IFSR - International Federation for Systems Research

What is a Conversation?
Bela Banathy defined a conversation as follows:
A Conversation is
• a collectively guided disciplined inquiry,
• an exploration of issues of social/societal significance,
• engaged by scholarly practitioners in self-organized teams,
• who select a theme for their conversation,
• which is initiated in the course of a preparation phase that leads to an intensive learning phase.

Why conversation and what form do they take? ?
The main reason for conversations as initiated by the IFSR in 1980 as a dissatisfaction with the conventional style of conferences: An individual writes a paper, has 20 minutes to present it and then 10 minutes of questions. After that the conference is virtually over for the individual. Clearly, this format is not the most effective way to progress in the exchange and development of ideas on pressing major issues.

IFSR has bi-annually held a Fuschl Conversation in Fuschl, near Salzburg, Austria. Fuschl-type conversations have also been held in many other places to an estimated total of 40 or 50.

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The next Fuschl Conversation (2008)

Past Fuschl Conversations