Metaphorum 2026 · Toward Resilient and Ethical Viable Systems

Towards new economic and social structures for a collaborative, post-capitalistic society

The essence of Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) is defined in his three books which had all been published by 1985. In the decades which have followed, the model has been applied and developed and inevitably has evolved to suit the environment in which it functions. Much of this - by Beer himself and many other consultants - has involved its successful application to traditional businesses in order to enhance the efficiency of the organisational structure and thus improve competiveness and profitability. In this chapter, the original VSM will be re-examined, particularly the essence of Beer’s 5 VM Systems, and discussed to emphasise the ways in which the VSM presents a different and in many ways radical approach to the way we currently organise ourselves and opens the door to fundamental charges in the way we conduct ourselves in our daily lives, our businesses, and our governments. As the multiple crises which we face deepen, it become progressively more and more obvious that the issue of governance has to be addressed. Any successful way forward will require progress on multiple fronts and governance has to be a critically important part of the puzzle. This will require deep changes in the workings of a democratic state and the introduction of democracy into our businesses - which currently function in a similar way to a dictatorship. Many of Beer’s insights are of direct relevance to this debate – his laws and axioms all point in the same direction. At its core the VSM involves autonomous operational units interacting with their environment and the four Meta-systemic functions which provide the glue which ensures the operational units cohere into an effective totality. It will be argued that this inevitably leads to a structure which is not autocratic, requires individual creativity at the operational level and is based on collaboration. Clearly this is incompatible with both the Taylorist paradigm which dominated 20th Century views on organisation and still casts its shadow and the neo-liberal approach which focuses on minimal government intervention and ruthless competition. The chapter concludes with a speculative discussion of the kind of economic / political /social structures which Beer’s original model would suggest. Speaker: Jon Walker — Metaphorum

Schedule to be confirmed