Systems Thinking in Europe

1. Applications of Systems Thinking

   1. Introducing Geographical Information Systems into British Local Government: Developments in Kirklees Metropolitan District

      • Derek E. Reeve

      Pages 159-164

   2. Taking Systems Thinking into Schools

      • Alida Bedford

      Pages 165-169

   3. Health and Safety Legislation — Threat or Opportunity?

      • T. G. Gough

      Pages 171-175

   4. Examination of the Concept of ‘Key Factor for Success’ from A Systems Thinking Perspective

      • Tatsuyuki Negoro

      Pages 177-182

   5. A Systematic Approach to Learning from Past Experiences in Diagnostic Problem-Solving Environment

      • Kambiz Badie

      Pages 183-188

   6. Interdisciplinarity and Self-Organization in Computational Neuroepistemology

      • Markus F. Peschl

      Pages 189-195

   7. Systems Thinking in Poland

      • Piotr Sienkiewicz, Roman Wojtala

      Pages 197-199

   8. Old Confusion in New European Systems Thinking

      • Otto Hansen

      Pages 201-206

   9. A Unified Systems Hypothesis

      • Derek K. Hitchins

      Pages 207-214

2. Applications of Methodology (Both Hard and Soft)

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

      PDF

   2. Applications of Methodology (Both Hard and Soft): Introduction

      • M. C. Jackson, G. J. Mansell, R. L. Flood, R. B. Blackham, S. V. E. Probert

      Pages 217-218

   3. Systems Thinking and Investigation of Digestive Secretion

      • Michael Yu. Chernyshov

      Pages 219-224

   4. Variable Receptive Field System Transformation and Its Applications to Visual Field

      • J. C. Quevedo-Losada, J. A. Muñoz Blanco, O. Bolivar-Toledo

      Pages 225-230

   5. An Experimental Approach to The Description of Contour Segments using the Fourier-Bessel Transform

      • J. Cabrera, A. Falcón, F. M. Hernández, J. Méndez

      Pages 231-236

   6. Self-Organization in Rural Economic System

      • Zhou Shipeng

      Pages 237-242

   7. A System Dynamics Approach to Assessing the Impact of Management Information Systems

      • S. M. Henderson, A. W. Gavine, E. F. Wolstenholme, K. Watts

      Pages 243-249

   8. Stella Modelling Process for a Manpower Strategy

      • Matthew Byrne, Andrew Davis

      Pages 251-258

   9. An Urbanistic Project Based on General Systems Theory

      • Antonio Caselles, Josep-Lluis Uso, Rafael Carretero, Vicent Llorens, Victoria Solaz

      Pages 259-264

   10. Analysis and Design of Socio-Economic Systems

       • J. Korn, F. Huss, J. D. Cumbers

       Pages 265-271

   11. Are all Failures Systems Failures?

       • Geoff Peters, Joyce Fortune

       Pages 273-278

The theme ofthe conference at which the papers in this book were presented was'Systems Thinking in Europe'. Members of the United Kingdom Systems Society (UKSS) were conscious that the systems movementflourishes notonly in the UK, America and the Antipodes, but also in continental Europe, both East and West, and in the USSR, a nation increasingly being welcomed by the European comity. Membership of the UKSS had not perhaps had the opportunity, however, of hearing important new ideas from continental Europe, and this conference provided an opportunity to do so. Some interesting papers are to be found here from both the West and the East, if the editors may be forgiven for perpetuating what may be an increasingly irrelevant dichotomy. One lesson to be learned from this conference, though, is that systems thinking is truly international. This is not to say that there is one systems paradigm unifonnly applied, however. Perhaps the core of systems thinking is that one is interested in complex 'wholes' with emergent properties, to which cybernetic ideas can be applied. Examples of such systems thinking can be found in these proceedings, for example in the section entitled "Applications of Systems Thinking". Attempts to bring about change with these ideas, however, have given rise to a diversity of approaches, as is evidenced by the papers dealing with the application of methodologies in the 'hard' and 'soft' systems traditions.

• Commitment
• design
• development
• health care
• information management
• language
• management
• modeling
• organization
• project management
• quality management
• software
• system development
• systems theory
• technology transfer

• University of Hull, Hull, UK

  M. C. Jackson, R. L. Flood

• Polytechnic of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

  G. J. Mansell, R. B. Blackham, S. V. E. Probert

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