Bateson and Maturana, both contemporary philosophers and systemic thinkers, spent a good part of their academic careers searching for the "Patterns of Life";. Both men have strong backgrounds in cybernetics and were colleagues of the great cybernetician Heinz Von Foerester, who originated the legendary Macy conferences in the 1950's in ...

This work attempts to present the most important contributions of Humberto R. Maturana to the field of psychology, in an effort to reveal them directly. The main conclusion is that Maturana has expanded the understanding of humanness and therapy through the biology of the observer.

Lesson 3 consists of two texts: an introduction to autopoietic theory by Randal Whitaker and a major text by Humberto Maturana. There are links to the important Website of Randal Whitaker on Autopoiesis, where a bibliography and suggestions for further reading may be found. At the end of this page ...

This introductory tutorial is designed to give you a brief overview of autopoietic theory -- the term I use to denote the work of Chilean biologists Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela. The following sections each provide a summary overview of a key concept.

This paper is a contribution to a dialogue on contructivist ideas in qualitative research in which collaborative inquiry is a central feature. By this I mean a process of finding out how both 'researchers' and 'subjects' have come to conceive an issue through sharing of their perceptions. Collaborative or participatory ...

This paper is about a particular kind of relating between people engaged in processes of change, such as in therapy, primary medical care practice or participatory action research. My thesis is that if a therapist, practitioner or facilitator of research engages with individuals or groups on a basis of relational ...

The roots of social ecology are embedded in the fertile soil that was the Hawkesbury Diploma in Rural Extension, first offered in 1970, at what was then known as Hawkesbury Agricultural College and now the University of Western Sydney. The program changed its title to Graduate Diploma in Extension in ...

The Australian Aborigines' environmental culture and the "double bind" approach used in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous are considered as a source for the generation of a new strategy for dealing with the ecological problems of our day. The strategy aims at achieving a negotiated outcome in issues of high ...

A presentation that draws connections across the work of Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, and Humberto Maturana.

| The Past-Future of Cybernetics

Maturana is a biologist. He makes it very clear that he speaks and writes only as a biologist. Others may apply his work to other spheres; however he himself does not. This paper is based on notes taken during a three day lecture given by Humberto Maturana in St Kilda, ...