Aleco Christakis

Aleco Christakis Years of service 1/10/2008-13/10/2015 Service type Past Board Member Member of Advisory Board for Act Beyond Borders 2010-2013 Past Member of N.E.T.S. Board of Trustees 2014-2015 Past Member of N.E.T.S. Academic Staff Field(s) of Study BA in theoretical physics,Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics University(ies) Princeton University, Yale University Specialization(s) Social scientist, Systems scientist, Cyberneticist Notable Achievements Co-founder of the science of dialogic design External Links External Link(s)

For a detailed curriculum vitae of Dr. Christakis click: Full CV.

Short Bio

Aleco Christakis, has >40 years experience in developing and testing methods for engaging stakeholders in productive dialogue. In the late 70s he collaborated with Hasan Özbekhan and Erich Jantsch in conceptualising the original prospectus of the Club of Rome, which is titled The Predicament of Mankind. He is the author of over 100 papers on stakeholder participation, books such as How People Harness their Collective Wisdom (with Kenneth Bausch) and The Talking Point: Creating an Environment for Exploring Complex Meaning (with Tom Flanagan) . He is past President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (2002). He is member of the Board of the Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), Advisor to the AIO and a advisor to the Ambassador’s leadership program for engaging tribal leaders from the USA and internationally. He travels across the globe to facilitate structured dialogues and promote the Science of Dialogic Design.

Collaboration with Future Worlds Center

Yiannis Laouris invited Aleco Christakis many times in Cyprus to interact with the Future Worlds Center team. Between 2008 and October 2015 Aleco served as Member of the Board. He also served for a short period of time in the N.E.T.S. Board of Trustees and the N.E.T.S. Academic Staff.

Collaboration in projects

Civil Society Dialogue Project in Cyprus

Aleco first collaborated with Future Worlds Center in 2006 in the context of the Civil Society Dialogue Project in Cyprus, a project coordinated by the Cyprus EU Association and the Cyprus Intercultural Training Initiative with the Institute for 21st Century Agoras as partner. He co-facilitated a number of Structured Democratic Dialogue Process co-laboratories together with his associate Kevin Dye and Cypriots Yiannis Laouris, Marios Michaelides, Ilke Dagli, Mustafa Damdelen and Derya Beyatli. In addition to co-facilitating Co-Laboratories, Aleco provided mentorship and training in the Science of Dialogic Design. Thr results were published in multiple peer-reviewed articles (see below).

Local Authorities Project

Between 2009-2010 Aleco collaborated with Future Worlds Center in the implementation of five out of ten co-laboratories across Cyprus to diagnose the educational and training needs of the local authorities with the aim of upgrading the operation of local governance in Cyprus. The project was in collaboration with Cyprus International Institute of Management and Price Waterhouse Coopers (Cyprus) in the context of Tender: Provision of Services for the Diagnosis of Learning and Development Needs for the Local Authorities of the Cyprus Republic.

Act Beyond Borders

In 2010, Aleco led the facilitation team during a six daylong co-laboratory, which marked the launch of 3-year project Act Beyond Borders. The results of the co-laboratory guided the subsequent creation of multi-stakeholder action groups, training of local trainers, and multiple series of basic and advanced civil society strengthening workshops, which eventually engaged actively a few thousand Palestinians and Israelis in collaboratively developing and organizing joint projects and actions.

Collaborating in SDDP Training Schools

Between 2009 and 2012 he co-organized with Yiannis Laouris and taught taught five ( 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) International SDDP Facilitators Training Schools.

Collaborating in teaching SDDP for Certified Systemic Analyst Professional program

In 2010 and 2011 Aleco and Yiannis Laouris taught the theory and practice of the Science of Dialogic Design to the students of the Certified Systemic Analyst Professional postgraduate program hosted by the Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies and the University of Piraeus under the leadership of Nikitas Assimakopoulos.

Collaboration in developing 2nd generation ISM software

In 2010, Aleco collaborated with Yiannis Laouris and virtually all key members of the GlobalAgoras in organizing a series of virtual SDDP co-Laboratories with the Triggering Question: "In anticipation of the evolution of the Internet and other interactive technology platforms (social networks etc...) what should be the requirements for the next generation of Cogniscope/ Webscope software (CSIII) for the enhanced and scaled-up practice of SDD? The results are documented in SDDP Design of the next generation Cogniscope/Webscope. In 2012, Aleco Christakis donated the code of Cogniscope Software and its rights to Future Worlds Center, which upgraded it to include the new requirements proposed and made it available for free to the community.

