Multiple perspectives

Summary

Different accounts may expose a disagreement about what is happening, what matters, or whose action is possible. SSM uses declared worldviews and models to structure inquiry; CSH questions the facts and values made relevant by a boundary. These are distinct ways of working with differences.

Implications for practice

An inquiry needs to test alternative accounts and allow them to challenge its framing. That test may justify keeping the original question, changing a proposed action, or exposing a conflict that still requires a decision.

Key distinctions

• different observations versus different criteria of improvement
• comparing accounts versus merging them into one model
• accommodation for action versus identical worldviews
• opportunity to contribute versus authority to decide

Historical development

• This entry compares Checkland's SSM and Ulrich's CSH without claiming either exhausts the idea or that one descends from the other.

Ideas it depends on

• situated accounts
• purposes
• boundary judgements

Further developments

• revised problem definitions
• contested improvements
• workable action across disagreement

Connections to practice

• Write two coherent accounts of the same proposed change, including what would count as success in each.
• Keep a disagreement that changes the action visible. Record who must decide it and whose objection remains.
• Test an alternative framing by naming an action it makes available and the evidence that would justify trying it.

Common confusions

• A larger list of views guarantees fairness or completeness.
• Respect for people requires treating every factual claim as equally supported.
• Agreement to a course of action means the participants now share one interpretation.

Further checks

• The practice questions are editorial applications, not a combined SSM–CSH method.
• Whether people can object safely, and whether an accommodation is legitimate, need evidence from the actual setting.

Recorded connections

Check the wording, direction, scope, sources, and status of a connection before relying on it.

• Systems convening can create a bounded space for Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: operationalises

  The IFSR programme is an example interpreted through the atlas's systems-convening concept. The source does not use that label and does not demonstrate that dialogue resolves differences.

  Locator: IFSR Conversations Legacy, programme-design paragraphs on non-hierarchical cross-tradition dialogue; Systems convening slides, slide 4

  • IFSR Conversations Legacy (checked programme history)
  • Systems convening and boundaries core slides (public file identity checked)

• Pattern Manual for Service Systems Thinking operationalises named voices as Multiple perspectives

  Status: accepted · Relation: operationalises

  The paper operationalises perspectives as named voices around an issue; it does not guarantee that every affected perspective will be represented.

  Locator: Pattern Manual paper, p. 13, paragraph beginning 'Extending issues to explicitly identify voices'

  • Pattern Manual for Service Systems Thinking (checked)

• Service systems thinking requires explicit voices to represent Multiple perspectives

  Status: accepted · Relation: methodological prerequisite

  The requirement is specific to Ing's proposed service-systems-thinking pattern form.

  Locator: Pattern Manual paper, pp. 12-14; Coevolving publication record abstract describing voices on issues

  • Pattern Manual for Service Systems Thinking (checked)
  • David Ing — Coevolving Innovations publications (checked)

• Systems change learns by seeing the system from Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  Author synthesis; no public link and no independent evidence of intervention effectiveness.

  Locator: slide 4

  • Systems convening and boundaries core slides (public file identity checked)

• Productive conversations makes different interpretations discussable as Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  The feedback interpretation is a teaching synthesis, not an empirical causal estimate.

  Locator: slides 2 and 16

  • Better conversations for better realities: learning loops to break the devil's bargain (public file identity checked)

• Appreciative Inquiry elicits valued experience from Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Constellations tests hypotheses across Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: applies

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Conversation mapping retains disagreement among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Detecting and managing undiscussables protects excluded or unsafe Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Facilitation designs participation across Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: applies

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Graphic facilitation and visualisation retains contributions from Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: applies

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Influencing and mediation works with incompatible Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Interview technique elicits situated Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: applies

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Large group decision approaches synthesises without erasing Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Listening and multiple perspectives puts into conversational practice Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: operationalises

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Managing deflection, resistance and challenge resists pathologising disagreement by retaining Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Metaphors compares what different Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Presentation design anticipates interpretation by Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Public speaking adapts explanation for Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Questionnaire design samples accounts from Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: applies

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Stakeholder analysis organises inquiry across Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Values mapping and integration retains value conflict among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Confrontation Analysis (CONAN) represents incompatible positions among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• INFORMED Group Dynamics organises group inquiry across Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Interactive Management structures dialogue among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) retains differing interpretations from Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • Understanding systems thinking in practice (Open University) (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Syntegration / Team Syntegrity creates repeated encounters among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Rich picture makes room in one representation for Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: operationalises

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Ladder of inference compares different selections and interpretations among Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: uses

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
  • SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Distributed ethnography develops accounts across distributed Multiple perspectives

  Status: provisional · Relation: complements

  This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.

  Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records

  • SenseMaker — The Cynefin Company (checked)
  • Dave Snowden — The Cynefin Company profile (checked)
  • Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)

• Public resource: Systems leadership, change, theory and practice contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: PDF page 26

  • Systems leadership, change, theory and practice (located public record)

• Public resource: Large-group processes (PDF) contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: PDF pages 36, 52

  • Large-group processes (located public record)

• Public resource: Core systems-change slide set contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: PDF page 67

  • Core systems-change slide set (located public record)

• Public resource: Designing Social Systems in a Changing World contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 14855; page-level locator pending

  • Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (located public record)

• Public resource: Response to paper “Systems Thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.: Systems thinking from a critical systems perspective contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 14100; page-level locator pending

  • Response to paper “Systems Thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.: Systems thinking from a critical systems perspective (located public record)

• Public resource: Systems thinking: taming complexity in project management contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 670; page-level locator pending

  • Systems thinking: taming complexity in project management (located public record)

• Public resource: Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 31891; page-level locator pending

  • Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide (located public record)

• Public resource: The history and future of projects as a transition innovation: Towards a sustainable project management framework contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 6191; page-level locator pending

  • The history and future of projects as a transition innovation: Towards a sustainable project management framework (located public record)

• Public resource: Improving practice in safeguarding at the interface between hospital services and children’s social care: a mixed-methods case study contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 464878; page-level locator pending

  • Improving practice in safeguarding at the interface between hospital services and children’s social care: a mixed-methods case study (located public record)

• Public resource: Presencing the Future of Democracy and Governance contains a located mention of Multiple perspectives Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions

  Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.

  Locator: Extracted source text, character 396846; page-level locator pending

  • Presencing the Future of Democracy and Governance (located public record)

• Public resource: Response to paper “Systems Thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.: Systems thinking from a critical systems perspective joins perspective-taking to responsibility for framing Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: uses in argument

  Inviting other perspectives is treated as an ongoing inquiry whose framing must also be questioned, rather than a guarantee of completeness.

  Locator: Sections 1.1–1.2, printed pp. 323–324

  • Response to paper “Systems Thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.: Systems thinking from a critical systems perspective (located public record)

• Public resource: Distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives (DSRP): A theory of thinking and of things includes perspective-taking in a recursive account of thinking Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: uses in argument

  The authors apply the patterns to one another, including taking perspectives on a relationship. This does not establish equivalence with every earlier use of perspective-taking.

  Locator: Section 1.2, printed pp. 312–313

  • Distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives (DSRP): A theory of thinking and of things (located public record)

• Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) uses worldview-declared models to structure inquiry across differences Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: operationalises

  An account of SSM, not a claim that all multiple-perspective work is SSM. The models support discussion and accommodations for action; their use does not establish fairness or erase conflicting interests.

  Locator: Checkland 2000, pp. S21, S32–S34, and S53

  • Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective (passage checked research pass)

• Boundary critique examines how boundary judgements condition differing facts and values Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: operationalises

  Ulrich describes cooperative and emancipatory uses. Exposing differing reference systems need not yield agreement or establish which boundary should govern action.

  Locator: Ulrich mini-primer, applications 1–3; Ulrich 2022, Q10–12 and closing paragraphs

  • A Mini-Primer of Critical Systems Heuristics (passage checked research pass)
  • Assessing assumptions about boundaries with critical systems heuristics (passage checked research pass)

• Structure and agency requires more than a changed account to establish a changed social condition Multiple perspectives

  Status: candidate · Relation: qualifies practice claim

  Editorial practice comparison: altered interpretations may matter, but a claim of structural change needs evidence of changes to the conditions of action. This does not claim that SSM ignores power or that the two authors share an ontology.

