C. West churchman and the new world of Co-design: Presentation at memorial panel

Abstract

As with many of us, I got the feeling "I have to meet this man!" the first time I read, The Systems Approach [1]. I read the book because a colleague of mine, Kristo Ivanov, said to me: "With your ideas you have to read a book by Churchman..." and so my relationship with West Churchman started. Later on I worked with Stefan Persson - a former student of Churchman. He became the supervisor for my doctoral studies. In the late 1970s, I was a rather introverted, inexperienced but reflective youngster from the north of Sweden. I had little knowledge of the wider world. Despite that background I felt that I had to meet West Churchman. So I wrote introducing myself to him and explained that I wanted to visit him. I was really happy and surprised when I got the answer that I was welcome! The contact developed into a close friendship resulting in a number of overseas travels back and forth for both of us. During this time I felt like an adopted student. But in 1998,1 felt that I had graduated, because when West Churchman was invited for a keynote talk at the conference for International Federation for Information Processing in Helsinki, he asked me to take on the role because his doctor advised against the trip. I agreed because I felt ready to do some real work in the spirit of West Churchman. In this paper it is my intention to give you a brief idea of my view of the spirit of West Churchman and some hints on how I have tried to maintain and nurture that spirit. I will also mention some other researches related to Churchman that has been working in the same spirit. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.