Michael C Jackson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3422643 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael C Jackson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael C |
| FAMILY NAME | Jackson |
| SIGNATURE | JACKSON M C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centre for Systems Studies University of Hull Hull UK |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6837-7857 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Future of Systems Thinking Through the Lens of Action Research and Critical Systems Practice
Systems Thinking has a good track record when applied to improve problem situations confronting decision‐makers and other stakeholders. It has developed a range of well‐formulated methodologies capable of garnering its various theoretical insights and translating them into successful practice. In some cases, these methodologies have evolved as part of explicit programmes of Action Research. Peter Checkland's use of the FMA framework to perfect So…
A Life of Systems Thinking: Michael C. Jackson in Conversation With Matt Lloyd and Rajneesh Chowdhury
This systems profile is a transcript of the conversation between Michael C. Jackson, Matt Lloyd and Rajneesh Chowdhury, held in 2023 at the University of Hull. The conversation provides a window onto the life and motivations of Jackson, covering his early life and education, his lifelong journey with systems thinking and his hopes for the future of the discipline. Jackson highlights the contribution of systems thinking to those areas where there …
One hundred years of habitude: Reflections on Michael Lambek’s Behind the glass
Rebooting the systems approach by applying the thinking of Bogdanov and the pragmatists
The systems approach continues to lack agreed philosophical foundations. As a result, it has become fragmented and offers numerous different theories and methodologies. This proliferation of perspectives makes it difficult for those in other disciplines to interact with and learn from systems thinkers and vice versa. It also puts practitioners off. They are confused and find it hard to believe that the systems approach has the special capacity it…
Alexander Bogdanov, Stafford Beer and intimations of a post‐capitalist future
Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was a Russian social theorist and revolutionary activist whose ‘universal organizational science’, or Tektology , is increasingly being recognized as offering stronger foundations for the systems approach than the later ‘general system theory’ of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Had his thinking not been suppressed by Stalin, the course of Soviet history might have been different. Stafford Beer (1926–2002) was a British mana…
In search of a golden mean for systemic evaluation: A response to Michael Quinn Patton
Quantum mechanics and Alexander Bogdanov's worldview: A conversation
This paper is a transcript of the dialogue between Carlo Rovelli and Mike Jackson after Rovelli's delivery of the 2021 Annual Mike Jackson Lecture, hosted by the Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull. The dialogue covers a range of topics, including how Rovelli developed a sense of curiosity in his youth; the connection between his interests in science and politics; the pathology of disciplinary divisions in academia; the value of …
Critical systems practice 4: Check —Evaluating and reflecting on a multimethodological intervention
This is the fourth of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas of critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world ‘messes’. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly), and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC . The aim is to set out where thinking has…
Critical systems practice 3: Intervene —Flexibly executing a multimethodological intervention
This is the third of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas of critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC . The aim is to set out where thin…
Bogdanov, Pragmatism, and the Future of Systems Thinking and Cybernetics
The paper considers general system theory, cybernetics, and other systems approaches and argues that later systems thinking and cybernetics (systems/cybernetics) can be seen as a part of the same tradition of thought. There is a prima facie case, therefore, the philosophy of Bogdanov and the Pragmatists can bring unity to the systems movement. Further, it can equip systems thinkers to participate more fully in the major intellectual debates of …
Critical systems practice 2: Produce —Constructing a multimethodological intervention strategy
This is the second of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC . The aim is to set out…
Bowing out
Lessons for systems engineering from the Segura River reclamation project: A critical systems thinking analysis
The International Council on Systems Engineering has long declared a wish to extend the scope of application of systems engineering from its traditional sphere of complex technical systems to more complex sociotechnical systems. The Segura River reclamation project was a successful systems engineering project, involving water treatment and management and environmental regeneration, which falls squarely into the latter category. Taking lessons fro…
Empowering health systems research to engage with technical, organizational, social and economic forces: Lessons from the 2014 Ebola epidemic
