Merrelyn Emery (27 April 1940) is an Australian
social scientist
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
and
adjunct professor
An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...
at Department of Applied Human Sciences,
Concordia University
Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...
, and has a
first class honours
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...
degree from
University of New England (Australia)
The University of New England (UNE) is a public university in New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1938, it was the first Australian university to be established outside of a state capital. Its main campus is located in the regional city of ...
and a PhD from
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949.
The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...
. She is best known for her work with
Fred Emery
Frederick Edmund Emery (August 27, 1925 – April 10, 1997) was an Australian psychologist specializing in the field of organizational development, particularly in the theory of participative work design structures, such as self-managing teams ...
on the theoretical framework called Open Systems Theory (OST),
[Emery, M. (2000). ]
The Current Version of Emery's Open Systems Theory
', Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2000 - Springer. including refinement of the related Search Conference
participative planning process and Participative Design Workshop methodology, both which are part of the dialogic
organization development
Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify a group's/organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational chang ...
toolset.
Since 1970, she has worked to develop both the theory and methods of
open systems using
action research
Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical refle ...
with organizations and communities. She was a faculty member at
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
and has served on several diverse community and educational organizations around the world.
She regards humans as "innately social animals; we grow only according to the density of interconnections we share with a group," and that "the basic unit of society is the group, not the individual". These groups, be it families, communities, and organizations, is in OST seen as an open social system that transacts with its environment, the external social field, and co-evolution and active adaptation is needed for sustainability and harmony.
Socioecology
Socioecology is the scientific study of how social structure and organization are influenced by an organism's environment. Socioecology is primarily related to anthropology, geography, sociology, and ecology. Specifically, the term is used in hu ...
captures the notion of people-in-environments. Included within this is the concept of open, jointly optimized,
sociotechnical systems
Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. The term also refers to coherent systems of human relati ...
, optimizing human purposefulness and creativity, and the best options afforded by changing technologies. This can be achieved by employing the two-stage model, the Search Conference and the Participative Design Workshop, whose purpose is to create change toward a world that is consciously designed by people, and for people, living harmoniously within their ecological systems, both physical and social. "As the purpose of the two-stage model is to build a community, most work takes place in plenary, generating excitement, joy, and the energy that powers diffusion."
Publications
Merrelyn Emery is the author or coauthor of ten books, eight edited books, 35 book chapters, 60 journal articles, and contributed 29 institutional research
reports including several national studies (e.g. Project Australia, the National Telecom Study, Workplace Australia and Future Directions).
[de Guerre, D. W. & Deering, P. (2016)]
A Practical, Contextual Social Science to Engage the World - Merrelyn Emery and Open Systems Theory
www.socialsciencethatactuallyworks.com
/ref>
Papers and articles, a selection:
* 1986. ''Towards an heuristic theory of diffusion''. Hum. Relat. 39(5), 411–432
doi.org/10.1177%2F001872678603900503
* 2000.
The Current Version of Emery's Open Systems Theory
'. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2000 - Springer
doi.org/10.1023/A:1009577509972
* 2010. ''Refutation of Kira & van Eijnatten's critique of the Emery's open systems theory''. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2010. Wiley Online Library
doi.org/10.1002/sres.1010
* 2014. ''Better late than never: Open systems theory's plan to deal with climate change''. In Metcalf Gary S
Social Systems and Design
Translational Systems Sciences, pp185–211. Springer
doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54478-4_8
Books, a selection:
* 1982.
Searching: for New Directions, in New Ways, for New Times
'. Canberra, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University
Updated edition of part I
a
www.socialsciencethatactuallyworks.com
* 1993.
Participative Design for Participative Democracy
'. Revised and enlarged 1989 edition. CCE, ANU
Introduction
and more a
www.socialsciencethatactuallyworks.com
* 1997. ''The Search Conference'' in
The Social Engagement of Social Science, a Tavistock Anthology, Volume 3
'. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
* 1999.
Searching: The theory and practice of making cultural change
'. John Benjamins Publishing.
* 2004. ''Open systems theory'' in
Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning
'. John Wiley & Sons.
* 2021.
Did 9/11 change the world? Tracking the future
'. Amazon.
References
External links
www.socialsciencethatactuallyworks.com
website with work of Fred and Merrelyn Emery and colleagues on the Open Systems Theory (OST).
Papers in the National Library of Australia
Books listed on Goodreads
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emery, Merrelyn
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Cyberneticists
Systems psychologists
Systems scientists
Australian scientists