Policymaking, Communication, and Social Learning: Essays of Sir Geoffrey VickersTransaction Publishers, 1987 M01 1 - 202 pages Policymaking, Communication, and Social Learning presents Sir Geoffrey Vickers's seminal essays on policymaking and related issues facing modern Western culture. These essays, many of them published here for the first time, illustrate the range of Sir Geoffrey's thought, and also articulate certain recurrent themes. He portrays a unique view of policymaking, building on his notion of "appreciation" and focusing on the processes of reflection and communication in setting and changing the tacit norms which govern our conduct. These themes culminate in his perception of the emerging challenges facing the professions, and in what he sees as the educational requirements implied by these challenges. Vickers was a master of the English language. He writes vividly, blending concrete example with more general statement. As a result, this volume will appeal to a wide audience concerned with issues of public governance, regulation, communication, ecology, value conflict and resolution, the modern role of the professions, education, and ethics. |
Contents
| 13 | |
Evolving Priorities | 31 |
Norms and Meanings | 39 |
Reflective Consciousness | 50 |
The Tacit Norm | 68 |
COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS | 83 |
Communication and Ethical Judgment | 85 |
Communication and Appreciation | 96 |
The Ecology of Culture | 126 |
The Ecology of Ethics | 136 |
SOCIAL LEARNING AND THE PROFESSIONS | 143 |
The Changing Nature of the Professions | 145 |
Practice and Research in Managing Human Systems | 166 |
Educational Criteria for Times of Change | 168 |
Education for Systems Thinking | 182 |
Bibliography | 191 |
Common terms and phrases
acceptable action activities Adolph Lowe analysis appreciative system behavior biological Buchanan Report century Christopher Alexander client competent complex concept conceptual world concerned conflict constraints context course criteria culture cybernetic defined depends described developed disparate distinguish ecological effect essay example exercise expectations experience explicit fact field function G. H. Lewes human communication important individual institutions intrapersonal communication involves John Forester knowledge learning least less limitations London means mental Michael Polanyi mind mismatch signals multiple mutual National Coal Board operations organization partly physical planner planning policymaking political possible problem profes professional psychology reflective consciousness regard regulation relations relevant responsibility role schemata scientists seems sense Sir Geoffrey Vickers situation skills social sciences society standards success systems theory systems thinking T. H. Huxley tacit norms teaching technological theory threat tion understanding word
Popular passages
Page 21 - In this case sentences of twenty years' imprisonment have been imposed for the publishing of two leaflets that I believe the defendants had as much right to publish as the Government has to publish the Constitution of the United States now vainly invoked by them.
Page 16 - Since our ideas of regulation were formed in relation to norms which are deemed to be given, they need to be reconsidered in relation to norms which change with the effort made to pursue them
Page 16 - Such judgements disclose what can best be described as a set of readinesses to distinguish some aspects of the situation rather than others and to classify and value these in this way rather than in that.
Page 14 - ... governing body will realize how much trouble is taken to present the major variables as flows in the dimension of time. It seems odd to me that while this is familiar to administrators and engineers, psychologists should still present 'goal-seeking' as the normal if not the only type of rational behaviour; for to explain a 'doing' solely by reference to its intended results would seem to raise insoluble pseudoconflicts between 'ends and means', rules and purposes, while it leaves the ongoing...