[Dialogue] Social Process Imbalance and Pressure Points

[steve har]

I believe the imbalance idea likely came from
General Systems Theory & Kenneth Boulding
The balancing is a notion in feedback/feed forward loop logic

For example
one side of the teter-totter goes down the other goes up; or

if you add gas to your car the gas level in the car goes up and the gas
level in the gas station goes down.

The idea is to represent change in a system  not a static model. There are
moving parts in systems and "flows"

At a gas station...there is a pressure point -the valve at the pump - if you
change the pressure point change happens and gas flows

When you do this the car's gas tank is balanced to a new level when a valve
in the gas pump notices the change in pressure.

Often systems have three [or more] parts for example the hot water heater,
the bathtub, the kitchen sink [with related valves]

So imbalance triangles and pressure points were attempts to visualize ways
to make change in a system... to rebalance an imbalance- in a 3 part
system.

Without pressure points, flows, imbalances  you are left with a static model
in which there is no place for change. It seems to me we wanted to represent
opportunities to make social change not stasis.

The *establishment process * lives with or is the economic tyrant [to use
the rather quaint terms of the time];

The *disestablishment* is the political ally [like a "loyal" political
opposition],

The *transestablishment* or the cultural process is the  meaning making
dynamic that tells a new story and "re balances" the social order by
changing the system.

The model is genius design and profound thinking for the 1970s; time marches
on. There are tools and simulations that really are dynamic now not artful
representations. It is a bit like comparing an old static photo to a new
video.

 It would be very interesting to update some of the social process triangle
work with some of these new software tools like Stella & iThink.

It would be splendid piece of creative work to upgrade the social process
triangles to current times;  something like this video clip where Twyla
Tharp takes a dance step from long ago and makes a splendid ballet called
"Bakers Dozen". See: http://poss.posterous.com/34574499.

I think we could make a splendid "ballet" out of the social process
triangles.
Taking brilliant models from the past and dusting them off for current times
seems exactly what a new ICA era should do.

For a picture of how people seem to be making models like the social process
triangles now see:http://www.systems-thinking.org/intst/int.htm

Thoughts? Steve Harrington
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