Werner Ulrich's Home Page:  Welcome

Lake Thun, Switzerland,

Welcome to

Werner Ulrich's Home Page

and to the Web site of the

Lugano Summer School of Systems Design

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In this site, I offer materials related to my current academic work, which centers on the philosophy and methodology of reflective professional practice and research. Among the conceptual tools of special relevance to this core topic, I count: philosophy of applied science and expertise; practical philosophy and discourse theory (including discourse ethics); research philosophy; the social study of science and research practice in the context of civil society (science & society studies); management philosophy; and, as an important methodological basis, my own work on critical systems thinking and practice (critical systems heuristics) and critical pragmatism.

Some of my other academic and professional interests, among them the theory and practice of social planning; operational research and management science; evaluation research; public policy analysis; and poverty research, are not central subjects of this site, although they are present in so far as they overlap with the before-mentioned interests. Additional interests such as the theory and practice of deliberative democracy; the promotion of a living civil society; emancipatory civic education (esp. by what I call "critically-heuristic training of citizens"); professional and business ethics; and the nature of critical "information" systems design, along with a basic interest in critical philosophy (esp. Kant), philosophical pragmatism (esp. Peirce), and critical social theory (esp. Habermas), are represented at least partly through material offered under various headings.

You will find here a number of essays that reflect my current work on critical systems thinking (CST) and critical systems heuristics (CSH) with its methodological core concept of systematic boundary critique, including my ongoing research programs on CST for professionals & citizens and on critical pragmatism. Depending on the copyright situation, these essays are partly original publications and partly pre- or post-publication versions of earlier publications. Please observe the copyright details as indicated with each essay and/or refer to the copyright note of this site (see below).

For further information and reference, you find in this site my professional bio, with an additional mini-profile in a drawing and four sentences; a complete list of academic publications; and a list of selected readings. I also offer a selection of papers for free download, as well as an opportunity to order hard copies of some of my publications that are difficult to obtain otherwise.

University of Italian Switzerland
https://www.lss.lu.unisi.ch

An important part of this web site is dedicated to my former academic teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, C.W. Churchman. In this section you will find some tribute papers dedicated to him, as well as some pictures and an extensive bibliography of his writings.

Another major part is the official site of the Lugano Summer School of Systems Design. Although located externally, on the server of the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano, these pages equally stand for one of the core interests that motivate my work and to which this home page is dedicated, I mean the education of future professionals and decision-makers as reflective and responsible practitioners. The Summer School has now ceased operating but its site will be maintained for a while and after that I plan to integrate a few memory pages within the present site.

Ulrich's Bimonthly, the successor of the earlier Picture of the Month series, offers my visitors a personal reflection centered around or illustrated by a photograph that I find inspiring. These reflections may but need not be related to my professional work. They will often amount to fully developed academic essays but may also just offer a personal reflection of a non-academic kind or a seasonal picture. As a rule, the academic essays are offered both in HTML and in PDF format.

At least one main photograph is a mandatory part of each Bimonthly, usually at the bottom of the page. Beginning in the 1950s with a simple 6x9 (B2/120 film) Agfa box camera, I have enjoyed being an amateur photographer for more than half a century now. One of my favorite subsequent cameras (of the 1960s), the Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa, is the subject of one of these monthly reflections and now also serves as the recurring logo of all Bimonthly pages. Today I am photographing with a full-format digital reflex (DSLR) camera that offers me more possibilities than ever to pursue this hobby.

When you hit the "Ulrich's Bimonthly" button in the left-hand menu (on this as on any other page of the site), the latest issue of the Bimonthly will open. Previous issues are accessible either from within the Bimonthly, where you can browse backwards and forwards between the issues by means of the backward/forward arrows that you'll find both at the top and at the bottom of each issue, or through the site map, where you will find a complete and hyperlinked overview of the series; a direct link to this overview can be found in the upper right corner of each Bimonthly page, directly below the backward/forward arrows located there.

The Agfa Box 44

The Vitomatic IIa

Finally, there are some auxiliary pages, namely, a contact page with an email link (anti-spam coded); a fully hyperlinked site map to assist your navigation; and for those visitors who would like to use material from this site, a copyright / copyleft note that you may want to consult before doing so. It comes with an appendix on plagiarism in which I have formulated some guidelines for dealing with the important issue of doing justice to one's sources.

In the box below, you find a hyperlinked overview of the main sections of the site. If you are looking for some other site, here is a direct entry form for a Google search:

I hope you will enjoy this web site. Thanks for stopping by, and best wishes.

Werner Ulrich

This index page last updated 28 Aug 2023 - First published 10 Nov 2002 - (c) 2002-2022 W. Ulrich
Layout last modified 20 Mar 2009; new domain name <wulrich.com> 26 Oct 2009
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