Year report 2002
Operational Research Euro Working Group Complex Societal Problems & Issues
contact:
Prof. Dr. Dorien J. DeTombe, President Founder and Chair International - , Euro - , West-Euro- & Dutch Operational Research Research Group Complex Societal Problems & Issues Sichuan University, Chengdu, P.R. China
The board of the Euro Working Group Complex Societal Problems & Issues
Dr. Dorien J. DeTombe, (chair) Greenhill & Waterfront, Intern. Research & Development Institute Complex Societal Problems & Issues, The Netherlands, Europe
Prof. Dr. Tineke Bahlmann, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Ken Bowen, University of London, United Kingdom
Dr. Cor van Dijkum, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Dick Duke, Michigan University, USA
Prof. Dr. Franz Liebl, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany
Mr. dr. Antoinette Muntjewerff, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Marjan Vezjak, University of Ljubljana, Slovenian
The Euro Working Group Complex Societal Problems is an interdisciplinary research group and has 175 members coming from many disciplines.
What are complex societal problems & Issues?
Complex societal problems like in Europe the recent difficulties in the Agro-industry as the Mad-Cow disease and the Foot- and Mouth disease, and the continue problems with in the area of transportation. The worldwide problems in the area of healthcare like Malaria and HIV/AIDS, and the Water problems (too less, too much and not clean).
Complex societal problems are unstructured, dynamical and constantly changing. Complex societal problems have a large impact on society on macro, meso as well as on micro level. Sometimes they are local problems; mostly they are region wide or even worldwide problems. Complex societal problems can be found in all countries of the world. It is often uncertain what impact the problem has on society, what the goals and interests of the actors are and what will be the outcome of the problem. There are no easy, simple answers for these problems. Solutions, if there are any, can only be found with great effort and are often only temporarily. Handling complex societal problems needs a special approach. Handling societal problems in an interdisciplinary way has become a must for our society and a challenge for the human sciences.
Complex societal problems are interdisciplinary. They include aspects that are subject of study in several scientific disciplines. Handling societal problems include knowledge, power and emotion.
The content knowledge comes from content experts, a doctor, or hospital manager or an actor in this field. The process knowledge comes from facilitators. These are scientists or practitioners working in this field of complex societal problems. These scientists and practitioners have backgrounds in different scientific disciplines, and use methods derived from their original field combined with methods specially created for the field of handling societal problems. Methods and insights used derive from the field of medicine, law, economics, societal sciences, mathematics, computer sciences, technology, engineering sciences, chaos theory and operational research.
The year 2002
In the year 2002 the Euro Working Group on Complex Societal Problems organized six international meetings. All meetings were organized together with the Dutch NOSMO research group on Complex Societal Problems and the West-Euro group on Complex Societal Problems. These meetings took place in Amsterdam (3x) Maastricht (The Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium) and Edinbrugh, UK. At the meetings individual research was discussed by presenting papers, and cooperation of the members of the research group was discussed, which resulted in an international and methodological comparison on the subject of ‘The Complexity of Large Cities’. The Brussels meeting was organized in cooperation with the MINI-Euro conference of Prof. dr. Jean Pierre Brans, the meeting in Edinbrugh was organized with the Ifors conference. A special booklet was published with the abstracts of the lectures on the topic of Complex Societal Problems in Edinbrugh (see below).
Agenda 2002 WEST-Euro Working Group Complex Societal Problems & Dutch Nosmo research group Complex Societal Problems
The main theme of research is 2002 is a continuation of the research started in 2001. The theme is ‘How to handle the complex problems in large cities’. In this research the focus is on the interaction of different aspects, such as economic, urban planning, education, healthcare to one large problem. Three subgroups of the West-Euro research group are focussing with different methods on three different cities: Brussels, Adaptive Control Methodology (Brans), Maastricht Integrative City Planning (ICIS), Amsterdam Compram method (DeTombe) in a comparison of methods.
· 8 February 2002 meeting Amsterdam SISWO lectures:
- Prof. dr. Henk Becker : Social Impact Assessment
- Drs. Lex Brans Municipal of Amsterdam, director large cities Policy Amsterdam
- Discussion research topic Complexity of problems large cities: Amsterdam
· 5 April 2002 Special meeting on the 12th MINI Euro Brussels together with the Group Ethics (Brans & Pruyt) Location Brussels Belgium. jpbrans@vub.ac.be http://www.DSS.Brussels-2002.vub.ac.be,
- Presentation of the interview results of the problems of the large city Amsterdam
- Discussion on the data analyzing and next step in the research program by DeTombe
- Lecture of drs. Erik Pruyt on Ethics in decision making
- Discussion and reports of conferences
- 8-12 July Edinbrugh, UK IFORS2002, www.ifors2002.org
special stream on Complex Societal Problems, 14 presentations ( see booklet below)
See Book of Abstracts:
DeTombe, Dorien (Ed.) (2002) Complexity as a Challenge, Book of Abstracts, IFORS 2002 ,
Edinburgh, UK, Volume 11 Amsterdam : Greenhill & Waterfront, Europe: Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
Guilford, UK , America: Montreal, Canada ISBN 90-77171-03-7 NUGI 661, 652, 659, 852
· 20 September Maastricht ICIS
presentation of drs. J. Grosskurth on simulation models
- discussion on the use of simulation models for complex societal problems
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· 8 November 2002 Methodology day SISWO Amsterdam (Dutch)
(in Dutch) Models of predicting the future: considering the predictions
of the Dutch Central Plan Bureau
-Dr. Henk Don, director Central Plan Bureau ‘Prediction for policy making’
- Prof. dr. Elmer Sterken, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
‘The workhorses of the Economy’
· 13 December 2002 Amsterdam SISWO
Dr.Henri Etkovitz, New York State University, Sociology
‘Triple Helix, : interaction between University, Business and Society’
dr. L Leydesdorff, University of Amsterdam
‘ Chaos theory and Self-organization’
Agenda of 2003 of the WEST-Euro Working Group Complex Societal Problems & Dutch Nosmo research group Complex Societal Problems & Issues
The incidental theme of 2003 is a comparison of models of CPB and Nyfer, a continuation of the discussion of November 2002.
