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This paper presents two contexts of meaning to gain systemic comprehension of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the standpoint of a Systems Thinking Practice, called Interpretive Systemology. The first interpretive context is based on a notion of the social sector affected by the performance of the organization, which will allow us to open a space to explore about the ethical issue regarding a definition of boundaries from a standpoint of the organization and challenging some of the insufficiencies of such perspective to deal with the issue of CSR. The second context of meaning is grounded on searching for a social meaning of the organization through a grasping of it by asking about the practices in which the organization is engaged. This context will allow to approach CSR from a historical–ontological perspective in order to consider CSR as a result of an impoverishment of social practices to hold in the social milieu and the appearance of the organization as a way of providing a weak network of relations that is now compelled to find social legitimacy by addressing an unanswered question about the social order in which the organization appears. A core concept in this second context is social learning understood as a process that is currently undermined by a strong emphasis on training in organizational skills without pursuing a process of social learning as the ground upon which organizational skills are funded and articulated. In this sense, CSR is asked to answer about the production not only of its products and services, but also of other collateral effects or by products, such as how the people become engaged in a giving organizational setting. In this regard, it is claimed that community learning and engagement with the organization is central to enhance the CSR from a holistic perspective. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper explores Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) through the lenses of a theoretical framework that incorporates key concepts from Maturana's Ontology of the Observer (OoO) with the view of complementing Checkland's SSM application process. We outline and examine paradigmatic compatibility between: Checkland's ontological position (reality is problematic/chaotic) together with his interpretivist epistemology (multiple perceptions enrich the ever-changing reality); and Maturana's OoO (we are immersed in the praxis of living in an ontological multi-universe). We argue that OoO resonates with key SSM theoretical underpinnings. After establishing compatibility between these two influential systems thinkers, we advance a conceptual framework in which Checkland's SSM learning process is re-visited through a the framework grounded on Maturana's OoO. The proposed framework illustrates how key ideas drawn from Maturana's OoO can shed light into the way in which some of the main SSM devices (i.e.: Root definitions, Conceptual model) are used in the SSM process. By doing that, SSM is enriched and becomes more flexible as the stakeholders involved are placed within the domain of constitutive ontologies from which, a deeper dialogue can be promoted in a domain of coexistence in mutual acceptance. We argue that this is a suitable way to have more flexible and holistic views for a SSM intervention in particular to promote the learning process and debating proposed changes amongst the stakeholders involved. The proposed framework, when applied, may enhance the power of SSM learning process and when adopted can have substantial implications to complement the SSM process.

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El objetivo del presente artículo es colaborar en el debate en torno al fracaso del paradigma tecno-económico del desarrollo en Venezuela y sus implicaciones en la organización de Desarrollo Regional. En este orden de ideas el artículo presenta un breve esbozo del paradigma tecno-económico del desarrollo y del fracaso de su implantación en Venezuela. El fracaso se entenderá en términos de una catástrofe cultural en Venezuela que alcanza su crisis a finales del siglo XX. Como contraposición, se avanza una noción alternativa de desarrollo fundamentada en la promoción de la endogeneidad y la sustentabilidad como nociones primordiales del despliegue de significados que buscan crear y re-crear la cultura local con sentido en lo nacional y lo universal y que se despliega a la luz de la Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.