2027 WOSC & IRDO
Addressing Planetary Challenges
2027 WOSC Congress
and IRDO Conference
In June 2027, the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) will convene its next international congress, a pivotal event dedicated to advancing dialogue among CyberSystemic thinkers, policymakers, and practitioners on today’s human-environment interactions. Our focus is, on the one hand, on developments, deliberations, and reflections of scientists, administrators, and policymakers about policy issues at possibly multiple structural levels, and, on the other, on people´s interactions on the ground as they produce these policies with players in their most immediate local environments. In other words, we are inviting contributions towards improving the ecologies of policy issues. The event aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, and students on a single conversational platform to reflect on and engage with four major thematic axes, each addressing complex dynamics that define the current socio-technological, ecological and epistemological landscape. The main purpose of the congress is to use our existing knowledge of systems and cybernetic mechanisms to guide practical actions for building a sustainable world in the current digital era. In this sense, the event focuses on connecting theoretical progress with practical improvements in policy processes, drawing on existing knowledge and practices. Contributors are invited to draw on and augment a repertoire of CyberSystemic tools, such as existing structural and dynamic developments, such as the Viable System Model and Enterprise Complexity Models, System Dynamics, Soft Systems Methodology, economic models, critical thinking, and many others, to relate existing resources, institutions and organisational structures to pressing policy issues. Policy challenges in complex, messy, uncertain situations, such as climate change, global and local migration processes, people´s behaviours in communities, respect for generational problems, coordination of energy balances, recovery of water imbalances, developments in housing, and so forth, are considered central to this event thematic invitation.
Topic 1. CyberSystemics and Practices for Sustainability: Navigating Complexity Towards the Future
Sustainability is the first core pillar of the congress—not merely an aspirational goal but a cyber-systemic imperative. We will explore the complexity of socio-ecological systems holistically, emphasising the interdependencies among biophysical, economic, and social subsystems. These interactions give rise to emergent dynamics that call for CyberSystemics to identify sustainable trajectories. This theme will foster a transdisciplinary dialogue aimed at overcoming fragmented approaches, enabling the co-design of resilient strategies for the long-term viability of human societies and the biosphere. Emphasis will be placed on rethinking methodological frameworks and conceptual tools to address environmental degradation and social inequality, especially in an era marked by rapid ecological transformations and socio-economic uncertainty. Topics under this theme may include: Viable Systems Model: foundations, evolutions, and applications Human Interaction Models System Dynamics: methodologies and integrated applications Viable System Approach: from theory to operational models in sustainability-related domains (e.g., healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing, tourism) Soft Systems Methodology: sustainability as CyberSystemic inquiry Critical Systems Heuristic: considering power and ethics in the pursuit of sustainability Empirical contributions advancing sustainability through cyber-systemic lenses Interaction Observation: methodologies for observing, analysing and comparing interactions in complex systems
Topic 2. Artificial Intelligence and CyberSystemic Thinking: Toward a Co-Evolutionary synergy for organising socio-economic systems
The second thematic axis explores the evolving interplay between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber-systemic thinking, focusing on the mutual shaping of technological innovation and CyberSystemic understanding. In the current era of digital transformation, AI should be understood as a cognitive and organisational catalyst embedded within complex socio-technical ecosystems. This theme invites reflection on how systemic and cybernetic principles can inform the development and use of AI systems that are adaptive, context-sensitive and ethically aligned. At the same time, it examines how AI capabilities, including large-scale data processing, pattern recognition, sensing and reasoning, can enhance our capacity to observe, understand and act within dynamic, multilevel systems. Human-machine interactions increasingly influence cognition, knowledge creation, identity, social behaviour and organisational practices, while AI extends human capacities for sensing, reasoning, creativity and reflexive inquiry. Understanding these interactions requires us to examine not only what AI can do, but how humans and AI learn from and transform each other within their social, organisational and environmental contexts. Central to this discussion is the role of AI in supporting knowledge creation, sharing, and use within organisations and communities, with a focus on relational dynamics, informational flows, and decision-making processes. Emphasis will be placed on the co-evolutionary relationship between AI and its application contexts, including the challenges of ensuring viability, inclusiveness, and resilience in the design and governance of AI-enabled systems. Particular attention will be given to risk governance and management, including the identification, assessment, communication and treatment of risks emerging from AI systems, human-AI interactions and their wider systemic consequences. Topics of interest may include: AI-enhanced CyberSystemic sensing, reasoning, learning and feedback Human-AI interaction, co-evolution and socio-technical transformation AI and grey systems Augmentation of human cognition, creativity and reflexivity Individual and collective intelligence, collaborative knowledge creation and learning AI-supported decision making, adaptive governance and viable systems AI risk governance, management, resilience and systemic risks Ethical, participatory, socially responsible and sustainability-oriented AI Art and design-based explorations of and interactions with an AI systems
Topic 3. Observing Emerging Phenomena: CyberSystemics in Nature, Society and Technology
