Metaphorum was initially created by some of Stafford’s closest collaborators when he passed away in 2002, to continue developing his legacy, as a result of the ‘Staffordian Syntegration: A Tribute to Stafford Beer’, at Scarborough Management Centre, Hull University, England, in June the 13th- 14th, 2003. The Syntegration was organised by Angela Espinosa – in collaboration with Allena Leonard, Joe Truss and C Cullen and sponsored by the University of Hull Business School.
One of the infosets suggested creating the Metaphorum to continue developing Stafford’s legacy. Metaphorum was then created as a members’ association aiming to continue developing and disseminating Stafford’s legacy.
Outbound Communication
Metaphorum members have organized a series of conferences and workshops over the years, where a growing number of interested people have joined the Metaphorum Community and have presented their research and practice in organizational cybernetics. As a result of the conferences, Metaphorum has produced special issues in systems and cybernetic journals.
The Metaphorum webpage as well as the Metaphorum Listserv were subsequently created to disseminate information and allow the communication and discussion among members. Metaphorum has also collaborated with the Cwarel Isaf Institute at different levels to promote its work.
Since 2020 Metaphorum has been developing a Webinar Series with a webinar offered by its members monthly. The webinars are free to attend, and have counted with a very good attendance over the years. The Metaphorum You Tube channel offers access to the recording of all the webinars.
Metaphorum Leadership
Initially Metaphorum was led by Angela Espinosa, A Moscardini and L Solomons. Later on Allena Leonard, R Harnden and P Stokes also joined the Steering Committee. Since 2020, Angela Espinosa, Jon Walker and Allena Leonard have led the Metaphorum, in collaboration with the Steering Committee which have included several volunteers, from those attending each on the yearly conference. Peter Tuddenham has been supporting the recording of videos for the conferences and the webinar series. Mark Lambertz, John Waters and more recently Krishan Mathis have led the development of our website.
The Metaphorum Community
As a result of the 2022 Conference in Leuven, Belgium, we decided to further develop the Metaphorum, and begun a process of designing the new Metaphorum. This effort is now coming to a fruition with the decision of redesigning the Metaphorum Community and registering Metaphorum Cooperative Inc a trading company, redeveloping its webpage, and starting offering certification services, initially for education and coaching on the Viable System Model.
This site is a work in progress that aims to offer an integrated platform where we can continue our discussions, offer a repository of information and news of interest for the Metaphorum community and allow improved communication among its members.
We aim to offer a rich variety of curated resources to learn about Stafford Beer, Organisational Cybernetics in general, and specifically about the Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity, Stafford’s main contributions to Operational Research and Management Sciences.
Contact
Metaphorum Community
3 Laurel Bank Lowestwood Lane
Golcar Huddersfield HD7 4ER
contact@metaphorum.org