- 18 March 2003 Amsterdam, Comparison of the models of CPB and Nyfer
Continuation of the discussion of 15 November 2002 of the CPB models
introduction dr. Dorien DeTombe
Prof. dr Frank den Butter (VU) comparison of the models of CPB and Nyfer
Discussion
Location: Grote zaal SISWO, Plantage Muidergracht 4, 1018 TV Amsterdam
(Center of Amsterdam, tram 9) tel.+31 20 527 06 50; fax +31 20 622 94 30
email: moot@siswo.uva.nl; www.siswo.uva.nl
- 5-7 May 2003 Luxembourg HCP 2003
14th Mini Euro conference organized by Prof. dr. R. Bisschoff
Conference fee is applied here
16.00-18.00 Monday 5th May Complex Systems
16.00-18.00 Tuesday 6th May EWG Complex Societal Problems
-6-10 July 2003 Turkey, Istanbul Euro/Informs 2003
‘New opportunities for operations research’
See: http://www.istanbul2003.org/main.html
See book of abstracts:
-
DeTombe, Dorien (Ed.) (2003) Complex Societal Problems,Volume 12 ( Book of Abstracts) EURO/INFORMS, Istanbul,Turkey 2003, Amsterdam : Greenhill & Waterfront, Europe: Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Guilford, UK , America: Montreal, Canada ISBN 90-771-71-05- NUGI 661, 652, 659, 852 14 pages
Conference fee is applied here
Special stream on Complex Societal Problems & Ethics
-21 November 2003 Amsterdam Methodology Research
Please send abstracts to DeTombe before 21th of October 2003
Information: SISWO, tel.+31 20 527 06 50; fax +31 20 622 94 30
email: moot@siswo.uva.nl; www.siswo.uva.nl
Published on the topic of Complex Societal Problems
· DeTombe, Dorien J. & Cor van Dijkum (Eds.) (1996) Analyzing Societal Problems. A Methodological Approach. Mering: Rainer Hampp Verlag, 300 pp. ISBN: 3-87988-189-8
· Stuhler, E. & D.J. DeTombe (Eds.) (1999) Volume 5, Cognitive Psychological Issues and Environment Policy Application, Research on Cases and Theories. Munchen/Mering: Hampp Verlag, ISBN: 3-87988-355-6
· DeTombe, D.J. & Stuhler, E. (Eds.) (1999) Volume 6, Complex Problem Solving; Methodological Support for Societal Policy Making, Research on Cases and Theories. Munchen/Mering: Hampp Verlag, ISBN:3-87988-356-4
· Dijkum van, Cor, Dorien DeTombe, & Etzel van Kuijck (Eds.) (1999) Validation of simulation models. Amsterdam: Siswo, ISBN: 90-676-152-2
· DeTombe, Dorien J. (Guest Editor) (2001) Handling Complex Societal Problems, European Journal of Operation Research; Vol. 128-2, pp.227-458, 16 January 2001, Elsevier, North-Holland, Amsterdam
· DeTombe, Dorien J. (2001) (Ed.). Complexity as a Challenge Book of Abstracts, Volume 9. EURO 2001. Pp.38. Delft: Delft University of Technology. ISBN 90-5638-080-X
· DeTombe, Dorien J. (2001) (Ed.) Handling Complex Societal Problems. Book of Abstracts, Volume 10. Pp.18, EUROSIM2001. Delft: Delft University of Technology. ISBN 90-5638-081-8
· DeTombe, Dorien J. (2002) (Ed.) Complexity as a Challenge Book of Abstracts, IFORS 2002 , Edinburgh, UK, Volume 11; Amsterdam : Greenhill & Waterfront, Europe: Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Guilford, UK, America: Montreal, Canada ISBN 90-77171-03-7, NUGI 661, 652, 659, 852
See for more information: www.geocities.com/doriendetombe
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Corresp. address:
Prof. Dr. Dorien J. DeTombe, President Founder and Chair International - , Euro - , West-Euro- & Dutch Operational Research Research Group Complex Societal Problems & Issues Sichuan University, Chengdu, P.R. China
Ó Dorien J. DeTombe, All rights reserved, update September 2003