This paper draws lessons from the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic to suggest how health systems research can be strengthened to assist better with preparedness for and mitigation of future public health emergencies. The epidemic killed more than 11 000 people in West Africa between February 2014 and January 2016. The causes of the epidemic and the response to the outbreak harbour many lessons concerning how health systems were overwhelmed and need t…
Critical systems practice 1: Explore —Starting a multimethodological intervention
This is the first of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC. The aim is to set out w…
Along an African Border: Angolan Refugees and their Divining Baskets
Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies, and Effects
Inspired by existential thought, but using ethnographic methods, Jackson explores a variety of compelling topics, including 9/11, episodes from the war in Sierra Leone and its aftermath, the marginalization of indigenous Australians, the application of new technologies, mundane forms of ritualization, the magical use of language, the sociality of violence, the prose of suffering, and the discourse of human rights. Throughout this compelling work,…
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa. Charles Piot. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 220 pp
Things as They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology
Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique, by Michael Jackson Honor and Shame, by Lila Abu-Lughod Struggling Along, by Robert Desjarlais The Cosmology of Life Transmission, by Ren Devisch Reflections on a Cut Finger: Taboo in the Umeda Conception of the Self, by Alfred Gell Space and Sociality in a Dayak Longhouse, by Christine Helliwell In Defiance of Destiny: The Management of Time at a Cretan Funeral, by Mic…
Sensuous Scholarship
Sensuous Scholarship. Paul Stoller. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.166 pp
Organization Theory and Systems Thinking: The Benefits of Partnership
Populations at Risk in America: Vulnerable Groups at the End of the Twentieth Century
This is a collection of studies on vulnerable or disadvantaged populations in the United States at the end of the twentieth century and on the severe and persistent social problems associated with them. These troubling dilemmas including poverty homelessness discrimination and severe inequity afflict some subgroups of the population more than others and it is the plight of these at-risk groups--children growing numbers of homeless families and in…
Decentralisation of collective bargaining: Local authority opt outs
Paths toward a Clearing: Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry
Paths toward a Clearing: Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa. Charles Piot. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 220 pp
A Life of Systems Thinking: Michael C. Jackson in Conversation With Matt Lloyd and Rajneesh Chowdhury
This systems profile is a transcript of the conversation between Michael C. Jackson, Matt Lloyd and Rajneesh Chowdhury, held in 2023 at the University of Hull. The conversation provides a window onto the life and motivations of Jackson, covering his early life and education, his lifelong journey with systems thinking and his hopes for the future of the discipline. Jackson highlights the contribution of systems thinking to those areas where there …
Decentralisation of collective bargaining: Local authority opt outs
Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies, and Effects
Inspired by existential thought, but using ethnographic methods, Jackson explores a variety of compelling topics, including 9/11, episodes from the war in Sierra Leone and its aftermath, the marginalization of indigenous Australians, the application of new technologies, mundane forms of ritualization, the magical use of language, the sociality of violence, the prose of suffering, and the discourse of human rights. Throughout this compelling work,…
On Ethnographic Truth
Ideology And Belief Systems In Change
La durée vocalique en français canadien du sud de la Saskatchewan
A l’audition, le français canadien donne l’impression d’avoir un patron rythmique différent de celui du français standard: le rythme régulier de ce dernier, fait de syllabes sensiblement égales, suivies d’une syllabe finale accentuée, semble manquer au français canadien. Plusieurs chercheurs ont déjà étudié la question des longueurs vocaliques dans les deux parlers. Jean-Paul Vinay (1955) constate que « les syllabes toniques fermées du français d…
Aperçu de tendances phonétiques du parler français en Saskatchewan
Cette étude veut être un complément d’information à nos travaux déjà effectués sur le parler des Franco-Canadiens de la Saskatchewan. En août 1970, poursuivant notre série d’enquêtes phonétiques, nous avons visité les villages de Willow-Bunch et de Bellegarde dans le sud-est de cette province, dans le but d’examiner quelques aspects phonétiques du français parlé dans ces deux centres actifs de la minorité francophone de la région
Ideology And Belief Systems In Change
The Kuranko: Dimensions of Social Reality in a West African Tribe
Moral Imagination in Kaguru Modes of Thought . T. O. Beidelman
On Ethnographic Truth
Paths toward a Clearing: Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry
Decentralisation of collective bargaining: Local authority opt outs
Paths toward a Clearing: Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry
Populations at Risk in America: Vulnerable Groups at the End of the Twentieth Century
