International Society for the Systems Sciences

International Society for the Systems Sciences
Name	International Society for the Systems Sciences
Abbreviation	ISSS
Formation	1956
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International

Contents

International Society for the Systems Sciences is a transdisciplinary scholarly association that convenes researchers and practitioners working in systems-oriented inquiry spanning cybernetics, complexity, and systems thinking. Founded in the mid-20th century alongside movements represented by General Systems Theory, the society has interacted with institutions such as University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Princeton University, and Harvard University while engaging thinkers linked to Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Norbert Wiener, Stafford Beer, Ross Ashby, and Jay Wright Forrester.

History

The society emerged in the context of postwar scientific networks that included events like the World Congress of the International Union of Psychological Science and organizations such as American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Society, International Federation for Systems Research, Society for General Systems Research, and Club of Rome. Early gatherings featured contributors associated with University of Pennsylvania, Case Western Reserve University, Cornell University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University and intersected with projects linked to RAND Corporation, Bell Labs, Brookings Institution, SRI International, and Institute for Advanced Study. Over decades the society adapted to dialogues evident in Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Cybernetics and Human Knowing, Santa Fe Institute, Complexity: A Guided Tour, and conferences akin to Davos Conference and World Economic Forum dialogues.

The society organizes annual conferences comparable in scope to gatherings at International Conference on Systems Engineering, Conference on Complex Systems, SIGCHI Conference, and International Conference on Cybernetics and Systems. Host institutions have included University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore, University of Melbourne, University of Toronto, McGill University, and University of Buenos Aires. Notable keynote contributors have been affiliated with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Harvard Kennedy School, London School of Economics, Yale University, Columbia Business School, and Wharton School.

The society has supported publications and proceedings analogous to titles such as Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Kybernetes, Complexity, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering. Members have published monographs with presses including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer Nature, Routledge, and Wiley-Blackwell. Editorial collaborations parallel those at MIT Press, Stanford University Press, Princeton University Press, SAGE Publications, and Palgrave Macmillan.

Membership structures reflect governance models found at American Philosophical Society, Royal Society of Canada, National Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and International Mathematical Union. Governing bodies of the society have included officers drawn from faculties at California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, University of Manchester, and Heidelberg University, with advisory links to centers such as Santa Fe Institute, Beckman Institute, Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and Centre for Operational Research and Management Studies.

Category:Organizations established in 1956 Category:Learned societies