Category:Systems Thinking

One of the most valuable skills you can take from studying the environment is that it helps you to think about systems as a whole.

General historical overview

Video

Deborah Gordon studies ant colonies in the Arizona desert. She asks: How do these chitinous creatures get down to business -- and even multitask when they need to -- with no language, memory or visible leadership? Her answers could lead to a better understanding of all complex systems, from the brain to the Web. TEDtalk video.

The Big Picture, why complexity matters. Rees TEDtalk

Robert Wright: How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict. Tedtalk

Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action -- and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group. As he points out, humans have been banding together to work collectively since our days of hunting mastodons. TEDtalk video.

Articles

Systems Thinker Donella Meadows has written a concise, easy to understand article on the importance of visions (pdf). This article invites us to think big and outside the box, especially regarding the sustainable world they want to create.

Books

Emergence by Steven Johnson review interview

Nexus Mark Buchanan. Recent talk (video) based on The Social Atom book blog

Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Summary: sometimes change can come very quickly in unpredictable ways and from very small beginnings. (unrelated TEDtalk).

The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences) by Ervin Laszlo New York, G. Braziller [1972] S&E Stacks Q295.L37 Amazon preview)

Systems Thinking : Coping with 21st Century Problems / John Boardman, Brian Sauser (seems engineering oriented) Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, c2008 S&E Stacks TA168 .B594 2008

Thinking Through Systems Thinking / Ion Georgiou London ; New York : Routledge, 2007 View contents online S&E Stacks Q295 .G465 2007 NOT CHECKD OUT

Systems Thinking Basics : From Concepts to Casual Loops / Virginia Anderson and Lauren Johnson Cambridge, Mass. : Pegasus Communications, c1997 McH Stacks HD30.19 .A53 1997

Systems Thinking Tools : A User's Reference Guide / by Daniel H. Kim Cambridge, MA : Pegasus Communications, Inc., c1995 McH Stacks HD31 .K55 1995

Managing Complex Systems : Thinking Outside the Box / Howard Eisner Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley, c2005 S&E Stacks TA168 .E387 2005

The Key to Sustainable Cities : Meeting Human Needs, Transforming Community Systems / Gwendolyn Hallsmith Published Gabriola Island, B.C. : New Society Publishers, c2003 McH Stacks HT166 .H359 2003