Dissipative structures and long term OS

[Chris Corrigan]

Interesting poinits Birgitt...

I'm about to embark upon my first long term OS relationship (all the
rest have been short term affairs...fun for a while, but not
MEANINGFUL...:-) ).  This is with three urban Aboriginal youth councils
from BC and Alberta.  We have used Open Space in Vanocuver with one
coulncil to get at some community priorities and we will be doing
another one with all three councils as part of some training I'm
offering.  The intent, especially here in Vancouver, is to use OST to
create proposals for action from youth in the community that can then be
funded by the youth council.

For the training, they will be getting a half day crash course in OS,
what it is and how it works, and then an afternoon and next morning in
OS to experience the process and work on opportunities for leadership in
their communities.  The councils want to develop the capacity to first
of all work in Open Space, and eventually run them for themselves.

Everyone's excited about this because it will give us a chance to see
how OS can work over the long term with a community.  I don't know if
others have looked at this, but it seems to me a variation on the OS
organization: the OS community.

As for value...I couldn't begin to fathom how to measure that.

On dissipative structure, let me quote from my bible on this stuff, The
Web of Life by Fritjof Capra:

"During the 1960s, [Ilya} Prigogine developed a new non-linear
thermodynamics to describe the self organziation phenomenon in open
systems far from equilibrium.  'Classical thermodynamics,' he explains,
'leads to the concept of "equilibrium structres" such as crystals.
Benard cells [highly ordered thermodynamic areas spontaneously appearing
when water is heated] are structrures too, but of a quite different
nature.  That is why we have introduced the notion of dissipative
structures to emphasize the close association, at first paradoxical, in
such situations between structure and norder on one side, and
dissipation on the other.'  In classical thermodynamics, the dissipation
of energy in heat transfer, friction and the like was always associated
with waste.  Prigogine's concept of a dissipative structure introduced a
radical change in this view by showing that in open systems dissipation
becomes a source of order."

And further...

"According to Pigogine's theory, dissipative structures not only
maintain themselves in a stable state far from equilibrium, but may even
evolve.  When the flow of energy and matter through them increases, they
may go through new instabilities and transform themselves into new
structures of increased complexity...Prigogine's detailed analysis of
this striking phenomenon showed that while dissipative structures
receive their energy from outside, the instabilities and jumps to new
forms of organization are the result of fluctuations amplified by
positive feedback loops."

Sound familiar?

CJC

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036

(GO LEAFS GO!)