{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T11:05:35Z","timestamp":1774436735916,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":94,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]],"date-time":"2020-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1595462400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["K"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This study aims to explore the ideas of Husserl and Gadamer as a possible basis of future soft systems methods of enquiry.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In Part one, the author has taken up the argument that soft systems is underpinned by Husserl\u2019s phenomenology. The implication of this contention is an acceptance of subjectivity, and that our understanding the world is based upon personal experience. A consequence of this thinking renders predetermined models of the world to be deficient because each situation is unique. Instead of seeking a \u201csolution\u201d, the soft systems investigator engenders a cycle of learning as a means of gaining greater understanding. This means that a soft systems inquiry involves exploring the situation with those involved as a means of reaching an informed way forward. In this second paper, the author continues to explore Husserl\u2019s phenomenology and also consider Gadamer\u2019s ideas on hermeneutics and the importance of the \u201ccycle of learning\u201d that is central to any soft systems inquiry. The study concludes with a summary of points that, the author suggests, should be considered when undertaking a \u201csoft\u201d systems inquiry and in the development of any methodology that may enable it.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Both papers explore the phenomenological ideas of Husserl and the relationship to soft systems. In paper one, the basis of this exploration was Checkland's assertion that phenomenology could be the basis of soft systems. In the second paper, the author takes this further by exploring Gadamer's ideas on hermeneutics and reflect upon the possibility of blending them with Husserl's thinking.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>I had some difficulty in tracking down the published work relating to the development of soft systems, notably the <jats:italic>Journal of Applied Systems Analysis<\/jats:italic>. This journal was published by Lancaster University and covered more than 20\u2009years of debate and provides an important record of its development. The author managed to find what might be the only compete set at the University of Southampton. This allowed the author to gain some understanding of the development of the thinking. Since the late 20th century, the number of publications on soft ideas has been severely limited, seemingly reflecting the dominance of reductionist science. It seems timely for such a paper as this to help initiate further debate.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>As indicated above \u2013 the difficulty is finding early journal publications where the ideas and their relationship to the action research programme emerged. Checkland himself, with whom the author has always enjoyed a close relationship, has, at the age of 90, withdrawn from academic activity; the early papers in the <jats:italic>Journal of Applied Systems Analysis<\/jats:italic> are probably the only \u201cevidence\u201d of the developing ideas at that time. Checkland has summarised the development (see references in the author\u2019s two papers), but these early documents have the advantage of being written by a variety of scholars at the time rather than a single source.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Social implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The current crisis of the corona virus demonstrates the strength and the limitations of reductionist thinking. It is appropriate at this time that other methods and ideas of thinking about complexity are \u201cvisible\u201d. Whilst there are many ideas, techniques, methods and so on in systems, these come from a common base, namely, to accept a world as tangible and easily modelled; adopting and alternative way of thinking can be challenging and healthy.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Soft systems thinking is 50\u2009years old, but there has been virtually no progress since the soft systems methodology (SSM) emerged of Husserl and Gadamer in the 1970-1990s; such is the dominance of this methodology. This paper attempts to revisit the early thinking and consider what soft systems thinking means rather than focus on SSM.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/k-05-2020-0281","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,4]],"date-time":"2020-08-04T06:08:53Z","timestamp":1596521333000},"page":"1553-1565","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Part two: the challenges of a soft systems inquiry. Integrating Husserl and Gadamer"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"50","author":[{"given":"Frank","family":"Stowell","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref001","volume-title":"Aristotle, the Politics","year":"1981"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref002","volume-title":"The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision","year":"2014"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref003","volume-title":"Systems Thinking, Systems Practice","year":"1981"},{"issue":"9","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"757","DOI":"10.1057\/jors.1985.141","article-title":"From optimizing to learning: a development of systems thinking for the 1990\u2019s","volume":"36","year":"1985","journal-title":"The Journal of the Operational Research Society"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref005","volume-title":"Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, a Thirty-Year Retrospective","year":"1999"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref006","volume-title":"Learning for Action","year":"2006"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref007","volume-title":"The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations","year":"1971"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref008","unstructured":"Cooray, S. (2010), \u201cEnd user driven development of information systems: Revisiting Vickers notion of appreciation\u201d, PhD Thesis: University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth."},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref009","article-title":"Introduction to the human sciences","volume-title":"Princeton Paperbacks","year":"1991"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref010","volume-title":"Wilhelm Dilthey: The Critique of Historical Reason","year":"1978"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref011","volume-title":"Truth and Method","year":"2004","edition":"2nd ed."},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref012","unstructured":"Hart, P.J. (2014), \u201cInvestigating issues influencing knowledge sharing in a research organisation using AIM\u201d, Thesis (unpublished), University of Portsmouth."