
> >
>
> lewis campbell • Thanks for the adding to my already long reading
> list.... : 0 ) If you are looking for a fun, light read, that is
> profound in relative systems....a satirical look some might call it..
> Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid is a 1979 book by Douglas
> Hofstadter, described by his publishing company as "a metaphorical
> fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".
> Published: 1979  Author: Douglas Hofstadter  Original language:
> English
>
> <>
>
> One of the Odum ecology books would almost be as good.
> Philosophically, Joanna Macy's Mutual Causality in Buddhism and
> General Systems Theory is very elucidating.  The permaculture
> community would really benefit from a more explicit and intelligent
> use of systems thinking.
> Rain Tenaqiya raincascadia at yahoo.com
>
> <>
>
> I have introduced a session on Systems Thinking
> based on Donella's book (exploring her 10 leverage points in Systems and
> her 'Dancing With Systems' chapter) into the last few PDCs I have
> co-led. To me this is far more fundamental to what permaculture is all
> about than, for example, sheet mulching or fruit tree pruning, and these
> are the really important concepts that we need to be getting across in
> the limited time we have available in our course sylabuses!
> --
> Graham Burnett
> www.spiralseed.co.uk
> www.grahamburnett.net
>
> <>
>
> This might be a little too much resource for the question you are asking,
> but it's worth getting it out there into circulation.
>
> School for Designing a Society, on their "Readings" page has links to
> several awesome collections of readings on the social and theoretical sides
> of cybernetics & systems thinking.
> The link to the links is here: http://designingsociety.com/readings/
>
> I would particularly recommend the stuff by Stafford Beer that you can find
> at Arun Chandra's collection (for his classes at Evergreen) here:
> http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/readings.htm
>
> Stafford Beer, if you aren't familiar with him, was the cyberneticist who
> helped design the participatory socialist economy in Chile under Allende.
> <...> his ongoing implementation of that design <...>.
> rafter sass ferguson liberationecology at gmail.com
>
> <>
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-- 
Nathan A.  Ayers
Chiwara Permaculture Research & Education
<http://www.chiwarapermaculture.com>