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Mary Catherine Bateson

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Systems Thinkers
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Mary Catherine Bateson is a social anthropologist and linguist. She has written about topics including cross-cultural issues, social and individual learning, women's life patterns, ageing, family dynamics, AIDS, and the nature of knowledge. Her work is suffused with systems ideas, especially a highly-developed form of cybernetics. It is deeply humanitarian, and combines a strong respect for the individual with an awareness of wider forces to which they relate. She exhibits what might be called ‘documented embodiment’, as an individual who has taken systems ideas so deeply into herself that they influence all of her thinking and writing, and who has written at length about that process.

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References

  • Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. Toronto: Chandler.

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  • Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unity. New York: Dutton.

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© 2009 The Open University

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Ramage, M., Shipp, K. (2009). Mary Catherine Bateson. In: Systems Thinkers. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-525-3_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-525-3_31

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-524-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-525-3

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