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stafford_beer

Past president of the Society for General Systems Research (now the International Society for the Systems Sciences), 1971.

See Stafford Beer by Markus Schwaninger


Coming from Operational Research, Beer saw cybernetics as providing the understanding (through the concept of feedback) that could achieve what OR had set out to do. He extended this into understanding the largest organisations humans have developed: the firm (and business) and the state (and government). Through this work he came to understand the sophistication in behaviour of even small organisations and to develop models (and also metaphors) through which to discuss them without trivialisation.


Discussed at connections-20080112

  • Stafford was born in London
  • Up to Sheffield while he working with United Steel
  • In London, 1961-1975
  • Moved to Wales, until 1984, when he started living both in the UK and Canada, travelling.
  • Relationship since the 1970s with Ernst & Whinney, on retainer to a cybernetics group, headed by Paul Rubinyi, doing a lot of work in Canada.
stafford_beer.txt · Last modified: 2020/07/27 15:38 (external edit)