Call for papers - 6th International Conference of Sociocybernetics

Citation

(2004), "Call for papers - 6th International Conference of Sociocybernetics", Kybernetes, Vol. 33 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2004.06733iac.002

Call for papers - 6th International Conference of Sociocybernetics

Call for papers

6th International Conference of Sociocybernetics

Maribor, Slovenia, 6-10 July 2005

ISA – International Sociological Association, Research committee 51 on Sociocybernetics, Honorary Presidents: Walter Buckley, USA; Felix Geyer, Netherlands

Theme: Sociocybernetics and Innovation

This conference is an independent part of the 13 World Congress of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics.

Conference theme explanation

Sociocybernetics is about preconditions, ways, and consequences of impacts in social entities. Innovation is every novelty accepted as beneficial by its users or consumers, be it technological or non-technological. Only 1 percent of patented inventions become innovations. An unknown small percentage of other inventions become suggestions and about 7 percent of those become innovations. Technological development is interdependent with organizational development and they are both interdependent with social development from the local to the global level of world society. Innovation, the chance of success of which is 8 percent, is at the core of all development.

Different local, regional, and national communities are differently supportive of invention-innovation processes and to the diffusion of their results. Inventions normally become innovations in coalition with entrepreneurship, and they fight routinism as a characteristic of social groups and social actors. Thus innovations lie at the core of the current growing difference between the 20 per cent of the affluent and the 80 per cent of the poor and relatively poor of humankind of today.

At all levels, from local to global, it is not clear, to what extent an innovation is indeed beneficial beyond evident short-term benefits. Side-effects and feedbacks across a variety of different social subsystems, long-term effects affecting future generations, and phenomena of synergy and emergence may easily produce unexpected, unrecognized, and unwanted results endangering the sustainability of social systems and society at large. In the same direct or indirect way, however, innovations may indeed provide new solutions to the problems of human beings and society. For example, globalization may be both a progress and neo-colonization at the same time.

Sociocybernetics as a discipline provides an adequate holistic theoretical and methodological framework to study the complexity of innovation processes and their effects on sustainability from the local to the global level. Papers are invited which deal with any one of these phenomena while putting innovation at the center of interest. Preferred are papers which take an explicit holistic and interdisciplinary approach and take into account feedback, communication, and reflexivity. As the conference will address a wider scientific public from Slovenia and neighboring countries, applied studies will be of special interest.

Venue and accommodation

University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia (EU).

The closest airports are in Graz, Austria, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, Trains connect Maribor also with Vienna, A, Budapest, H, Zagreb, HR, and indirectly with all places in Europe.

There are student dormitories, university hotel and a number of different hotels in Maribor.

Conditions of participation

To present a paper, membership in RC51 is preferable.

Conference fees are for:

• •

  RC51 Non-members: Euro 200

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  RC51 affiliated members (non-ISA): Euro 150

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  RC51 regular members in good standing: Euro 100

In special cases (e.g. students) exemptions can be granted upon request.

The fees can be paid on the spot or by bank transfer (in the latter case in Euro and with all charges to the participant) to: Bernd R. Hornung, Keyword Sociocybernetics, Account no. 39 72 049 03, BLZ 533 400 24, Swift Cobade FF 533, Commerzbank, Bahnhofstr. 2, D-35037 Marburg, Germany.

Abstracts and the review process

Abstracts for papers should be 500-1,000 word detailed abstracts for the review process and the definitive assignment to a particular session. In addition, 250 word regular abstracts are needed for publication on our Web site. All abstracts should be sent to the Chair of the Abstracts Committee, to Matjaz Mulej, and to the President of RC51, Bernd R. Hornung. The Abstracts Committee will review the detailed abstracts and will decide about acceptance. Possibly it will suggest improvements and modifications, in particular in order to ensure compliance with the conference theme. Abstracts have to deal with one of the major subjects mentioned above and should fit well with the overall objectives of this conference.

Deadlines

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  20 October 2004: Declaration of intent. (Please contact the organisers for information after 20 October 2004).

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  20 January 2005: 500-1,000 word detailed abstracts and 250 word regular abstracts.

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  20 March 2005: Notification of acceptance

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  20 May 2005: Definitive registration and booking

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  20 June 2005: Full paper

Contacts and information

For any further questions and information you may consult the RC 51 Web site at: http://www.unizar.es/sociocybernetics. This may already answer many of your questions, or you may also directly contact any of the members of the International Organizing Committee or the chairman of the National Organizing Committee.

International Organizing Committee

Felix Geyer, Honorary President RC51 – geyer@xs4aJl.nl

Bernd R. Harnung, President RC51 – hornung@med.uni-marburg.de

Vessela Misheva, Vice-President RC51 – Vessela.Misheva@soc.uu.se

Richard E. Lee, Secretary RC51 – rlee@binghamton.edu

Soeren Brier – sbr@kvl.dk

Arne Collen – acollen@saybrook.edu

Chaime Marcuello – chaime@posta.unizar.es

Bernard Scott – B.C.E.scott@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk

Karl-Heinz Simon – simon@usf.uni-kassel.de

National Organizing Committee

Matjaz Mulej. Tel: +386 2 22 90 262; Fax: +386 2 25 16 681; E-mail: mulej@uni-mb.si

If you do not intend to join the discussion in Maribor, please forward the information to your friends and colleagues, whom you find able to contribute.