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

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

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. Aleco provided mentorship and training in the science.

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.

In 2010, they collaborated 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 Cognitive Software and its rights to Future Worlds Center, which upgraded it to include the new requirements developed by 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