Roger James profile on 🧑‍💻Voices

These sources examine the foundational principles of Systems Thinking and complexity science, contrasting traditional reductionism with holistic methods of understanding reality. The text emphasizes that structure and emergence are critical, as the arrangement of parts often transcends the individual properties of those components. Various authors argue that complexity is frequently a product of the observer’s perspective and the mental models used to filter information, rather than an inherent quality of the object itself. By exploring concepts like organized complexity, feedback loops, and cybernetics, the documents suggest that effective intervention requires shifting from deterministic views to dynamic, relational models. Ultimately, the collection serves as a guide for navigating uncertainty and wicked problems through the intentional application of abstraction and interdisciplinary heuristics. Based on the sources provided in the notebook, here is the complete list of references, bibliography, and sources mentioned, formatted as a Markdown list.

Sources

Books and Academic Papers

• Ackoff, R.L. (1978). The Art of Problem Solving. (Contextual reference to “Solving, Resolving, Dissolving and Absolving”). • Ashby, W.R. (1960). Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior. New York: Wiley. • Ashby, W.R. (1956). An Introduction to Cybernetics. (Referenced regarding Transduction and Requisite Variety). • Atkins, P.W. (1986). Essay review in scientific journals regarding thermodynamics and entropy. • Augustsson, H., Churruca, K., & Braithwaite, J. (2019). “Re-energising the way we manage change in healthcare: the case for soft systems methodology and its application to evidence-based practice”. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). • Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press. • Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. (Referenced regarding logical levels of learning). • Bateson, G. (1936). Naven. (Referenced regarding the fallacy of misplaced concreteness). • Bennett, K.B. & Flach, J.M. (2011). Display and Interface Design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. • Boulding, K. (1970). Economics as a Science. McGraw Hill. • Box, G. (Various). (Referenced for the quote “All models are wrong, some are useful”). • Brenner, J.E. “The Logical Dynamics of Information; Deacon’s ‘Incomplete Nature’“. • Buber, M. (1958). I and Thou. Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. • Burgin, M. (2010). Theory of Information: Fundamentality, Diversity and Unification. World Scientific. • Checkland, P.B. (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Wiley. (Rev 1999 ed). • Checkland, P.B. (2000). “Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective”. Systems Research and Behavioral Science. DOI: 10.1002/1099-1743(200011)17:1+<::AID-SRES374>3.0.CO;2-O. • Checkland, P.B. (2001). “Soft Systems Methodology”. In J. Rosenhead and J. Mingers (eds), Rational Analysis for a Problematic World Revisited. Chichester: Wiley. • Checkland, P.B. & Scholes, J. (1990). Soft Systems in Action. Wiley. (Rev 1999 ed). • Checkland, P.B. & Scholes, J. (1999). Soft Systems Methodology in Action: A 30-year Retrospective. Chichester, UK: Wiley. ISBN 0-585-26918-1. • Cicurel, R. & Nicolelis, M. (2015). The Relativistic Brain: How it works and why it cannot be simulated by a Turing machine. • Cicurel, R. (2021). Brain‑Centric: How the Mental Space Builds Our Realities. • Cook, R.I. & Rasmussen, J. (2005). “Going solid: a model of system dynamics and consequences for patient safety”. Quality and Safety in Health Care. • Crouch, T. (1989). The Bishops Boys. New York: Norton. • Dekker, S. (2011). Drift into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems. London: CRC Press. • Dretske, F. (1981). Knowledge and the Flow of Information. (Referenced regarding the definition of information). • Flach, J.M. & Voorhorst, F.A. (2020). A Meaning Processing Approach to Cognition. New York: Routledge. • Gelman, A. “Induction and Deduction in Bayesian Data Analysis”. • Gibson, J.J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. • Gibson, J.J. & Crooks, L.E. (1938). “A Theoretical Field-Analysis of Automobile Driving”. American Journal of Psychology, 51, 453-471. • Hayakawa, S.I. (1990). Language in Thought and Action. 5th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. • Hubbard, D.How to Measure Anything. (Referenced for Applied Information Economics). • Ilachinski, A. (1996). Landmark report on complexity. (Referenced by Ryan). • Jackson, M.C. (1982). “The Nature of Soft Systems Thinking: The Work of Churchman, Ackoff and Checkland”. • Jackson, M.C. (2003). Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers. Wiley. ISBN 0470845228. • Jackson, M.C. (2019). Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity. • Jaynes, E.T. (1965). (Referenced regarding Entropy and Gibbs formalism). • Jenkins, D.P., Stanton, N.A., Salmon, P.M. & Walker, G.H. (2009). Cognitive Work Analysis: Coping with Complexity. Surrey, England: Ashgate. • Klein, G. (2022). Snapshots of the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. • Kragh, H. “How Einstein built on the past to make his breakthroughs”. • Krippendorff, K. (2006). The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation for Design. • Lamé, G., Jouini, O., & Stal-Le Cardinal, J. (2019). “Combining Soft Systems Methodology, ethnographic observation, and discrete-event simulation: A case study in cancer care”. Journal of the Operational Research Society. • Lopes, L. (1982). “Doing the Impossible: A note on induction and the experience of randomness”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 8(6), 626-636. • McCullough, D. (2015). The Wright Brothers. New York: Simon & Schuster. • McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and His Emissary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. • Mehregan, M.R., Hosseinzadeh, M., & Kazemi, A. (2012). “An application of Soft System Methodology”. