Introduction

pp. 1-6

in: Robert L. Flood, Liberating systems theory, Berlin, Springer, 1990

Abstract

I have decided to present four insights into Liberating Systems Theory prior to the thesis. Placing these at the end of the book would doom them to neglect, as if they belonged in some quiet backwater, and would miss an opportunity to reveal why the thesis was written. This may seem a little unorthodox, but an underlying purpose of my argument is to promote the idea of breaking away from accepted ways of discourse and other practices — in particular for systems thinking. To do this for the sake of being different would be worthless, but to show that challenge and liberation leads to an enriching of our intellectual and life-worlds is not.