"100 YEARS OF STAFFORD BEER"

ANNIVERSARY PROJECT

As mentioned before the Metaphorum Cooperative is leading a global centenary celebration of Stafford Beer's  life and his contributions to science, business and society. 

The ‘100 Years of Stafford Beer’ project will include:

• The development of a video documentary celebrating 'the visionary who fused science, art, and spirit to reimagine society’. The project team includes Vanilla Beer, Allenna Leonard, Jon Walker, Malik Radwan, Angela Espinosa, Pedro Pablo Cardoso, and Bruno Vaz. We are actively seeking funding for this project and after the New Year we will launch our campaigns to fund the project. This will include a GoFundMe project, to which you will be invited.
• A  ‘100 Years of Stafford Beer - Festschrift’ online book - to be freely downloadable in the Creative Commons. Invited authors have sent abstracts and we expect them to present their chapters in our annual conference in 2026.  The book is edited by Markus Schwaninger,  Jose Perez Rios and Angela Espinosa, with editorial assistants Camilo Osejo Bucheli, Juliana Alves, Stephen Harwood, Ayham Fattoum, Pedro Pablo Cardoso and Iffat Sabir. It will be produced by Nariño University Press (Colombia).
• The Metaphorum conference 2026 -see below for more details

SAVE THE DATE!!!

METAPHORUM CONFERENCE

A 100 Years of Stafford Beer - Celebrating his Legacy and Future Developments

September 17th to 19th, 2026

The Metaphorum conference 2026 will be hosted at the University of Manchester (Alliance Manchester Business School). We are hoping to organise a trip to the Stafford Beer collection in John Moore University in Liverpool before the conference.

We will organise the conference in collaboration with the World Organization for Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) and the Centre for Systems Studies (University of Hull).

Who we are inviting

All are welcome, but especially:

• Relatives and collaborators who knew Stafford personally and will share insights into his life and character.

• Researchers advancing his legacy by: 

o adapting and progressing his original thinking through contemporary systems, management, operational research and behavioural sciences, or

o developing and implementing innovative cybersystemic methodologies and tools.

• Consultants and practitioners who continue to apply and evolve his theories through creative and impactful applications.

We will announce shortly the journals where papers from this conference will be published.

Conference highlights

The conference features:

• Documentary screening: ‘100 Years of Stafford Beer’, as described above. 

• Launching the Festschrift Book: '100 Years of Stafford Beer'. 

• Participants' contributions: We invite presentations on innovative developments and creative applications of  Beer’s theory and methods. In particular on how his legacy continues to inspire change in business and society to address the big challenges we are facing. 

o  Steering Committee: Angela Espinosa, Jon Walker, Ayham Fattoum, Juliana Alves, Camilo Osejo, Stephen Harwood and Iffat Sabir.

Be part of this unique celebration of Stafford Beer’s centenary and shaping the future of Organisational Cybernetics. Registration opens January 2026 — mark your calendar!

Pre-Centennial Events

• Special stream at the conference ‘Systems Thinking and Systems Practice conference’ (24–26 March 2026), organised by the CSS (Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull), SCiO and the IFSR (International Federation for Systems Research).  The stream will be on Stafford Beer’s contributions to Systems Thinking and Systems Practice, and will be led by Angela Espinosa.

• Special Stream at ISSS 2026:  ‘Elevating Systems Sciences to address humanity biggest challenges’ on June 22-26, 2026, Cyprus (theme to be confirmed, led by Allenna Leonard).

• Special stream at ASC (American Society of Cybernetics): 'Viable Confluences: 100 Years of Stafford Beer in Conversation with Latin America', led by Juliana Alves, at the ASC annual meeting in Brazil (2-7 August 2026).

• Special Stream at OR68 (Operational Research Society 2026 conference) -  ‘From Data to Decisions: The Power of Operational Research’ in Nottingham, September 8th-10th 2026. The stream will be on ‘the evolving landscape of Stafford Beer’s theories revealed through decades of practice’, led by Angela Espinosa.  

Forthcoming webinar. 

Steve Morlidge, 'Ashby and me'. 

January 7th, 5:00-6:30 pm (UK wintertime)

Our first webinar this year is by Steve Morlidge, on 'Ashby and me'. It will be on January the 7th, 5:00-6:30 pm. Here is the abstract:

Like most people in this community I suspect, I first encounter Ross Ashby's 'Law of Requisite variety' through Stafford Beer, who regarded it as the foundational concept upon which his cybernetic work was built. As a result, one of the first books I read when I started my PhD was Ashby's ‘Introduction to Cybernetics'. Subsequently, whenever I have given presentations on my own work, I have always avoided explaining its significance since I assumed that my audience was as familiar with this as me: and I didn't want to patronise them or embarrass myself. Over the years I have, however, come to the view that I was wrong. If they were aware at all most people have got beyond the aphorism 'only variety absorbs variety' which, as it turns out, is misleading at best. In this talk I will explore the significance, limitations and implications of Ashby's Law through the lens of my personal journey. Along the way I will explain the importance of qua specification, debate whether it is a 'law’ at all, and explore the relationship between cybernetics and complexity science.

You can participate by clicking 'participate' at the webinar description at this link:

https://metaphorum.org/upcoming-webinars

See there also forthcoming webinars this semester