  Locator: Bhaskar 2020, section 3, TMSA and transition; Checkland 2000, pp. S33–S34

  • Critical realism and the ontology of persons (passage checked research pass)
  • Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective (passage checked research pass)

Claims and disputes

• An account of SSM, not a claim that all multiple-perspective work is SSM. The models support discussion and accommodations for action; their use does not establish fairness or erase conflicting interests.

  Claim status: candidate. Review status: research pass needs editor.

  source_exposition; no human editorial acceptance implied.

  Supporting sources

  • Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective (passage checked research pass)

• Ulrich describes cooperative and emancipatory uses. Exposing differing reference systems need not yield agreement or establish which boundary should govern action.

  Claim status: candidate. Review status: research pass needs editor.

  source_exposition; no human editorial acceptance implied.

  Supporting sources

  • A Mini-Primer of Critical Systems Heuristics (passage checked research pass)
  • Assessing assumptions about boundaries with critical systems heuristics (passage checked research pass)

• Editorial practice comparison: altered interpretations may matter, but a claim of structural change needs evidence of changes to the conditions of action. This does not claim that SSM ignores power or that the two authors share an ontology.

  Claim status: candidate. Review status: research pass needs editor.

  editorial_synthesis; no human editorial acceptance implied.

  Supporting sources

  • Critical realism and the ontology of persons (passage checked research pass)
  • Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective (passage checked research pass)

Sources and passage locators

• Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
• Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective (passage checked research pass)
• A Mini-Primer of Critical Systems Heuristics (passage checked research pass)
• Assessing assumptions about boundaries with critical systems heuristics (passage checked research pass)
• IFSR Conversations Legacy (checked programme history)
• Systems convening and boundaries core slides (public file identity checked)
• Pattern Manual for Service Systems Thinking (checked)
• David Ing — Coevolving Innovations publications (checked)
• Better conversations for better realities: learning loops to break the devil's bargain (public file identity checked)
• SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
• SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
• Understanding systems thinking in practice (Open University) (checked)
• An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
• SenseMaker — The Cynefin Company (checked)
• Dave Snowden — The Cynefin Company profile (checked)
• Systems leadership, change, theory and practice (located public record)
• Large-group processes (located public record)
• Core systems-change slide set (located public record)
• Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (located public record)
• Response to paper “Systems Thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.: Systems thinking from a critical systems perspective (located public record)
• Systems thinking: taming complexity in project management (located public record)
• Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide (located public record)
• The history and future of projects as a transition innovation: Towards a sustainable project management framework (located public record)
• Improving practice in safeguarding at the interface between hospital services and children’s social care: a mixed-methods case study (located public record)
• Presencing the Future of Democracy and Governance (located public record)
• Distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives (DSRP): A theory of thinking and of things (located public record)
• Critical realism and the ontology of persons (passage checked research pass)

• Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective: Printed pp. S32 and S53; PDF pp. 22 and 43 · research pass needs editor
• Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective: Printed pp. S21 and S33–S34; PDF pp. 11 and 23–24 · research pass needs editor
• A Mini-Primer of Critical Systems Heuristics: Paragraphs on the first two applications, emancipatory boundary critique, and the normative focus of CSH · research pass needs editor
• Assessing assumptions about boundaries with critical systems heuristics: Questions 4–6 and 10–12; final four paragraphs after question 12; author PDF p. 1 · research pass needs editor
• Critical realism and the ontology of persons: Section 3, Contexts of persons, opening paragraphs on TMSA and conceptuality · research pass needs editor
• Critical realism and the ontology of persons: Section 3, discussion of concrete utopianism, KQ4, and the paragraphs preceding KQ5 · research pass needs editor

Cite this entry

Taylor, B. P. (2026). Multiple perspectives. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.36. https://transduction.systems/entries/concept_multiple_perspectives/

Include the release and review status when you quote or reuse this account.