Jason Smith <pax@interlog.com> wrote (in the Learning Organisation list):
> I've come to think that it is perfectly fine for people to hold different
> views, even contradictory ones, provided that their work together is not
> about debating views but is, instead, about looking for leveraged actions.
> It seems to me that so much human suffering continues to be perpetuated
> when it is more important for people to debate beliefs than it is to look
> for actions to reduce that suffering.
This possibility of 'working together' despite the differences is a
practical problem. There now seems to be an interest among some
researchers to formulate a research problem that might produce a
competence in dealing with the practical problem.
The research problem has been termed by me as the 'problem of co-
ordination'. The simplest example of this arises in the co-ordination of
observations. Classical science itself is an answer to this type of
problem. The solution involves the identification of an
observationally-fixated 'object'.
A little more complicated example is the co-ordination of communications.
There does not seem to be a unique solution to this type of problem.
Linguistic solutions involve linguistic conventions, grammars, etc. More
local solutions are available in the form of 'systems methodologies'
(e.g., soft systems methodology, SSM; critical systems heuristics, CSH;
etc.), etc.
The most complicated example of course is the co-ordination of actions.
Again, there does not seem to be a unique framework to study this area.
Many different approaches can be found in the contemporary literatures of
action research, learning organisation, group research, cultural studies,
etc., generally focussing on how certain types of collective emerge.
DP
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Co-ordination Science directly to
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--"DPDASH" <dpdash@ximb.stpbh.soft.net>
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