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Examines change capacity within one restructuring Ontario school district, employing the notions of chaos theory and a living organization. Analyzed 5 years of longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data to understand effects of organizational change on the whole school. School leadership teams worked differently, depending on context. (Contains 21 references.) (MLH)

Three articles in this special issue explore the people/school organization interrelationship in England, Canada, and the Netherlands. Two articles discuss learning organizations' change capacity. A third article examines tensions occurring when people/organization interactions clash with desired outcomes. Chaos theory and improvement programs are also discussed. (Contains 16 references.) (MLH)

Background: Primary care is often described as slow to change. But conceptualized through complexity theory, primary care is continually changing in unpredictable, non-linear ways through self-organization processes. Self-organization has proven hard to study directly. We aimed to develop a methodology to study self-organization and describe how a primary care clinic self-organizes over time. Methodology: We completed a virtual case study of an urban primary care clinic from May-Nov 2021, applying methodological insights from actor-network theory to examine the complexity theory concept of self-organization. We chose to focus our attention on self-organization activities that alter organizational routines. Data included fieldnotes of observed team meetings, document collection, interviews with clinic members, and notes from brief weekly discussions to detect actions to change clinical and administrative routines. Adapting schema analysis, we described changes to different organizational routines chronologically, then explored intersecting changes. We sought feedback on results from the participating clinic. Findings: Re-establishing equilibrium remained challenging well into the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary care clinic continued to self-organize in response to changing health policies, unintended consequences of earlier adaptations, staff changes, and clinical care initiatives. Physical space, technologies, external and internal policies, guidelines, and clinic members all influenced self-organization. Changing one created ripple effects, sometimes generating new, unanticipated problems. Member checking confirmed we captured most of the changes to organizational routines during the case study period. Conclusions: Through insights from actor-network theory, applied to studying actions taken that alter organizational routines, it is possible to operationalize the theoretical construct of self-organization. Our methodology illuminates the primary care clinic as a continually changing entity with co-existing and intersecting processes of self-organization in response to varied change pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about racializing surveillance, a technology of social control where surveillance practices, policies, and performances concern the production of norms pertaining to race and exercise a power. Topics include present novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic provides for a convenient cover for evermore intensive and overt surveillance practices impacting Black people; and injustices in the relationships between Black people and policymakers and the criminal justice system.

We analyze a discrete version of a recently developed ratio dependent population-resource model. This model has been used to study the decline of the human and resource populations on Easter Island and the chaotic dynamics of moose and wolf populations in Canada. The dynamical system exhibits a rich behavior of fractal basins of attraction and a Neimark-Sacker bifurcation route to chaos. The model consists of a coupled pair of logistic equations, with the carrying capacity for the predators proportional to the number of prey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confusion regarding definitions and standards of prevention and promotion programs is pervasive, as revealed by a review of such programs in Canada. This paper examines how a discussion of scientific paradigms can help clarify models of prevention and mental health promotion and proposes the complementary development of prevention and promotion programs. A paradigm shift in science contributed to the emergence of the transactional model, advocating multiple causes and dynamic transactions between the individual and the environment. Consequently, the view of prevention applying over a linear continuum and of single stressful events causing mental disorders may no longer be appropriate. It is the author's belief that the new science of chaos theory, which addresses processes involved in the development of systems, can be applied to child development and thus to the heart of prevention and promotion programs. Critical moments followed by transitions or near-chaotic behaviours lead to stable states better adapted to the environment. Prevention programs would focus on the critical moments and target groups at risk to reduce risk factors. Promotion programs would focus on stable states and target the general population to develop age-appropriate life skills. The concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions and certain empirical studies suggest that the programs would have the greatest impact at the beginning of life. It is hoped that this effort to organize knowledge about conceptual models of prevention and mental health promotion programs will foster the development of these programs to meet the urgent needs of Canadian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]