Events Calendar
Complexity in Everyday Life: A Participatory Workshop
Date: February 19, 2010
Location: Smithers
Venue: Old Church, Smithers
As a follow-up to the successful Complexity Science and Global Change Workshop held at the Smithers Old Church in February 2009 in conjunction with UNBC's Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, the Centre hosted a second informal workshop at the Smithers Old Church in February 2010. It was a half-day participatory workshop that explored new approaches for solving complex problems encountered in work, civic affairs and in day-to-day life.
Agenda:
8:30 Welcome and Introduction
9:00 Human Groups as Complex Adaptive Networks (led by Richard Overstall)
9:30 Networking Exercise (led by Sybille Haeussler)
10:00 Refreshment Break and Open Discussion
10:30 System Mismatches (led by Don Morgan)
11:00 Participant Examples of Complex Problem-Solving (led by Jim Pojar and Debbie Wellwood)
12:00 Summary and Wrap-Up
Check below for suggested reading.
The Complexity Science and Global Change Workshop Summary from the 2009 workshop is available here.
SUGGESTED READING
The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life - Book Review
Book by Len Fisher, Review by Mark Buchannan
NATURE, Vol 464, 4, March 2010
The Pressures of Organizations and the Responsibilities of University Professors
David A. Bella
BioScience, Vol. 46, No. 10 (Nov., 1996), pp. 772-778
J Stephen Lansing
Annual Review of Anthropology; 2003; 32, Academic Research Library, pg. 183
A Leader's Framework for Decision Making
David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone
Harvard Business Review, 69, November 69
Adaptive coevolutionary networks: a review
Thilo Gross and Bernd Blasius
J. R. Soc. Interface 2008 5, 259-271
Two recent New Scientist articles discussing the relationship between organisational structure and human behaviour.
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book "The Tipping Point", available at public libraries and bookstores, provides a highly readable and non-technical introduction to many of the ideas that will be discussed at the workshop.