[Dialogue] Social Process Imbalance and Pressure Points

[Beret Griffith]

In a quick pass through Pathways I saw a very long lecture of yours 
Jim on the SP, dated 1971. There was even some earlier material, 
along with a lot of other stuff.

Beret Griffith

At 12:47 PM 1/19/2011, you wrote:
> From an historical perspective, you would have to look in the 
> archives, I think, in one of the plenary addresses late in the 
> summer of 71.  I have some recollection of Gene Marshall working on 
> this.  The motivation came from wanting to have some sort of a pull 
> together of the research of that summer before everyone left.
>
>Jim Wiegel
><mailto:Jfwiegel at yahoo.com>Jfwiegel at yahoo.com
>
>On Jan 19, 2011, at 11:34, steve har 
><<mailto:stevehar11201 at gmail.com>stevehar11201 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>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>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>http://www.systems-thinking.org/intst/int.htm
>>
>>Thoughts? Steve Harrington
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