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From 10 to 13 April 2012 the Campus of the University of Vienna was the venue of the EMCSR 2012. 168 academics and practitioners attended the conference. The focus was on the self-reflection of the field against the background of urgent global challenges.

The Ludwig von Bertalanffy Young Scientist Award was donated for the first time.

Jessica Dylan Foley received the prize of € 1.000 from the BCSSS (left: Wolfgang Hofkirchner; middle ground: Alexander Laszlo; photo: emcsr)

Edgar Morin was awarded with a prize for his outstanding contributions to complexity thinking.

The award ceremony. Edgar Morin showing the Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award in Complexity Thinking together with the certificate (next to him: the laudator, Rainer E. Zimmermann, and Wolfgang Hofkirchner; photo: emcsr)

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In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of complexity thinking, the Bertalanffy Center will award a prize to Edgar Morin. The award ceremony will take place at the forthcoming European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, on 10th of April 2012, 20:00, in Lecture Hall B at the Campus of the University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna (entrance free). Edgar Morin will hold a keynote on “Complex thinking for a complex world – About reductionism, disjunction and systemism”.

Edgar Morin is a widely recognised French philosopher and sociologist. His most recent publication is “Le chemin de l’espérance”/”El camino de la esperanza”/”Wege der Hoffnung” written together with Stéphane Hessel. He is 91 years old. Morin is one of the first system philosophers. His six-volumes work “La Méthode” is in the process of being translated into German.

The laudatio will be given by Rainer E. Zimmermann.

The award (photo: ©www.3dandmore.at)

The BCSSS will award the “Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award in Complexity Thinking” for the first time.

Margaret Archer, the Director of the Centre for Social Ontology at the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, is the leader of the so-called Morphogenetic project. The morphogenetic approach is a social theory attempt to understand change in society in the perspective of critical realism (follow that link: http://cdh.epfl.ch/page-37105-en.html). The usage of the term “morphogenesis” goes back to Walter Buckley who introduced General System Theory concepts into sociology. Margaret Archer invited Wolfgang Hofkirchner to present a system-theoretical view (follow that link: http://www.hofkirchner.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/epfl2012-2.mov). Many overlappings could be identified. Further co-operation is intended. The contributions to the workshop Hofkirchner attended are in the process of being re-worked to enhance the unity of an envisaged book publication.

Post-doc researcher at the Centre for Social Ontology Kate Forbes-Pitt leading the general discussion at the workshop on 14th of January 2012 (photo: Wolfgang Hofkirchner). The blackboard shows the agenda of contested concepts

On 10 November 2011 the Bertalanffy Center was host of 20 international systems theorists and practitioners, among them leading representatives of systems movement organisations like the President of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS), Matjaz Mulej; the representative of the European Union for Systemics (UES/EUS), Pierre Bricage; the Director-General of the World Association of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), Raul Espejo; the representative of the recently founded Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University, Alexander Laszlo, to name but a few.

They met with the BCSSS board members and other members of the Center to start the discussion on what systems thinking is for in the age of global challenges, which belongs to the Center’s core activities. This gathering was the first international meeting the Center could organise.

One focus was on how academic contributions to the systems movement can be revisited. Since Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s birthday could be celebrated this year for the 110th time, it goes without saying that the discussion revolved around the elaboration and the impact of General System Theory.

BCSSS Symposium “Systems thinking: what’s it for?” (photo: Günther Ossimitz)

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At the symposium “Systems thinking: what’s it for?”, organised by the Center on the occasion of Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s 110th anniversary of his birthday with international experts on 10 November 2011 in Vienna, the death mask of Ludwig von Bertalanffy was handed on to the Center. The last owner of the death mask was Gisèle Bertalanffy, the widow of Felix Bertalanffy. Gisèle Bertalanffy decided to donate the mask to the Center. Therewith, the mask has left Canada and has crossed the border to Austria where Ludwig von Bertalanffy was born and where he was active until 1947.

The death mask of Ludwig von Bertalanffy with which the Center was presented by Michel Saint-Germain, Professor emeritus at the Université d’Ottawa (photo: Günther Ossimitz)