Guest editorial

The date of the 47th Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) in Crete in 2003 was coincident, to the very month, with the 25th anniversary of the launching of a major initiative in 'systems education' at Hawkesbury Agricultural College in Sydney, Australia. And this, it was deemed by a number of us who had participated in those initiatives at varying times and for various periods over the years, was reason enough for a symposium to be presented at the meeting, in celebration of our work together! An added rationale for such an event-within-the-event was the consonance of the conference themes"”of 'conscious evolution' and of 'agora construction'"”with much of what we believe has transpired at Hawkesbury over the past quarter century since the launch of those systemic initiatives.