This is a collection of studies on vulnerable or disadvantaged populations in the United States at the end of the twentieth century and on the severe and persistent social problems associated with them. These troubling dilemmas including poverty homelessness discrimination and severe inequity afflict some subgroups of the population more than others and it is the plight of these at-risk groups--children growing numbers of homeless families and in…
Organization Theory and Systems Thinking: The Benefits of Partnership
Sensuous Scholarship
Sensuous Scholarship. Paul Stoller. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.166 pp
Things as They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology
Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique, by Michael Jackson Honor and Shame, by Lila Abu-Lughod Struggling Along, by Robert Desjarlais The Cosmology of Life Transmission, by Ren Devisch Reflections on a Cut Finger: Taboo in the Umeda Conception of the Self, by Alfred Gell Space and Sociality in a Dayak Longhouse, by Christine Helliwell In Defiance of Destiny: The Management of Time at a Cretan Funeral, by Mic…
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa. Charles Piot. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 220 pp
Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies, and Effects
Inspired by existential thought, but using ethnographic methods, Jackson explores a variety of compelling topics, including 9/11, episodes from the war in Sierra Leone and its aftermath, the marginalization of indigenous Australians, the application of new technologies, mundane forms of ritualization, the magical use of language, the sociality of violence, the prose of suffering, and the discourse of human rights. Throughout this compelling work,…
Along an African Border: Angolan Refugees and their Divining Baskets
Critical systems practice 1: Explore —Starting a multimethodological intervention
This is the first of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC. The aim is to set out w…
Critical systems practice 2: Produce —Constructing a multimethodological intervention strategy
This is the second of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC . The aim is to set out…
Bowing out
Lessons for systems engineering from the Segura River reclamation project: A critical systems thinking analysis
The International Council on Systems Engineering has long declared a wish to extend the scope of application of systems engineering from its traditional sphere of complex technical systems to more complex sociotechnical systems. The Segura River reclamation project was a successful systems engineering project, involving water treatment and management and environmental regeneration, which falls squarely into the latter category. Taking lessons fro…
Empowering health systems research to engage with technical, organizational, social and economic forces: Lessons from the 2014 Ebola epidemic
This paper draws lessons from the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic to suggest how health systems research can be strengthened to assist better with preparedness for and mitigation of future public health emergencies. The epidemic killed more than 11 000 people in West Africa between February 2014 and January 2016. The causes of the epidemic and the response to the outbreak harbour many lessons concerning how health systems were overwhelmed and need t…
Critical systems practice 3: Intervene —Flexibly executing a multimethodological intervention
This is the third of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas of critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages— Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC . The aim is to set out where thin…
Bogdanov, Pragmatism, and the Future of Systems Thinking and Cybernetics
The paper considers general system theory, cybernetics, and other systems approaches and argues that later systems thinking and cybernetics (systems/cybernetics) can be seen as a part of the same tradition of thought. There is a prima facie case, therefore, the philosophy of Bogdanov and the Pragmatists can bring unity to the systems movement. Further, it can equip systems thinkers to participate more fully in the major intellectual debates of …
Rebooting the systems approach by applying the thinking of Bogdanov and the pragmatists
The systems approach continues to lack agreed philosophical foundations. As a result, it has become fragmented and offers numerous different theories and methodologies. This proliferation of perspectives makes it difficult for those in other disciplines to interact with and learn from systems thinkers and vice versa. It also puts practitioners off. They are confused and find it hard to believe that the systems approach has the special capacity it…
Alexander Bogdanov, Stafford Beer and intimations of a post‐capitalist future
Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was a Russian social theorist and revolutionary activist whose ‘universal organizational science’, or Tektology , is increasingly being recognized as offering stronger foundations for the systems approach than the later ‘general system theory’ of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Had his thinking not been suppressed by Stalin, the course of Soviet history might have been different. Stafford Beer (1926–2002) was a British mana…
Sociology (20 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Complex Systems and Decision Making (12 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Systems thinking (11 works) · Anthropology (9 works) · History (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works)