How do we learn to see and act with and within systems? How can we apply this orientation at the outset of projects, through to creation of data, analysis, and measures of research impact? When are phenomena and systems truly complex (and not just ‘complicated’) and how do we address complexity as we define and execute projects? This tutorial offers an orientation in system thinking, taking the idea of complexity beyond a buzzword. You’ll learn important system concepts and concrete ways in which they’ve been adopted, iterated, and applied.
Instructors
Jessamy Perriam is a Senior Lecturer in the ANU School of Cybernetics. She is a digital sociologist with particular interest in public sector digital transformation, failure, and digital methods. Prior to becoming an academic, Jessamy was a radio and online producer at the ABC and enjoyed telling stories of everyday Australians in Central West NSW and Perth. However, a growing curiosity around technology and society drew her to the UK to join the second cohort of the MA/MSc Digital Sociology program at Goldsmiths, University of London.She has had applied research roles in and alongside the UK government’s digital transformation efforts, writing and producing online and distance education materials for The Open University, and moving to Denmark and turning a weekly lecture session into a talk radio show.
Alex Zafiroglu is a professor and an ANU Futures Fellow in the School of Cybernetics,at the Australian National University. The School specialising in research and training in the analysis of complex open systems, in generating potential future states and in implementing methods and practices for nurturing conditions, relationships, and dynamics to realise them. Through deliberately transdisciplinary theory generation and practical applications, Alex and her colleagues make space for multiple value-informed futures that hold the dynamics of planetary conditions, the wellbeing of humans, other species and actors, and resources in productive tension. Prior to joining the ANU, Alex was a Principal Engineer in Social Sciences at Intel Corporation where she spent 15 years leading multi-year research and strategic planning activities in research labs and business teams. Alex made significant contributions to the R&D and commercial development of technology across the Advanced Research, Digital Home and Internet of Things divisions.
