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Article
Publication date: 24 June 2010

Hannah Forsyth

When James Conant visited Australia in 1951 he unwittingly entered an existing, lengthy debate about the value of university‐based knowledge in Australia. The Second World War…

371

Abstract

When James Conant visited Australia in 1951 he unwittingly entered an existing, lengthy debate about the value of university‐based knowledge in Australia. The Second World War, with its significant reliance on academic expertise, had suggested that if knowledge could win wars, the labour of academic staff could be considered to normally have social and economic value to the nation. In 1951 Conant had no way of foreseeing that steps made, in this light, at Federal level during and after the war, would culminate in the 1957 Review of Universities in Australia, chaired by Sir Keith Murray, and the injection of a large amount of funding into the university system. Conant’s confidential report to the Carnegie Corporation does show that he saw the system in desperate need of funding, which wasa reality that everyone agreed upon.1 The long debate included options for university funding and the potential change to the character of universities if the community, rather than the cloister, was to determine the purpose and character of knowledge. Conant’s report reflects this debate, centring (as many other participants did as well) on the value universities would gain if they were more obviously useful and relevant to industry and if their reputation was less stained by elitism and arrogance. Conant could not gather sufficient data in his visit to identify the nuances of this long discussion nor could he see the depth and spread of its influence over the decade or so preceding his visit. As a result, his particular agenda seems to obscure the perception of the threat that change provoked to some of the traditional values associated with academic work. To consider the debate and the character of academic work in the university scene that Conant fleetingly visited, we need to look back just a few years to another, but very different, visitor to the Australian system.

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History of Education Review, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

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Article
Publication date: 16 December 2019

Andrei Cretu

W. Ross Ashby’s elementary non-trivial machine, known in the cybernetic literature as the “Ashby Box,” has been described as the prototypical example of a black box system. As far…

160

Abstract

Purpose

W. Ross Ashby’s elementary non-trivial machine, known in the cybernetic literature as the “Ashby Box,” has been described as the prototypical example of a black box system. As far as it can be ascertained from Ashby’s journal, the intended purpose of this device may have been to exemplify the environment where an “artificial brain” may operate. This paper describes the construction of an elementary observer/controller for the class of systems exemplified by the Ashby Box – variable structure black box systems with parallel input.

Design/methodology/approach

Starting from a formalization of the second-order assumptions implicit in the design of the Ashby Box, the observer/controller system is synthesized from the ground up, in a strictly system-theoretic setting, without recourse to disciplinary metaphors or current theories of learning and cognition, based mainly on guidance from Heinz von Foerster’s theory of self-organizing systems and W. Ross Ashby’s own insights into adaptive systems.

Findings

Achieving and maintaining control of the Ashby Box requires a non-trivial observer system able to use the results of its interactions with the non-trivial machine to autonomously construct, deconstruct and reconstruct its own function. The algorithm and the dynamical model of the Ashby Box observer developed in this paper define the basic specifications of a general purpose, unsupervised learning architecture able to accomplish this task.

Originality/value

The problem exemplified by the Ashby Box is fundamental and goes to the roots of cybernetic theory; second-order cybernetics offers an adequate foundation for the mathematical modeling of this problem.

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Kybernetes, vol. 49 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Rod Thomas

This paper marks the centenary year of W. Ross Ashby (1903‐1972), one of the founders of the interdisciplinary subject of cybernetics. Its purpose is to Ashby's cybernetics to…

1128

Abstract

Purpose

This paper marks the centenary year of W. Ross Ashby (1903‐1972), one of the founders of the interdisciplinary subject of cybernetics. Its purpose is to Ashby's cybernetics to construct a framework for understanding some of the features that presently characterise British higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

The contents of Ashby's 1956 book, An Introduction to Cybernetics, are outlined. Cybernetic concepts, principles, and laws are then applied to some of the features that presently characterise UK universities: growth in student numbers, the modularisation of curricula, concerns over academic standards, and bureaucracy.

Findings

The paper finds Ashby's writings to be critical to understanding the nature of many of the contemporary debates about UK higher education. A diagnosis and critical evaluation of the policy impetus to increase student numbers and modularise curricula is supplied. A cybernetic analysis in support of the current concerns over academic standards is provided. The paper demonstrates why the current higher education quality assurance regime produces a bureaucratised university.

Research limitations/implications

The paper's framework is supported by an analysis of available national statistics and other secondary evidence, but more detailed, cross‐comparative, longitudinal studies of the UK labour market and educational attainment are required.

Practical implications

Given the economic perspective adopted by policy‐makers – the paper identifies three reasons why the current policy of expanding UK higher education may be flawed.