},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref013","volume-title":"Being and Time","year":"1962"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1177\/000169938803100203","article-title":"The genesis of max weber\u2019s verstehende soziologie","volume":"31","year":"1988","journal-title":"Acta Sociologica"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref015","volume-title":"Cartesian Meditations an Introduction to Phenomenology","year":"1960"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref016","volume-title":"Gadamer, a Guide for the Perplexed","year":"2006"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref017","unstructured":"McIvor, D.W. (2018), \u201cWeltanschauung\u201d, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.Encyclopedia.com, 8 September, available at: www.encyclopedia.com"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.4018\/ijss.2014070101","article-title":"Systems approaches enable improved collaboration in two regional Australian natural resource governance situations","volume":"1","year":"2014","journal-title":"International Journal of Systems and Society"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref019","article-title":"Wilhelm Dilthey, Stamford encyclopedia of philosophy","year":"2016"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref020","article-title":"Reaching a community consensus on reforms for more sustainable urban water management systems: the case of kapitu, New Zealand","volume-title":"Systems Research for Real World Challenges","year":"2018"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref021","volume-title":"Introduction to Phenomenology","year":"1999"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref022","volume-title":"Images of Organization","year":"1986"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref023","volume-title":"The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem","year":"2016"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref022a","article-title":"Phenomenology","volume-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","year":"2018"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref024","volume-title":"The Managers Guide to Systems Practice, Making Sense of Complex Problems","year":"2012"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref025","first-page":"583","article-title":"An assessment of the merits of scientific action research","volume":"23","year":"1978","journal-title":"Administrative Science Quarterly"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref026","volume-title":"The Art of Judgement","year":"1983"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref013a","volume-title":"Existentialism","year":"1970"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref027","unstructured":"West, D. (1991), \u201cTowards a subjective knowledge elicitation methodology for the development of expert systems\u201d, Thesis (unpublished), University of Portsmouth."},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref028","volume-title":"The Blue and Brown Books","year":"1987"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref029","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S0377-2217(77)81003-5","article-title":"Optimization + objectivity = opt out","volume":"1","year":"1977","journal-title":"European Journal of Operational Research"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref030","volume-title":"Existentialism","year":"2005"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref031","volume-title":"The Methodology of the Social Sciences","year":"2011"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref032","volume-title":"The Art of Problem Solving","year":"1978"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref033","volume-title":"Diagnosing the System for Organisations","year":"1985"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref034","volume-title":"An Introduction to Husserlian Phenomenology","year":"1993"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref035","volume-title":"The Hidden Connections","year":"2003"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref036","first-page":"288","article-title":"Towards a systems based methodology for real world problems solving","volume-title":"Systems Behaviour","year":"1972"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref037","first-page":"3","article-title":"Vickers concept of appreciative system; a systemic account","volume":"13","year":"1986","journal-title":"Journal of Applied Systems Analysis"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref038","volume-title":"Soft Systems Methodology in Action","year":"1990"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref039","volume-title":"The Systems Approach and Its Enemies","year":"1979"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref040","volume-title":"Philosophical Hermeneutics","year":"1976"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref041","volume-title":"Thinking through Systems Thinking","year":"2007"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref042","article-title":"The theory of communicative action","volume-title":"Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason","year":"1987"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref043","article-title":"T\u00f6nnies","volume-title":"Community and Civil Society","year":"2009"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref044","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"323","DOI":"10.1007\/s10746-013-9278-9","article-title":"Alfred Schutz\u2019 theory of communicative action","volume":"36","year":"2013","journal-title":"Human Studies"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref045","article-title":"Aristotle's ethics","volume-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition)","year":"2018"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref046","volume-title":"Discovering Existence with Husserl","year":"1998"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref047","volume-title":"Wittgenstein, and the Philosophical Investigations","year":"1997"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref048","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"99","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1475-682X.1981.tb01032.x","article-title":"Edmund Husserl\u2019s impact on max weber","volume":"51","year":"1981","journal-title":"Sociological Inquiry"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref049","volume-title":"Objective Knowledge","year":"1983","edition":"2nd edition"},{"issue":"6","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref050","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"499","DOI":"10.1177\/001872677002300601","article-title":"Three dilemmas in action research","volume":"23","year":"1970","journal-title":"Human Relations"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref051","volume-title":"The Concept of the