"Critical systems thinkers like Midgley identify three waves of systems thinking over the last 50 years or so. Early systems theorists (e.g. Bertalanffy) described systems in physical terms, resorting to metaphors from electronic computation or biology. This 'hard systems' tradition still has its advocates and practitioners... Subsequently the limits of the physical metaphor... were reached, and the second wave of systems thinking developed. This 'soft systems thinking' employed social metaphors to develop appropriate systems approaches for human systems. The move to a more phenomenological, interpretative understanding of human systems, where meaning is central and is negotiated intersubjectively, parallels the new paradigm / crisis of social psychology of the 1970s. The Third wave, or critical systems school, in which Midgley locates himself, has drawn on the critical theory of Habermas, particularly in relation to theories of knowledge and of communicative rationality, and on the work of Foucault and followers on the nature of power."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Mark Burton (2003) "Review Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice MIDGLEY, G. (2000)" in: Journal of Community and Applied Psychology 2003 13 (4) 330-333.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerald_Midgley
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gerald Midgley
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gerald Midgley →
Related Quotes
"It wasn’t so long ago that complexity thinking was synonymous with bottom-up computer simulation. However, in the pas…"
"I’m basically interested in intervention. The key question for me is: how can you intervene more systemically? System…"
"When I started out, I believed that there were very distinct systems paradigms, and there was a need to choose and de…"
"England, our native country, one of the most renowned monarchies in the world, against which the Pope beareth a speci…"
"The most high and absolute power of the realm of England consisteth in the parliament: for as in war where the king h…"
"To be short, the prince is the life, the head and the authority of all things that be done in the realm of England. A…"
"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."
"Perhaps we would have forestalled [human] extinction if Louis Pasteur had abandoned his studies on the germ theory. W…"
"Humans and other bipedal apes have pursued our distinctively destructive path for a sliver of the total biotime in th…"
"Humans are not the only organisms to have affected the live-ability of Earth. Microbes and plants changed the chemist…"