Originality/value

The paper marks the centenary year of W. Ross Ashby by demonstrating how his writings can supply a framework for understanding the current debates about UK higher education policy.

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Kybernetes, vol. 35 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 21 June 2013

Hannah Forsyth

The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of tensions between the benefits (such as technologies and skills) and the substance of knowledge (often described as “pure…

374

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of tensions between the benefits (such as technologies and skills) and the substance of knowledge (often described as “pure inquiry”) in Australian universities. There are advantages to considering this debate in Australia, since its universities were tightly connected to scholarly networks in the British Empire. After the Second World War, those ties were loosened, enabling influences from American research and technological universities, augmented by a growing connection between universities, government economic strategy and the procedures of industry. This paper thus traces some of routes by which arguments travelled and the ways they were articulated in post‐war Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

Ideas do not travel on their own. In this paper, the author takes a biographical approach to the question of contrasting attitudes to university knowledge in the post‐war period, comparing the international scholarly and professional networks of two British scientists who travelled to Australia – contemporaries in age and education – both influencing Australian higher education policy in diametrically opposing ways.

Findings

This research demonstrates that the growing connection with economic goals in Australian universities after the Second World War was in part a result of the new international and cross‐sectoral networks in which some scholars now operated.

Originality/value

Australian historiography suggests that shifts in the emphases of post‐war universities were primarily the consequence of government policy. This paper demonstrates that the debates that shaped Australia's modern university system were also conducted among an international network of scholars.

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Joe Scala, Lyn Purdy and Frank Safayeni

Flexibility continues to be key to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, both in academia and industry, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the…

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Abstract

Purpose

Flexibility continues to be key to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, both in academia and industry, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the fundamental nature of flexibility. This lack of understanding has often led to overly optimistic expectations regarding the direct transformation of technological flexibility into manufacturing flexibility. A theoretical model of the firm, based on cybernetics, is proposed in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

The model relates flexibility to the cybernetic concept of variety and examines a dynamic system in terms of its task structure.

Findings

The model proves useful both in dispelling some of the misconceptions regarding flexibility, and in providing practical insights into issues of designing flexible manufacturing organizations.

Practical implications

The paper presents a means by which variety can be measured.

Originality/value

The conceptual model clarifies certain aspects of system flexibility. The first implication is that the flexibility required at a node is not fixed, but dependent on its connection with other nodes. The degree to which the interconnected nodes are effective regulators determines the variety impinging upon the target node. The second implication is that variety reduction is often a preferred solution over increased variety handling. The third implication is that the seemingly peculiar finding that relatively inflexible nodes in combination can be quite flexible, is easily explained using this theoretical model of the firm. System flexibility depends more on each node possessing requisite variety than on each possessing an enormous number of responses.

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Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-038X

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Article
Publication date: 4 May 2020

Joel Barnes

The purpose of this paper is to outline the structures of collegial governance in Australian universities between 1945 and the “Dawkins reforms” of the late 1980s. It describes…

303

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to outline the structures of collegial governance in Australian universities between 1945 and the “Dawkins reforms” of the late 1980s. It describes the historical contours of collegial governance in practice, the changes it underwent, and the structural limits within which it was able to operate.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based upon the writings of academics and university administrators from the period, with more fine-grained exemplification provided by archival and other evidence from Faculties of Arts and their equivalents in newer universities.

Findings

Elements of hierarchy and lateral organisation coexisted in the pre-Dawkins university in ways not generally made explicit in the existing literature. This mixture was sustained by ideals about academic freedom.

Research limitations/implications

By historicising “collegiality” the research problematises polemical uses of the term, either for or against. It also seeks to clarify the distinctiveness of contemporary structures—especially for those with no first-hand experience of the pre-Dawkins university—by demonstrating historical difference without resort to nostalgia.

Originality/value

“Collegiality” is a common concept in education and organisation studies, as well as in critiques of the contemporary corporate university. However, the concept has received little sustained historical investigation. A clearer history of collegial governance is valuable both in its own right and as a conceptually clarifying resource for contemporary analyses of collegiality and managerialism.

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Article
Publication date: 11 November 2013

Thomas Fischer

This paper aims to present the argument that Heinz von Foerster's portrayals of non-triviality in his non-trivial machine (NTM) and in surprising human behavior are not…

196

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present the argument that Heinz von Foerster's portrayals of non-triviality in his non-trivial machine (NTM) and in surprising human behavior are not isomorphous. It also demonstrates that the NTM does not account for spontaneity as it is observed in humans in general, nor for von Foerster's own invention of the NTM in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

Demonstrating an isomorphism between the NTM and the Enigma cipher machine, the paper shows differences between the NTM and non-trivial human behavior, which von Foerster implied to be isomorphous. It speculates why von Foerster may have accepted this inconsistency.

