INDEP online Talk with Jon Walker – Viable Systems, Authoritarian Control, Neo-liberal Economics and the Future of our Socio-Economic-Political Approach to Governance

This event is part of the INDEPxMetaphorum Online Talk Series for Stafford Beer’s Centennial.

This event will take place in English.

To participate, please register here.

This talk examines the essence of the Viable System Model as originally conceived by Stafford Beer and discusses the application of his approach to governance in business, politics, and society in general. It concludes that the majority of approaches currently in use are, in VSM terms, essentially dysfunctional and that there are far better ways of organising our society based upon cybernetic principles.
The VSM sees governance not in terms of authority and obedience, but by describing the laws and axioms which define how self-organising, autonomous parts can be brought together or cohered in a new wholeness at a higher level of organisation. The implications of the need for autonomy have far-reaching implications for all organisations, and provides a new light for looking at democracy.
The VSM emphasises the need for collaboration in order to ensure effective coherence, and, as a consequence of its recursive nature, requires viability at all levels. This is diametrically opposed to the neo-liberal view which promotes ruthless competition and minimal governmental involvement.

Jon Walker has worked in the co-operative business sector since 1978. He has established and co-managed a range of businesses including retail outlets, a small-scale manufacturing plant, a warehouses and a chain of supermarkets dealing mainly with whole-food, organic and fairly-traded products. Concurrently, Jon has lectured, published, consulted and provided training courses in both private and public sectors. Central to this work has been the applications of systems theory and cybernetics to co-operative organisations in order to design highly effective structures based firmly on principles of democracy, self-empowerment and human dignity. Emerging from this work is the clear conclusion that the most effective, responsive structures must be based on self-organisation and non-hierarchical approaches. Cybernetics provides the basis for the design of organisations in which effective business performance and individual well-being are mutually supportive. Jon has a PhD in Cybernetics from Aston University and has published papers on neural networks, robotics, the use of the Viable Systems Model in co-operative organisations, and recently the application of systems tools to sustainable design. He established a web site introducing the Viable Systems Model and applying its principles to non-hierarchical design, which has been in constant use for over 10 years.