Selected Publications

Christakis has published over 100 papers on the management of complexity in refereed journals. He is also the co-author of three books on "Technology Assessment". Books:

• Christakis, A. N. (2005). Pragmatic Design Dialogue.
• Christakis, A. N. (1970). "The Predicament of Mankind Quest for Structured Responses for Growing World-wide Complexities and Uncertainties". With co-authors like Hasan Özbekhan, Erich Jantsch, Peccei, ...and others (PDF)
• Christakis, A. N. (1987). John N. Warfield, and Christakis, A.N. "Dimensionality," Systems Research 4, pp. 127–137
• Christakis, A. N. (2004). "Retrospective Inquiry of the predicament of menkind prospectus of the Club of Rome"
• Christakis, A. N. (2009). Interview: Learnings and Vistas based on revisiting 40 years of the "Global Problematique" [2] Interview in Europe'sWorld by Heiner Benking [3], November
• Christakis, A. N. (2011). Interview: The Predicament of the Individual, Communities, and Humankind in the 21st Century[4] by Heiner Benking [5], September

Publications with Yiannis Laouris

Aleco's work with Future Worlds Center was documented in several publications:

• Laouris Y., Underwood, G., Laouri, R., Christakis A. (2010). Structured dialogue embedded within a emerging technologies. In: Using Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, Veletsianos G. (Ed), Distance Education series, Athabasca University, Canada Ch 8, 153-173.
• Laouris, Y., Taraszow, T., Damdelen, M., Dagli, I., Beyatlı, D., Karayiannis,, A., Dye, K. & Christakis, A. (2015). Application of the Structured Dialogic Design Process to Examining Economic Integration and Free Trade in Cyprus. ALARj 21 (1) 11-52.
• Laouris, Y., Siita, G, Roe, P., Emiliani, P-L., Christakis, A. (2011). Virtual Structured Dialogic Design as Tool for Analysis of Threats before Implementing European Dialogues Aiming to Identify R&D Gaps in Assistive ICT. In C. Stephanidis (Ed.): Universal Access in HCI, Part I, HCII 2011, LNCS 6765, pp. 492–497, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
• Laouris, Y., Michaelides, M. Damdelen, M., Laouri, R., Beyatli, D., and Christakis, A. (2009). A systemic evaluation of the state of affairs following the negative outcome of the referendum in Cyprus using a structured design process. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22, 45-75.
• Laouris, Y., Erel, A., Michaelides, M,. Damdelen, M., Taraszow, T., Dagli, I., Laouri, R. and Christakis, A. (2009). Exploring options for enhancement of social dialogue between the Turkish and Greek communities in Cyprus using the Structured Dialogic Design Process. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22, 361–381.
• Laouris, Y. and Christakis, A. (2007). Harnessing collective wisdom at a fraction of the time using Structured Dialogic Design Process in a virtual communication context Int. J. Applied Systemic Studies, 1(2), 131–153.
• Laouris, Y., Laouri, R. and Christakis, A. (2008). Communication praxis for ethical accountability; The ethics of the tree of action. Syst Res Behav Sci 25(2), 331–348.
• Laouris, Y., Dye, K. M.C. , Michaelides, M., and Christakis, S.N. Co-laboratories of Democracy: Best Choices for Designing Sustainable Futures (2014) In: G.S. Metcalf (ed.), Social Systems and Design, Translational Systems Sciences 1, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-54478-4_7, Springer Japan. 175-193.
• Laouris Y., Underwood, G., Laouri, R., Christakis A. (2010). Structured dialogue embedded within a hybrid WiKi - synchronous communication technologies environment in the service of distance learning In: Using Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, Veletsianos G. (Ed), Distance Education series, Athabasca University, Canada Chapter 8: 153-173.

Links to videos

• Aleco Christakis at TEDx Heraklion

External Links

• Aleco Christakis at Wikipedia
• Aleco Christakis at the Global Agoras
• Aleco Christakis at Linkedin