Findings

von Foerster's NTM and the Enigma cipher machine are shown to be isomorphous. Multiple portrayals von Foerster offered of non-triviality, however, are neither isomorphous, nor do they satisfy criteria von Foerster himself set for theories of living beings. Speculations are offered as to why von Foerster nonetheless used these portrayals of non-triviality, and regarding a possible lineage of inspiration that connects the Enigma machine to the NTM via the work of Alan Turing and Ross Ashby.

Research limitations/implications

The presented research is informal and speculative.

Originality/value

The paper's originality and value arise from its questioning of the apparent isomorphism of multiple portrayals of non-triviality, from its speculation about choices von Foerster made while facing the dilemma of defending spontaneity in terms of mechanisms, as well as from speculation about his sources of inspiration.

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Article
Publication date: 24 April 2024

Paul J. Yoder

The purpose of this conceptual article is to examine the role of villainification and heroification in social studies through critically analyzing the author’s place-based…

18

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual article is to examine the role of villainification and heroification in social studies through critically analyzing the author’s place-based encounters with three civil war narratives.

Design/methodology/approach

The article describes the author’s critical reflections on three narratives involving confederate figures and examines theoretical and pedagogical implications.

Findings

The article introduces a spectrum of ethical judgments which plots villainification and heroification on opposing ends. The author advocates for more nuanced ethical judgments that contextualize decisions as understandable or defensible based on evidence. The term understandable reflects a concept of being able to explain (i.e. demonstrate understanding) why a curricular figure made certain choices without agreeing with or supporting those choices. The term defensible denotes the existence of evidence that provides a rationale for a choice such that the person making the ethical judgment would feel comfortable making (i.e. defending) the same choice.

Originality/value

The article introduces a theory of nuanced ethical judgments in social studies that maps onto existing literature on heroification, villainification and place-based education. Pedagogical implications for social studies education are also identified.

Details

Social Studies Research and Practice, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1933-5415

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Article
Publication date: 13 July 2018

Amin Vahidi, Alireza Aliahmadi and Ebrahim Teimoury

This paper reviews the underpinning principles and scientific trends of cybernetics and the viable system model (VSM). Therefore, this paper aims to guide authors and managers…

502

Abstract

Purpose

This paper reviews the underpinning principles and scientific trends of cybernetics and the viable system model (VSM). Therefore, this paper aims to guide authors and managers active in management cybernetics and to inform them about the past, current and future trends in this discipline.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a descriptive and qualitative approach is used to review and analyze management cybernetics historical trends. Then, a frequency analysis (quantitative) is conducted on the 1,000 first publications in the field.

Findings

The cybernetics was emerged in the Josiah Macy conference in 1946. Then, Wiener introduced the field of cybernetics and Ashby, Von Foerster and McCulloch developed this concept as a discipline. The Management cybernetics field that was introduced by Beer is a combination of system, control and management sciences. Beer presented VSM as an operational model in this area. Analyzing the 1,000 top-ranked publications shows that the introduction of this field reached maturity and further development became relatively mature. Moreover, based on the analyzed trends, VSM model application can now be strongly attractive. In this paper, the main journals, authors and research trends are analyzed. The main application area of this model is in the IT field and large-scale organizations.

Practical implications

The present paper’s implication for practitioners and researchers is guiding authors and managers to most appropriate studies in the field, so that they can produce and use the most efficient studies in this field.

Social implications

The fields of IT, Policy-Making, Production, Social Issues, Service industry, Software developers, etc., are some of this paper’s implications for industry and society.

Originality/value

In this paper, the steps of VSM development are investigated. Then, recent trends (classifications, authors, journals and topics analysis) are surveyed by analyzing the top 1,000 publications in this field. This paper would help researchers find more appropriate research fields. In addition, it helps practitioners find the optimum solutions based on management cybernetics for their problems among vast numbers of publications.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2004

Andrew Pickering

This paper explores the history of Stafford Beer's work in management cybernetics, from his early conception and simulation of an adaptive automatic factory and associated…

2078

Abstract

This paper explores the history of Stafford Beer's work in management cybernetics, from his early conception and simulation of an adaptive automatic factory and associated experimentation in biological computing, through the development of the Viable System Model and the Team Syntegrity technique for discussion and planning. It also pursues Beer into the fields of micro‐ and macropolitics and spirituality. The aim is to show that all of Beer's projects can be understood as specific instantiations and workings out of a cybernetic ontology of unknowability and becoming: a stance that recognises that the world can always surprise us and that we can never dominate it through knowledge. The thrust of Beer's work was, thus, to construct systems that could adapt performatively to environments they could not fully control.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 33 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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