Mind","year":"1990"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref052","first-page":"1919","article-title":"Becoming a philosopher: what Heidegger learned from Dilthey","volume":"21","year":"2013","journal-title":"British Journal for the History of Philosophy"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref053","volume-title":"Collected Papers V. Phenomenology and the Social Sciences","year":"2011","edition":"2011 edition"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref054","first-page":"15","article-title":"The poverty of problem solving","volume":"8","year":"1981","journal-title":"Journal of Applied Systems Analysis"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref055","volume-title":"Rethinking the Future","year":"1991"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref056","article-title":"\u2018Objectivity\u2019 in social science and social policy","volume-title":"Max Weber\u2019s Methodology of the Social Sciences","year":"1908"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref057","volume-title":"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism","year":"2012"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref058","article-title":"From data to wisdom","volume":"1","year":"1989","journal-title":"Journal of Applied Systems Analysis"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref059","volume-title":"The Jargon of Authenticity","year":"1973"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref060","volume-title":"Against Epistemology: A Metacritique","year":"1982"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref061","volume-title":"The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge","year":"1967"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref062","article-title":"The experience of system design: a hermeneutic of organisational action","volume":"5","year":"1989","journal-title":"Scandinavian Journal of Management"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref063","volume-title":"Aspects of the Theory of Syntax","year":"1965"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref064","volume-title":"Organisation\/Disorganization, in the Theory and Philosophy of Organisations","year":"1990"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref065","volume-title":"A Theory of Semiotics","year":"1976"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref066","volume-title":"The Name of the Rose","year":"2004"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref067","volume-title":"Against Method","year":"1993","edition":"2nd edition"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref068","volume-title":"The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structure","year":"1984"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref069","article-title":"The black box vol iii, 39 steps","year":"2009"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref070","volume-title":"Man and His Symbols","year":"1968"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref071","volume-title":"Essay on Human Understanding","year":"1964"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref072","volume-title":"The Tree of Knowledge","year":"1987"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref073","volume-title":"Systemic Intervention","year":"2000"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref074","volume-title":"The Phenomenology Reader","year":"2004"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref075","volume-title":"Designing Human Systems","year":"1983"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref076","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1177\/002188638402000203","article-title":"The origins and status of action research","volume":"20","year":"1984","journal-title":"The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref077","article-title":"The psychology of intelligence (Routledge classics) paperback","year":"2001"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref078","volume-title":"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance","year":"1989"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref079","volume-title":"Order out of Chaos. Man\u2019s New Dialogue with Nature","year":"1985"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref080","volume-title":"Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research","year":"1981"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref081","volume-title":"The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics","year":"1974"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref082","article-title":"Hermeneutics: restoration of meaning or reduction of illusion","volume-title":"Critical Sociology, Selected Readings","year":"1976"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref083","volume-title":"Speech Acts","year":"1969"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref084","first-page":"267","article-title":"Organisational semiotics","volume-title":"Information Systems: An Emerging Discipline?","year":"1997"},{"issue":"6","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref085","first-page":"883","article-title":"Soft systems and research","volume":"38","year":"2009","journal-title":"Kybernetes"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2024071512201536400_ref086","first-page":"87","article-title":"Hermeneutics and organisational inquiry","volume":"15","year":"1993","journal-title":"Systemist"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref087","article-title":"Hermeneutics and politics","volume-title":"Critical Sociology, Selected Readings","year":"1976"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref088","volume-title":"Critical Hermeneutics: A Study in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur and Jurgen Habermas","year":"1981"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref089","volume-title":"Community and Civil Society","year":"2009"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref090","volume-title":"The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation","year":"1947"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref091","volume-title":"Cybernetics","year":"1948"},{"key":"key2024071512201536400_ref092","volume-title":"The Recent Work of Jurgen Habermas","year":"1988"}],"container-title":["Kybernetes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/K-05-2020-0281\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/K-05-2020-0281\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T21:48:16Z","timestamp":1753393696000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/k\/article\/50\/5\/1553-1565\/452584"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]]},"references-count":94,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/K-05-2020-0281"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/k-05-2020-0281","relation":{},"ISSN":["0368-492X","0368-492X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0368-492X","type":"print"},{"value":"0368-492X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]]}}}