Alexander Christakis

Alexander (Aleco) Christakis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Χρηστάκης; born 1937) is a Greek American social scientist, systems scientist and cyberneticist, former faculty member of several Universities, organizational consultant and member of the Club of Rome, known for his "study and design of social systems".[1]

Aleco Christakis
Born1937 (age 82–83)
Archanes, Crete, Greece
NationalityGreek, American
Alma materYale University
AwardsThe Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies Medal (2007)
DEMOSOPHIA Award (1993)
Creative Programming Award' (1983)
Scientific career
Fieldsnuclear physics
systems science
structured dialogic design
InstitutionsInstitute for 21st Century Agoras
Future Worlds Center
InfluencesCostas Doxiadis
Hasan Özbekhan
John Warfield
InfluencedYiannis Laouris
Tom Flanagan
Ken Bausch

Biography

Christakis came to the United States in 1956, and received a BA in theoretical physics at Princeton University and a Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics at Yale. Later on he proceeded studying urban planning, and systems science until 1970.where?

After the birth of his son Nicholas [2] he returned to Greece and joined the architectural firm of Doxiadis Associates which was specialized in architecture and town planning. In 1968 he was co-founder of the Club of Rome, where he was a collaborator of Aurelio Peccei, Erich Jantsch and Hasan Özbekhan. Since the 1970s Christakis has served on the faculties of Yale University, Georgetown University, University of Athens, and the University of Virginia. He also spent five years at George Mason University as the Director of the Center for Interactive Management headed by John N. Warfield. In 1989 Christakis founded his own management consultancy firm CWA Ltd. dedicated to apply Interactive Management principles, and he has been CEO ever since.

Christakis serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals, including Systems Research and Behavioral Sciences, Systems: Journal of Transdisciplinary Systems Science, and the Journal of Applied Systems Studies.

In 2002, Dr. Christakis served as President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. He also serves as President of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras,[3] a non-profit organization dedicated to the evolution of civic, global, and institutional capacity for coordinated democratic decision-making using systems principles (Co-Laboratories of Democracy.) The Institute for 21st Century Agoras is credited for the formalization of the science of Structured dialogic design in its present form. Dr. Christakis is also a partner with Dialogic Design International,[4] a consulting firm that deploys SDD in systemic design approaches for complex organizational and systems problems.

In 2007 he served on the Board of Directors of the Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), of Future Worlds Center, and also as an Advisor to the Ambassadors Program of AIO which serves indigenous people around the world.[5]

He has received numerous awards and distinctions including the Demosophia Award,[6] the Creative Programming Award from the National University Continuing Education Association[7] and the most prestigious medal of the Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies to name a few.

Contributions to international peace building

Christakis has been invited to support the peace process in Cyprus and the Middle East. He and Laouris led the implementation of series of mass scale dialogues using the Structured dialogic design process in the Civil Society Dialogue project in Cyprus and in the Act Beyond Borders project in Middle East.[8]

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:

  • 2009. The Talking Point:Creating an Environment for Exploring Complex Meaning. With T.R. Flanangan. Boston, MA: Information Age Publishing.
  • 2006. Co-laboratories of democracy: how people harness their collective wisdom to create the future. With Kenneth C. Bausch. Boston, MA: Information Age Publishing.
  • 2005. Pragmatic Design Dialogue.

Articles and papers, a selection:

gollark: So is `m`.
gollark: We have some software optimizing bee distribution.
gollark: It's very ethical.
gollark: BEE eugenics.
gollark: It's the ME network in our bee eugenics machine.

References
  1. Biography Alexander N. Christakis, January 17, 2003.
  2. https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3943/nicholas-christakis
  3. Global Agoras
  4. dialogicdesignllc.com
  5. Americans for Indian Opportunity Archived 2014-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
  6. By John N. Warfield awarded in 1993 by Roxana Cardenas during an International Conference at ITESM, which is the most prominent Mexican University System
  7. Awarded in 1983 while Aleco Christakis was teaching at the University of Virginia
  8. Act Beyond Borders Initiative
  • Biography Alexander N. Christakis, 2003.
  • Review Dialogue for the Information Age Democracy, by Alexander N. Christakis, 2005.
  • Institute for 21st Century Agoras a non-profit organization founded by Christakis with Kenneth Bausch to promote the pursuit of democratic approaches to collective wisdom and decision making made possible with Co-Laboratories of Democracy.
  • Wiki managed by world-wide SDD scientists and practitioners
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