Confluences of Systemic Design: A Historical Exploration of Interdisciplinary Influences

Activity: External talk or presentationOral presentation

Description

This contribution delves into historical roots and precursors of systemic design, examining the interdisciplinary influences that have shaped its development. By investigating the relationships between systems thinking, science, and philosophy, we aim to provide a richer context for systemic design. We explore intellectual precursors to the work of the 1940s and 1950s, focusing on the diverse disciplines that contributed to the emergence of systems research. The exploration includes an array of scholars and practitioners, organized into heuristic themes that encompass both direct influences and major developments that paved the way for systemic thinking in the 20th century.

Attempts to map the history and lineages of complexity, cybernetics, and systems have often revolved around a foundational period in the 1940s and 1950s. This period is often marked by the work of various committees, conferences, institutes, projects, and societies. These organizations contributed to the formation of interrelated disciplines and fields, including cybernetics, decision sciences, machine learning, natural and artificial intelligence, neural networks, sustainability, system dynamics, and systems engineering. Tracing the roots of these developments further back in history can help clarify the complex sets of overlapping fields and terminologies within systems disciplines.

To contextualize transdisciplinary frameworks, we propose a series of heuristic themes that encompass both direct influences and major developments that paved the way for the type of systemic approaches that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s: mathematics and logic, physics and thermodynamics, biology and evolution, philosophy and psychology, the arts and social reform.

By highlighting an indicative list of scholars born from 1800 onwards, we explore the intellectual context in which cybernetics and systems approaches arose. While the relationship between architecture/design and cybernetics/systems is often discussed in the context of explicit collaborations from the 1960s onwards, investigating earlier periods may reveal additional, less linear connections.

We argue that understanding the historical context of systemic design can help practitioners and researchers appreciate the complexity and depth of the field. Recognizing the contributions of various disciplines and historical periods could help support transdisciplinary approaches to systemic design, possibly leading to thrivability.
Period12 Oct 202426 Oct 2024
Event titleRelating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD13): Rivers of Conversations
Event typeConference
LocationNorwayShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational