45th ISSS Annual
Meeting and Conference
General Announcement
The 2001 Meeting of the International
Society for the Systems Sciences
July 8 - July 13, 2001
Host Site at Asilomar Conference Center
Monterey, California
www.isss.org
Conference Theme:
Systems Science
in the Service of Humanity
One of the key objectives of the
ISSS as stated in its bylaws is to "promote efforts toward
the service of humanity." This objective has been
actively promoted by past presidents of ISSS and continues as
the guiding theme for the 45th annual meeting at the Asilomar
Conference Center in Monterey, California.
Being in service does not mean being a servant or subservient.
It does not mean acting as an expert or a mere facilitator on
behalf of someone else's needs. Service is not about helping
people create what they already know they want or imposing predetermined
idealized solutions onto unique particular situations. The success
of service can be best determined when those being served
experience the surprise of self recognition in what emerges out
of their interaction with systems thinkers who have attended to
broader systemic concerns while serving particular autonomous
interests.
Service that is not servitude treats others as an equal.
This does not mean the same as being similar, as in categories
of social science, or equivalent, as in egalitarianism, but equal
in terms of the right to have anyone's desiderata become the seed
for purposeful change.
Service is distinct from helping, which by its nature creates
a unilateral relationship where all power and resources reside
in a dominant role leaving the other in a position of being helpless
and indebted. Service is mutual and debt free.
Service is a relationship of mutuality and diversity allowing
those with excellent skills and abilities to work on behalf of
those who desire to express their humanity in ways that honor
their uniqueness in a world of increasing globalization.
Harold G. Nelson, Program Committee Chair
Nelsongroup@worldnet.att.net
Bela A. Banathy, Organizational Committee Chair
Babanathy@worldnet.att.net
Asilomar Conference Center, Monterey, California
Ongoing ISSS Subthemes in Systems Science
Ongoing themes as represented by Special Integration Groups (SIG's)
include a focus on economic, business and industrial systems,
information systems design and information technology, medical
and health systems, psychology and psychiatry systems, systems
design in education, system studies of climate change, systems
approaches to intelligence, and applied systems and development,
systems approaches to duality theory, futurism and systems change,
thermodynamics and systems theory, spirituality and systems, critical
systems theory and practice, evolutionary learning communities,
hierarchy theory, systems philosophy and systems ethics, systems
modeling and simulation, meta-modeling and systems epistemology,
research towards general theories of systems, living systems analysis,
systems processes and human processes, human systems inquiry,
and evolution and complexity theory.
Distributed Sites
Distributed sites for the 45th ISSS Annual Meeting and Conference
are being developed in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, China, Peru,
Canada and South Africa. Depending on available technology, plenary
sessions will be video streamed among all sites. Other means of
sharing sessions will be utilized as well.
Great Britian
Andres Mejia, Chair
j.a.mejia@mgt.hull.ac.uk
Peru
Ricardo Rodriguez-Ulloa, Chair
rirodri@amauta.rcp.net.pe
Bulgaria
Magdalena Kalaidjieva, Chair
Kalaidji@mbox.cit.bg
Canada
H. Ken Burkhardt, Chair
Burkhard@acs.Ryerson.ca
China
Chair, TBA
South Africa
Chair, TBA
Return to Table of Contents