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41: 426–433. • Mingers, J. (2000). “The contribution of critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for OR/MS and systems”. • Noble, D. (2012). “Biological Relativity Requires Circular Causality but Not Symmetry of Causation”. • Ostrum, E. (2010). “Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric governance of complex economic systems”. American Economic Review, 100(3), 641-672. • Park, D.M.R. (1983). “Essential and ephemeral knowledge”. • Patching, D. (1990). Practical soft systems analysis. London: Pitman. ISBN 0273032372. • Penrose, R. (1994). Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness. • Pentland, S. (2014). Social Physics. New York: Penguin Books. • Pirsig, R.M. (1974). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: Harper Collins. • Pirsig, R.M. (1991). Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. New York: Bantam Books. • Rasmussen, J. (1986). Information Processing and Human Machine Interaction. New York: North-Holland. • Rasmussen, J. & Vicente, K.J. (1989). “Coping with human errors through system design: Implications for Ecological Interface Design”. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 31, 517-534. • Rittel, H.W.J. & Webber, M.M. (1973). “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning”. (Ref regarding Wicked Problems). • Rosen, R. (1991). Life Itself: A Comprehensive Inquiry into the Nature, Origin, and Maintenance of Life. (Referenced regarding Relational Biology). • Rosenhead, J. & Mingers, J. (2001). Rational Analysis for a Problematic World Revisited. Chichester: Wiley. • Ryan, A. “An Information-Theoretic Primer on Complexity, self-organisation and emergence”. • Schrage, M. (1999). Serious Play: How the world’s best companies simulate to innovate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. • Shannon, C. (1948). “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. • Shneiderman, B. (1982). “The future of interactive systems and the emergence of direct manipulation”. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1 (3): 237–256. • Smyth, D.S. & Checkland, P.B. (1976). “Using a systems approach: the structure of root definitions”. Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, 5 (1): 75–83. • Snowden, D. (Various). “Cynefin Framework” and “Multi Ontology Sense Making”. • Stacey, R. (2012). Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management: Meeting the Challenge of Complexity. • Uexkull, von J. (1957). “A stroll through the worlds of animals and men”. In C.H. Schiller (ed.), Instinctive Behavior. New York: International University Press. • Van Orden, G.J., Holden, J.G., & Turvey, M.T. (2005). “Human cognition and 1/f scaling”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132, 331-350. • Vicente, K.J. (1999). Cognitive Work Analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. • Vicente, K.J. & Rasmussen, J. (1990). “The ecology of human-machine systems II”. Ecological Psychology, 2, 207-249. • Vickers, G. (1965). The Art of Judgment. (Referenced regarding Appreciative Systems). • Von Foerster, H. (1981). Observing Systems. • Warfield, J.N. (1976). Societal Systems: Planning, Policy, and Complexity. Wiley. • Warfield, J.N. “The Misplaced Origin”. • Watson, J.D. & Crick, F.H.C. (1953). “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid”. Nature, 171:737-738. • Weaver, W. (1948). “Science and Complexity”. American Scientist, 36: 536. • Weinberg, G.M. (1975). An Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Wiley. • Wiener, N. (1948). Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. New York: Wiley. • Wilk, J. “The Science of the Nudge: Minimalist Intervention and the Nature of Change” (Course Syllabus). • Wilson, B. (1984). Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications. Wiley. • Wimsatt, W.C. (1972). “Teleology and the logical structure of function statements”. Hist. Phil. Sci., 3, no. 1, 1-80. • Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

Articles, Blogs, and Online Sources

• Abel, D.L. “Constraints vs Controls”. ResearchGate. Link mentioned in source • Arnold & Wade. “A definition of systems thinking - a systems approach”. • Burchard, P. “The Foundations of Information”. LinkedIn Post. Link mentioned in source • Castellani, B. “Social complexity - Operational Definition”. Link mentioned in source • Dick, B. (1993). “You want to do an action research thesis?“. • Holland, J. “Adaptive Computation, the legacy of John Holland”. Link mentioned in source • James, R. “A Future for SSM - New Solutions for Old Problems”. (Submission to SPAR). • Kay, Alan. “Software: Art, Engineering, Mathematics, or Science?“. • Maturana, H. & Uribe, R. “Autopoietic organization”. Link mentioned in source • Midgley, G. “Four domains of complexity”. Link mentioned in source • Naumenko, O. “Intelligence and Language”. Substack. Link mentioned in source • Rodrik, D. “World Too Complex For One-Size-Fits-All Models”. • Umpleby, S. “The Origins and Purposes of Several Conceptions of Systems Theory and Cybernetics”. Link mentioned in source • Valente, M. “Systems Thinking vs Complexity (CAS)“. LinkedIn Article/Post Series.