ICTs in the Contemporary World seminar

Researching Real Life: reflections on 30 years of Action Research

Peter Checkland
Emeritus Professor of Systems, Lancaster University

Tuesday 9 December, 2008
3.00 - 5.00 p.m.

venue NAB 1.07

The talk will cover the development of SSM in an action research programme, its use in work in the information systems field, and the emergence of the hard/soft distinction in systems thinking.

After 15 years as a manager in the synthetic fibre industry Peter Checkland joined the postgraduate Department of Systems Engineering at Lancaster University. There he led what became a thirty-year programme of action research in organizations outside the university. Initially the research theme was to examine the possibility of using the well-developed methods of systems engineering in management problem situations rather than in the technically-defined problem situation in which the methods has been refined. This attempt at transfer failed, and the action research moved in a different direction. The work finally established Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as an approach to tackling the multi-faceted problems which managers face; in doing this, it also established the now well-recognized distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ systems thinking. SSM is now taught and used around the world. Its development through action research is described in many papers and in five books: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice (1981); Soft Systems Methodology in Action (with J. Scholes, 1990); Systems Information and Information Systems (with Sue Holwell, 1998); SSM: A 30-Year Retrospective (1999); Learning for Action (with John Poulter, 2006).

Peter Checkland’s work has been recognised in a number of awards: honorary doctorates from City University, the Open University, Erasmus University (The Netherlands), and Prague University of Economics, a Most Distinguished and Outstanding Contributor Award from the British Computer Society, the Gold Medal of the UK Systems Society, The Beale Medal of the OR Society, the I+M (Information and Management) award of Amsterdam University, and the Pioneer Award of the International Council on Systems Engineering.

If you are a visitor from outside LSE, please send a confirmation to Frances White. You will need to sign in at the reception desk of the New Academic Building. Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.

For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White, Research Coordinator

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