Contemporary challenges emerge from increasingly interconnected natural, social, technological and human systems. Climate change, demographic shifts, technological development, changing patterns of work and life, inequalities and transformations of communities rarely occur in isolation. Their interactions produce consequences that cross disciplinary, organisational and geographical boundaries and require us to observe phenomena beyond established categories. This theme invites participants to bring observations and cases from the environments in which they live, work and conduct research. We seek to identify emerging phenomena, explore their interactions and compare how similar developments manifest themselves across different contexts. Particular attention will be given to phenomena connecting people, society, technology and the natural environment, including those that may initially appear local but reveal wider systemic patterns. The theme provides a space for a broad scoping exercise in which researchers, practitioners, policymakers, organisations and communities contribute different observations of contemporary developments. Participants are encouraged to provide rich descriptions of the phenomena they observe, examine how these phenomena are changing, and identify the interactions that appear to shape their development. Where appropriate, the Interaction Observation methodology can support semi-structured observation and reporting, enabling exploration and comparison of observations from different contexts, times, and perspectives. Through comparison and collective reflection, we aim to connect dispersed observations, recognise recurring and emerging patterns, and identify issues requiring further CyberSystemic inquiry and responsible action. In doing so, the theme seeks to strengthen the social responsibility of the systems and cybernetics community by connecting its knowledge and capabilities with the challenges experienced by people, organisations, communities and their environments. Topics of interest may include: Human interactions with the biosphere, ecosystems, climate change, water, energy, food, biodiversity and others; Social responsibility in innovation and sustainable development, social change, migration, demographic change, intergenerational relations; inequality, inclusion, accessibility, vulnerable communities, and others; Hybrid reality effects on Human-machine-environment interactions in work, learning and personal space. Social transformations: changing patterns of work, education, healthcare, housing, food, tourism, communities, migration, demographics, intergenerational relations, and others; Human ethos: human wellbeing, culture, traditions, dignity, identity, ethics, artistic expressions, and changing ways of life. Organisational, institutional and economic transformations; Connections between local phenomena and planetary implications; Emerging interactions, weak signals and developments that challenge existing systemic understanding Examining Sustainable Development Goals
Topic 4. Deliberative Democracy and CyberSystemic Governance: From Complexity to Participation
The final theme centres on deliberative democracy, investigating how CyberSystemic principles can be harnessed to enhance distributed and participatory governance. In a globally interdependent and highly complex world, democratic processes must evolve to address crises of polarisation, misinformation, and the erosion of institutional trust. This theme will explore the potential of CyberSystemic models to foster inclusive deliberation, amplify citizen voices and create transparent, adaptive and resilient decision-making frameworks. The goal is to illuminate how collective intelligence and feedback mechanisms can support the articulation of diverse perspectives, the identification of shared concerns and the co-creation of responses to complex societal challenges. It invites contributions that connect democratic participation with practical approaches to distributed decision-making, institutional learning, and viable governance. Proposed topics include: •CyberSystemic approaches to democratic renewal and civic engagement •CyberSystemic approaches for participatory budgeting and policy-making •Tools for managing complexity in multi-stakeholder governance •Reimagining institutions through viable governance structures •Deliberative and participatory approaches to collective decision making •Policies proposal letters •Resolving conflicts methodologies •Approaches to CyberSystemic governance: social learning systems •Reframing participation in CyberSystemic governance
Participation and registration
Contributions may take the form of research or methodological contributions, observations and case descriptions, reports of professional or community practice, workshops, panels, organised sessions or tracks, and video or other multimedia contributions. Contributions may address one or more Congress themes.
Authors and contributors should follow the registration guidance accompanying acceptance of their proposal.
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Submission process
The two-step submission process enables participants to share their work with peers and develop it through constructive feedback before and during the Congress.
Step 1. Abstract or contribution proposal
Submit a structured abstract or contribution proposal of 500–800 words, addressing one or more Congress themes and identifying the intended form of participation. Explain the purpose, context, approach or observations, and intended contribution to the Congress dialogue.
Proposals for workshops, panels, organised sessions or tracks, practice contributions, observations, cases, videos and multimedia should explain the proposed activity or material and how it will support participation and discussion. A conventional research paper is not required for these formats.
Step 2. Optional full Congress paper
Registered participants with an accepted abstract may submit an optional full Congress paper of no more than 3,500 words. Authors can use the developmental peer-feedback process to improve their work before presentation and discussion at the Congress.
Developmental peer feedback
Peer feedback is intended to help contributors develop their ideas, clarify their observations and strengthen their work. Contributions will be discussed within the relevant Congress sessions, allowing participants to learn from different disciplinary, professional and community perspectives.
Elementary submission rules
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Authors and contributors are responsible for ethical standards, proper acknowledgement of sources and permissions for any third-party material, including video and multimedia.
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The presentations are preferably provided on-site with online access. Based on authors preferences, on-line sessions will be organised.
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The abstracts, full papers and presentations are submitted to WOSC.ORG@GMAIL.COM
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Each participant is entitled to submit one contribution. Additional contributions are to be registered
Venue and accomodation
The WOSC 20th Congress and IRDO 22th Conference will take place from 16 to 18 June 2027 at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Razlagova 20, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia, EU. event map.
The Venue is accessible from multiple nearby airports:
Trieste and Venezia Airports (TRS and VCE)
Travel from airports: we recommend using a shuttle service, such as Goopti
At the time of the year Maribor holes are quite booked, so in-time reservation is appropriate. You can find a list of hotels in booking.com the nearby hotels are in the event map.
Publications
to be announced
Additional information @FAQ
For a information, submissions, registration and enquiries, please write to WOSC.org@gmail.com or to Events chairs
Igor Perko Igor.perko@um.si
Francesco Caputo francesco.caputo2@unina.it
Alfonso Reyes areyes@unibague.edu.co
Jernej Belak jernej.belak@um.si
Anita Hrast jernej.belak@um.si