Wilfred T M Berendsen
Wilfred T. M. Berendsen | |
|---|---|
| Wilfred T. M. Berendsen | |
| Born | September 11, 1973 Lichtenvoorde, Gelderland, Netherlands |
| Residence | Lichtenvoorde, Gelderland, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Known for | Meta-semiotics, semiotics, phronesis, management, social sciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social sciences, semiotics, management |
Wilfred T. M. Berendsen (born 11 September 1973) is a Dutch social researcher, change manager and independent theorist. He is known for developing a self-described "meta-semeiotical" body of understanding that he calls practicism (also spelled practisism), which he presents as a unifying framework intended to dissolve the distinction between theory and practice. His interests span semiotics, phronesis, storytelling, sensemaking, management and alternative monetary systems.
Biography
Berendsen was born in Lichtenvoorde, in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands, in 1973. He studied at the HEAO in Arnhem (now the HAN University of Applied Sciences), where he graduated in logistics and economics, and subsequently completed a programme in business administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam, specialising in change management. He also spent several months studying at the Prague University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic, and during his studies worked in the Czech Republic, helping to establish a subsidiary for a Dutch company.
After graduating from Erasmus University, Berendsen worked on a multi-plant, cross-cultural implementation of the SAP enterprise software system, focusing on the material management components such as the material master, stock keeping, MRP and purchasing. He subsequently turned to independent research in the social sciences.
Outside his professional work, Berendsen is a falconer, and more specifically a sparviter, practising the art of hunting with the European sparrowhawk.
Work
Berendsen describes practicism as a "phronesis meta-semeiotical" body of understanding intended to unify theory and practice and to serve as a common foundation for the sciences and for human sensemaking. Within this framework he emphasises storytelling, narrating and antenarrating as methods for interpreting and reshaping social and economic life. He has also proposed an alternative monetary system, which he presents as a solution to economic and debt crises.
Berendsen's ideas are developed and circulated independently of established academic institutions, and his framework lies outside the mainstream of the social sciences and economics. His writings have been distributed through preprint and self-publishing platforms such as the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA), Academia.edu and Scribd, rather than through conventional peer-reviewed journals.
Abstracts
Media
- 2011 - Practicism: The Unifying Body of Understanding for Everything (Video Lecture)
External links
- "Solution for the Economic Crisis" (SSRN)
- Wilfred Berendsen at IDEAS/RePEc
- "Towards a reenchanted society through storytelling and phronesis" (Academia.edu)