Here’s my comment on George Seimens’ call for a metaphor for change:
You nail the problem beautifully, but then you ask the wrong question. We don’t need new metaphors for change. We need a new science. The long tail, flat world, etc. are not satisfying because they describe a process or a few processes and not wholes.
To “capture the nature of change” frame all as change—as process rather than structure.
Len Troncale has proposed and outlined an entirely new basic science made up of about 100 processes that form up systems found throughout nature. You mentioned quite a few of them: flow, feedback, hierarchy, chaos, bonding/linking, loose coupling, openness/closure, networks, emergence, etc. The features and functions of each process and their interrelationships apply to all systems—stars, the weather, our minds, our communities.
Bela H. Banathy wrote about this back in the 80s—His first book was “A Systems View of Education”–and my MA thesis was about using it.
The struggle toward articulating this happens at the International Society for the Systems Sciences http://www.isss.org/world
It’s fun stuff.
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