Peter Checkland: System

“We have no aces to what the world is, to ontology, only to descriptions of the world… that is to say, epistemology… We should never say something in the world: 'it is a system'; only: "it may be described as a system.'”

Peter Checkland

Checkland 1983, p. 671 cited in Stephen K. Probert (1998) "The Metaphysical Foundations of Soft and Hard Information Systems Methodologies". In: Robert Macredie (1998) Modelling for Added Value. p. 86

World

“The core of a root definition of a system will be a transformation process (T), the means by which defined inputs are transformed into defined outputs. The transformation will include the direct object of the main activity verbs subsequently required to describe the system.”

Peter Checkland

Source: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, 1981, p. 223 as cited in: Gillian Ragsdell, Daune West, Jennifer Wilby (2002) Systems Theory and Practice in the Knowledge Age. p. 82. In the original quote Checkland summarised his earlier work with Smyth published in 1976.

“In a certain sense human activity systems do not exist, only perceptions of them exist, perceptions which are associated with specific Ws.”

Peter Checkland

Source: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, 1981, p. 219 as cited in: Robert L. Flood, Norma R.A. Romm (1997) Critical Systems Thinking. p. 206

Sense

“The concept of action research arises in the behavioural sciences and is obviously applicable to an examination of human activity systems carried out through the process of attempting to solve problems. This core is the idea that the researcher does not remain an observer outside the subject of investigation but becomes a participant in the relevant human group. The researcher becomes a participant in the action, and the process of change itself becomes the subject of research. In action research the roles of researcher and subject are obviously not fixed: the roles of the subject and the practitioner are sometimes switched: the subjects become researchers… and researchers become men of action.”

Peter Checkland

Source: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, 1981, p. 152 as cited in: R.L. McCown (2001) "Learning to bridge the gap between science-based decision support and the practice of farming". In: Aust. J. Agric. Res., Vol 52, p. 560-561

Men , Idea , Problem , Science

“A root definition describing a notional system chosen for its relevance to what the investigator and/or people in the problem situation perceive as matters of contention.”

Peter Checkland

Source: Systems thinking, systems practice: includes a 30-year retrospective, 1999, p. 319 cited in: Raymond W. Y. Kao (2010) Sustainable Economy. p. 411

People , Problem