Werner Ulrich
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Werner Ulrich (1948) is a Swiss organizational theorist, and Professor at the University of Fribourg. He is known as one of the originators of "critical systems thinking" (CST).
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[edit] Biography
Werner Ulrich was born in 1948 in Bern, Switzerland. He received a doctoral degrees in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Fribourg in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Social Systems Design from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980, where he studied under C. West Churchman.
Back in Switzerland, in 1981, Ulrich embarked a double career as policy analyst in government at the Canton of Bern, and as academic teacher at the University of Fribourg, where he was appointed Titular Professor of Social Planning in the Faculty of Arts. Ever since he has been Visiting Professor at the University of Hull, the University of Lincoln, the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Currently, in 2008, Ulrich is still professor at the University of Fribourg and Visiting Professor at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.[1]
In 2001, he initiated the Lugano Summer School of Systems Design at the University of Lugano, which he has been directing since.
Ulrich is on the editorial boards of the journals Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Systemic Practice and Action Research, and Journal of Enterprising Culture and co-founding Associate Editor of the Journal of Research Practice.
[edit] Work
He is known as one of the originators of "critical systems thinking" (CST), which he understands as the use of systemic thinking in the service of reflective practice and research.
[edit] Critical systems heuristics
In his habilitation thesis "Critical Heuristics of Social Planning: A New Approach to Practical Philosophy" published in 1983 Ulrich presented a new understanding of systems thinking, an approach that is now known as critical systems heuristics (CSH). The methodological core principle of CSH is boundary critique, a new approach to reflective professional practice. Critical systems heuristics represents the first systematic attempt at providing both a philosophical foundation and a practical framework for critical systems thinking.[2].
[edit] CST for Professionals and Citizens
In 2008, with the research program CST for Professionals and Citizens Ulrich explores the ways critical systems thinking, and particularly boundary critique, can contribute to responsible professional practice and to preparing citizens for their role in a living civil society. The goal of this research project is to develop and pragmatize critical systems ideas so that ordinary professionals and citizens, all of us, can apply them.
The idea is to apply systems thinking in developing new reflective skills for both professional competence and effective citizenship. According to Ulrich a different concept of citizenship is required today: "One that would give a central part to civil competencies rather than to rights only. As far as I can see, the societal changes that are of particular importance for understanding the changing role of the citizen point to a shift of the essential "locus of control" (steering centers) of society from institutions such as science, bureaucracy, parliamentary democracy, and industrial corporations – institutions that historically have been driving, and continue to drive, the process of rationalization – to citizens."[3]
His related research program on Critical Pragmatism aims to help develop a "philosophy for professionals" on the basis of a critically revised pragmatist philosophy, boundary critique, CSH, and professional ethics.[1]
[edit] Publications
Ulrich wrote a few books and some 150 articles.[4] A selection:
- 1975. Kreativitätsförderung in der Unternehmung : Ansatzpunkte eines Gesamtkonzepts.
- 1983. Critical heuristics of social planning : a new approach to practical philosophy. Habilitation thesis. Bern : Haupt.
- 1994. Critical heuristics of social planning : a new approach to practical philosophy. New York : Wiley.
Articles, a selection:
- 1998. "Systems Thinking as if People Mattered: Critical Systems Thinking for Citizens and Managers". Working Paper No. 23 1998
- 2000. Reflective Practice in the Civil Society: The Contribution of Critically Systemic Thinking"
- 2004. "In memory of C. West Churchman (1913–2004): Reminiscences, retrospectives, and reflections". In: Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change Vol 1 Numbers 2–3.
- 2005. "A Brief Introduction to Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH)".
[edit] References
- ^ a b Werner Ulrich's Home Page, last version 7 May 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- ^ Ulrich, W. (2002). "Critical systems heuristics", ECOSENSUS web site, 14 Oct 2005. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
- ^ A Brief Introduction to "Critical Systems Thinking for Professionals & Citizens" by Werner Ulrich. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- ^ A List of my Publications from 1971 to 2008 by Werner Ulrich. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
