Gerard de Zeeuw

In 2002 Kooistra added, that "this quote represents the dilemma De Zeeuw was – and still is – trying to by-pass during his scientific life. How to judge the quality of reasoning in the social sciences whereas you are part of the same system?"

Since 1994 he has been visiting professor at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside in the area of systems and management, and at the London School of Economics in the field of social and organizational psychology. De Zeeuw also lectured at the Agricultural University of Wageningen for three years. He was elected twice as Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. Since 2006 he is Senior Professor of Architectural Design Research at the University of Leuven at the Sint Lucas School of Architecture.

De Zeeuw served on the Editorial Boards of the journals of Statistica Neerlandica and Systemica, and was editor-in-chief of the latter. In the 1990s he became associate editor of the Systems Research and Behavioral Science and of the Journal of Research Practice in 2005.

In response Francis Heylighen (1988) described that "a general theory of the dynamics and stabilization of distinctions based on the closure concept could help us to solve our own complex problems. Practically such an application could be implemented as a computer-based support system... which would help actors to structure their problems, ideas and information, by recombination and closure of simple components." Furthermore, Jan Kooistra (1988) stipulated the problem of "the absence of a terminology". He noted:

In 1986 De Zeeuw further explained about the role of science to increase competence. To do so, he explained:

The concept of competence is a requiring theme in De Zeeuws work. In his first 1985 paper about this, titled "Problems of increasing competence", De Zeeuw focussed on the growing complexity of society, and the problems around individual competence and social competence. He introduced the problem as follows:

In his 1985 paper De Zeeuw proposed a "the concept of a support system" as:

In 1970 Albert Hanken and De Zeeuw co-founded the Dutch Systems Group with De Zeeuw as its first president. The Dutch Systems Group, the Society for General Systems Research and others in 1980 founded the International Federation for Systems Research with George Klir as their first president until 1986, and Gerard de Zeeuw as third president from 1992 to 1994.

De Zeeuw served most of his academic career at the University of Amsterdam, where he had started in 1964 and retired in 2006. In 1971 he was Senior Researcher at the Psychological Laboratory of the University of Amsterdam, and in 1974 he was appointed full professor in Research methodology, specifically in the fields of adult education, social work and social helping, community development and social theory. In 1993 he became Professor of Mathematical modelling of complex social systems. At the University of Amsterdam he has been dean of the Faculty of Andragogy, Chair of the department of research methodology in the Faculty of Psychology, and Board member of the university.

De Zeeuw studied at the Leiden University from 1955 to 1962, obtaining degrees in Mathematics, Statistics and Econometrics. In 1961–1962 he continued his studies at the Erasmus University under Jan Tinbergen, obtaining a degree in Econometrics. At the Stanford University in 1963–1964 he studied mathematical psychology under Patrick Suppes en Bob Estes and finished his PhD exam. Back in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam in 1973 he received his Ph.D. with the thesis titled Model thinking in psychology.

Gerard de Zeeuw (born 11 March 1936) is a Dutch scientist and Emeritus professor Mathematical modelling of complex social systems at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is known for his work on the theory and practice of action research, particularly on the "Problems of increasing competence", "Second order organisational research" and "Three phases of science: A methodological exploration".

De Zeeuw was born in 1936 in Banjoewangi Indonesia, in the former Dutch Indies in a middle-class family. Part of the Second World War he and his family were imprisoned in Japanese prison camps. In secondary school he was introduced to science by Free Van Heek, Professor of empirical sociology at the Leiden University, who motivated him to use his own library and write a paper, his first, on action and action research.