WOSC 2017:

Science with and for Society: Contributions of Cybernetics and Systems

http://wosc2017rome. asvsa.org

The official host of WOSC 2017 is the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, at the University of La Sapienza.

Professor Sergio Barile is Chair of the Congress and Marialuisa Saviano, Associate Professor of Business Management at the University of Salerno and President of ASVSA (Association for research on Viable Systems) is in charge of the administration.

WOSC, as a world organization, is inviting scientists, policy-makers, professionals and students across the globe to contribute to the debate of the dynamics underpinning contemporary societal problems from a cybersystemic perspective.

As articulated by Prof. Barile:

“Systemic thinking is gradually developing conceptualizations that are outrunning the scope of the so-called formal sciences. It is a response to the reductionism and linearity of much current scientific work and also to the wide spread fragmentation of policy processes and decision making. Enriched by the work of biologists, physicists and mathematicians, and also strengthened by much work in medicine, psychology, economics and sociology, it is producing a veritable paradigm, appropriate to tackle issues both theoretical and operational. Corroborated by the application of related theories, such as those of the “complexity” and “sustainability”, systemic thinking is contributing to a science of organization and governance.

WOSC 2017 is inviting contributions to the debate of “Social dynamics and problem-solving in the 21st Century from a systemic perspective”. These contributions can be related to the different dimensions of an unpredictable world, with unexpected disruptions which demand models with plasticity, able to represent not only the observable phenomena focused on the outcome, but also, and especially, paying attention to the process itself through which the phenomenon is realized. It invites a new perspective of investigation, in which organizational and governance processes are the focal point. Systemic thinking allows observation and comparison among multiple conceptions, ranging from behaviorist to constructivist; from allopoietic to autopoietic; from living to viable; from external observation to participant observation and so on. WOSC 2017 wants opening the debate of scholars from different disciplines and sometimes of opposing positions; it wants refutable contributions able to

enlighten comparisons between the different views, enabling a positive use of each other’s knowledge, and perhaps reaching new shared conceptualizations.”

We will invite submissions to this Congress and inform about its timetable in the near future. Watch this space.