IFSR Newsletter 2012 Vol. 29 No. 1 September
Ricardo Frías, Ricardo Barrera, Enrique G. Herrscher
The first “Conversations of the Extreme South” were organized by the National Universities of Tierra del Fuego and of Patagonia and sponsored by The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (through the presence of its President Matjaz Mulej of Maribor University) and by several Systems Organizations of the region (GESI – Buenos Aires; FundArIngenio – Santiago del Estero; CESDES – Patagonia, all from Argentina; and the Systems Group of Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil). As a result, this “Ushuaia Initiative” is hereby shown to the Latin American community in general and specially to interested parties at Tierra del Fuego
FIRST: Inspired by the “Conversations” that have been taking place each two years in Austria for more than 30 years, and by the “Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity (signed in 1994 at the Convento da Arrabida, Portugal, by Basarab Nicolescu, Lima da Freitas and Edgar Morin, among others), during four days a group of enthusiastic researchers of systems thinking, complexity and transdisciplinarity have been searching for consensus about the application of transdisciplinarity to diverse areas.
SECOND: The meeting started the March 27th 2012 with the presence of the Governor of the Province of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida and Islands of the South Atlantic, Ms. Fabiana Ríos, and the Rector of the National University of Tierra del Fuego, Prof. Roberto Domecq. Their inaugural speeches stated with great knowledge the importance of interrelation, of harmonization of diversity and of integration of social, economic and political values in order to obtain a better quality of life.
THIRD: The themes subject to conversation during these four days at the premises of the School of Engineering of the University of Patagonia were:
- how to introduce the notion of transdisciplinarity concept and practices into the primary and secondary school;
- how to introduce the trans disciplinary concept and practice into the Universities;
- how to approach the future of complex systems in Ibero America; and
- how to cope with the complexity of public policies in the countries of Ibero America.
FOURTH: Beyond the themes dealt with on this occasion, the process of “conversing” about them (as opposed to the speeches and papers of traditional conferences) developed the art of listening, of understanding “the other one”, of putting oneself in the shoes of someone else, and of achieving a non confrontative communication searching for points of consensus, thus recovering an ancient natural habit of the human being that helps integration.
FIFTH: The supporting institutions will collaborate to issue a report on the activity performed, and will start soon to organize the “Second Conversations of the Extreme South”, to take place at Ushuaia in April 2013, with the theme: “Through Disciplines and Through Generations”. As from that year, these meetings will take place in the city of Ushuaia everys two years.
Ushuaia, 30th. March 2012