The '''Moscow Methodological Circle''' (MMC) was a scientific organisation set up by Georgy Shchedrovitsky to examine problems from an inter-disciplinary point of view, looking at the various methodological approaches of each discipline to yield what they described as "systemic thinking activity".<ref name="Liborakina">{{cite journal |last1=Liborakina |first1=Marina |title=A bridge between past and future |journal=Simulation and Gaming Yearbook |date=1996 |volume=4 |pages=41–48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4meAFnexIMoC&dq=Moscow+Methodological+Circle&pg=PA48 |accessdate=19 September 2018 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780749418663 |language=en}}</ref>
The MMC started out as an informal group meeting in a pub on Gorky Street which included the mathematician Alexander Zinoviev, the sociologist Boris Grushin and the philosopher Merab Mamardashvili. They attracted the attention of the KGB but were tolerated.<ref name="ER">{{cite journal|last1=Rindzeviciute|first1=Egle|title=The Future as an Intellectual Technology in the Soviet Union: From Centralised Planning to Reflexive Management|journal=Cahiers du monde Russe|date=2015|volume=56|issue=1|pages=111–134|doi=10.4000/monderusse.8169|doi-access=free}}</ref>
The MMC developed an approach to methodological thinking, which featured these principles:<ref name="Maracha">{{cite journal |last1=Maracha |first1=Viacheslav |title=System-Thinking-Activity Approach: Thinking Response to Global Challenges |journal=Book of Abstracts EMCSR 2014 |date=2014 |url=https://www.academia.edu/12308489 |language=en}}</ref> * holism and reflexivity * practical orientation which uses systems thinking as the means for organising processes of resolving wicked problems by multi-professional and transdisciplinary teams * reflexivity as practical recursive orientation of thinking to itself whereby it is able to re-construct and re-direct itself; *the “methodological turn” from thinking about systems as objects to develop the process of thinking systemically
==Legacy== The MMC has had a lasting impact on Russian systems thinking particularly through the Methodological School of Management. This is acknowledged by Viktor Khristenko.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite news |last1=Pertsev |first1=Andrey |title='A chance for revenge': The rise and fall of 'methodology,' the school of thought that produced the idea of the 'Russian world' |url=https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/06/20/a-chance-for-revenge |work=Meduza |date=21 June 2022}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moscow Methodological Circle}} Category:Systems thinking