Richards L. D. & Young R. K. (1996) Propositions on cybernetics and social transformation: Implications of von Foerster’s non-trivial machine for knowledge processes. Systems Research 13(3): 363–370. https://cepa.info/2788
Heinz von Foerster’s distinction between trivial and non-trivial machines is extended by identifying three types of non-trivial machine. These distinctions are used to weave together 19 propositions on cybernetics and social transformation. The propositions offer a foundation for research on knowledge processes and the technology of knowledge. This research is characterized by questions that von Foerster has referred to as ‘undecidable questions’: questions which only we can decide; and the propositions are stated in such a way as to emphasize that. It is suggested that everyone has the ability to participate in social transformation and that cybernetics points to an opportunity to do so in a particular way. Heinz von Foerster, through both his work and his persona, has made this perspective possible.
Young R. A. & Collin A. (2004) Introduction: Constructivism and social constructionism in the career field. Journal of Vocational Behaviour 64(3): 373–388.
The impact of constructivism and social constructionism upon vocational psychology has often been through the use of the more generic “constructivism.” In this article constructivism is distinguished by its focus on how the individual cognitively engages in the construction of knowledge from social construction which claims that knowledge and meaning are historically and culturally constructed through social processes and action. The considerable ambiguity in the use of these terms is also discussed. Their contributions, challenges, and opportunities to the career field’s dominant discourses are examined: the dispositions discourse, the contextualizing discourse, the subjectivity and narrative discourse, and the process discourse. Broader challenges and opportunities for the field are also noted. The historical construction of knowledge, concern with language, action, and process problematize traditional understandings of career. They raise opportunities to question fundamental assumptions, focus on context, culture, the person–environment interaction, and practice.