Systems Sciences: a reading route

What crosses disciplinary boundaries?

The International Society for the Systems Sciences describes a programme of interdisciplinary inquiry: looking for comparable concepts and models, testing useful transfers between fields, developing theory where it is missing, reducing duplicated effort and improving communication among specialists. Its account also includes the practical use of systems methodologies.

This is the ISSS account of its purpose, not a single definition binding every systems tradition. Similarity between two models is a question to investigate; it does not by itself show that the models are interchangeable.

Source: ISSS, “Purpose” · ISSS in the atlas

A reference route: François’s encyclopedia

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, edited by Charles François, offers a reference route into the field’s vocabulary. The Bertalanffy Center identifies the first edition as 1997 and the basis of the online version as the second edition of 2004. It records François’s 2018 wish to transfer stewardship to the Center.

Use the encyclopedia to locate a term, follow its references and compare meanings across traditions. An entry’s inclusion is not evidence that every school uses the term in the same way.

Open Systemspedia · BCSSS edition and stewardship record

The BCSSS programme record has been checked. The complete encyclopedia has not been read or imported here; individual claims still require an entry or page locator.

Michael C. Jackson: choosing and combining approaches

Jackson’s Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity examines systems approaches and their application to complex interventions. Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention, co-authored with Robert L. Flood, addresses how different systems methodologies can be used in a complementary way.

Read these as routes into methodological choice: what does an approach make visible, what does it leave out, and what changes when it is used alongside another? These questions are an editorial reading suggestion, rather than a claim that all systems approaches can be combined without difficulty.

• Wiley: Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity
• Wiley: Creative Problem Solving, Total Systems Intervention
• Michael C. Jackson’s existing atlas entry · Critical systems thinking

The publisher descriptions and bibliographic records have been checked; this page does not claim a new full-text review. The submission’s broader priority, proof and institutional claims remain unestablished.

Systems Sciences steward: David Ing

David Ing is the approved domain steward for Systems Sciences, appointed by Benjamin P Taylor on 25 September 2026 following his public application. The role helps review this area while keeping rival accounts and uncertainty visible. Editorial acceptance remains with the curator.

David’s contributions prompted the encyclopedia route, this field introduction and the Jackson reading route. The appointment is recorded here; repository permissions and working arrangements are separate.

Steward application and Systems Sciences contribution · David Ing on GitHub

Contribution record

• #68: encyclopedia — accepted as a source guide, with edition and access limits.
• #71: Systems Sciences — introduction published and domain-steward application approved.
• #78: Jackson — supported reading route published using the existing identity; stronger claims require further evidence.

Download the source and decision record. No new canonical relationship is inferred from these submissions.