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. See also Networks and Datavisualization.
Contents
News
David Stroh’s book, “Systems Thinking for Social Change” shares the story of a program that tried to address homelessness in the United States by building more housing units. Only, it didn’t solve the problem. After significant investment, homelessness had not gotten better in the area, it had actually increased!
New Book: Paul Raskin's Journey to Earthland (Tellus Institute, 2016).
In Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back, Zolli and Healy define resilience as “the capacity of a system, enterprise, or a person to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances,” and argue that the resilient mindset allows some to adapt to technological, cultural, and environment change much better and faster than others.“preserving adaptive capacity—the ability to adapt to changed circumstances while fulfilling once core purpose—[is] an essential skill in an age of unforeseeable disruption and volatility.”author site; Stanford social entrepreneur program review.
Climate Interactive is offering a climate leader training, which involves a free system thinking course models, simulations and other tools*** 2/15
Overviews
Excellent video overview of our current systems status: Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems. TEDtalk ****
In A World of Systems feedback loops (video). ***
Complex adaptive systems TEDx 2010 video.
Fritjof Capra, The Systems View of Life (2007 10 min. video). Another version (42 min)****
History of Cybernetics (video).
Systems Wiki has many fine resources (dynamic visual map version), including free Insightmaker system modelling software. Bellinger offers a well-reviewed course: link
as well as other Systems Thinking courses at Udemy. 1/15.
Five minute overview of basic systems concepts.
People (see also Eco-Heroes)
Gregory Bateson In the 1970s, he served as a lecturer and fellow of Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was married to Margaret Meade. You can see his papers and video at Special Collections. An Ecology of Mind is a new documentary, a portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, and systems theorist. His story is lovingly told by his youngest daughter (video interview) (another), Nora, with footage from Gregory’s own films shot in the 1930s with Margaret Mead in Bali and New Guinea, along with photographs, filmed lectures, and interviews. DVD 9316 McHenry Media Center) ***Link. Bateson was a man who studied the interrelationships of the complex systems we live in with scientific rigor and enormous integrity. Nora’s discovery of her father’s work documents the vast and continuing influence his thinking has had on an amazingly wide range of disciplines.
Stafford Beer applied cybernetics to managing organizations e.g., (Allende's Chile alternative to top-down economic planning, video critique) a more positive assessment) on the meaning and origins of cybernetics *** CYBERNETICS & "THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE"; Allende was assassinated by the CIA, replaced by Pinochet and the Dirty War. See Systems Thinking.
Stewart Brand is a systems thinker par excellence. Brand, the center hub of the human network, has a new book, Whole Earth Discipline. He's putting the whole book online for free, with annotations and a reading list link. He makes some stands that are heretical to mainstream greens (pro-nuke and GMO). Those who heard Fred Turner's plenary talk last year will have some sense of how important Brand has been and continues to be. He lobbied to get NASA to release the first picture of Earth from space, predicting its iconic power to unite and inspire. Because of his work with Gov Brown, CA uses half the energy per capita as the rest of US (comparable to EU), and he's working on a 10K year clock.
Fritjof Capra is author of The Tao of Physics, Uncommon Wisdom, The Turning Point, Belonging to the Universe and The Web of Life. He is director of the Center for Ecoliteracy.The Web of Life book 1996. "Eco-Literacy, The Systems View of Life (video) a 2010 interview (video). The Web of Life : A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems S&E Stacks QH501 .C375 1996 **** The Science of Leonardo (video talk). 2014 interview (text).
The Systems View of Life 2014 book: intro pdf, (40 min video overview). Fritjof Capra outlines the lessons about creativity we can learn from Leonardo da Vinci's scientific but also systemic approach. "In my view, what we need today [facing unprecedented environmental and social justice challenges] is exactly the kind of science that Leonardo da Vinci outlined 500 years ago." (video). Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. Hidden Connections The Hidden Connections 2002 FC summary.
Paul Hawken. He has created a database (you can search it sadly now gone) of many thousands of organizations who are working on social and environmental justice, as well as related concerns (short video explain this ***). He thinks these constitute a new kind of social movement. The book Blessed Unrest is the result. video of a talk at Google HQ based on the book. Introduction "Emerson's Savants" explores Emerson, Thoreau and Gandhi. Talk at Longnow.org (audio) June 19, 2007 "The New Great Transformation." 2014 Bioneers Project Drawdown, 30$ solar panels for 3rd World. 2012 Bioneers on how his career began. He is a brilliant systems thinker.
Naomi Ehrich Leonard, marine roboticist. A Princeton University professor, won a MacArthur Genius grant. Leonard constructs autonomous underwater vehicles that mimic flocking birds and assist in the understanding of ocean dynamics article.
James Lovelock is creator of the Gaia Hypothesis (the earth as self-regulating superorganism) and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning, video of talk. 9/10 radio interview (also includes Stewart Brand on climate change and nuclear energy).
Joanna Macy is an "eco-philosopher, is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology (short video definition). A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with four decades of activism. She has created a ground-breaking theoretical framework for personal and social change, as well as a powerful workshop methodology for its application." Video on Great Turning.*** Coming Back to Life : Practice to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World ***(updated 2015 intro download) / Joanna Macy, Molly Young Brown 1998 Location McH Stacks GF80 .M33 1998. Excerpt:Macy, J. and Brown, M. provide a good introduction as well, relating systems thinking to spiritual practices. *** (login required). 2014 Bioneers keynote video. Working Through Environmental Despair (Excerpt, audio and text).
Donella Meadows archive of her articles, one of the best being the 12 Leverage Points. *** See also her 2008 book Thinking in Systems: A Primer Table of Contents. A summary of the conclusion: Dancing With Systems. Meadows was also part of a team of three scientists from MIT in 1972 who created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global 'overshoot,' or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. Now, preeminent environmental scientists Donnella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows audio interview 2004 have teamed up again to update and expand their original findings in The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Global Update. summary pdf.
Peter Senge The Necessary Revolution: Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Bryan Smith, Peter M. Senge, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur, Sara Schley.
In The Social Conquest of Earth, biologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson writes of how humans and insects conquered the Earth by forming complex societies based on group cooperation, and he discusses the evolutionary struggle between our altruistic and selfish natures. aidio interview 4/12.
The Virtual Community by digital pioneer Howard Rheingold. His Tools for Thought traces the development of technology to augment our minds (vs our bodies), including the first programmer Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, who worked with Charles Babbage. Also, Cybernetics (early systems theory), as well as Doug Engelbart. Ted Nelson wrote the Computer Liberation manifesto that inspired hackers, and envisioned a better WWWeb that was never built.
Video
Five minute overview of basic systems concepts.
In A World of Systems feedback loops, buffer, etc (video). ***
A more in-depth overview Santa Fe Institute, 4 videos. ***
Geoffrey West: "Scale: The Search for Simplicity and Unity in the Complexity TEDtalk, longer Google talk , BookTV.
Meltdown: Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik examined the complexity of major systems and why they sometimes fail. (video) 4/18.
Understanding the Complex Systems Around Us: Martin Schmidt at TEDxMcDonogh 2012, comprehensive.
Fritjof Capra, The Systems View of Life (video). Another version (42 min) ****
A more indepth series of videos by Dr. Russell Ackoff provides a very understandable introduction to Systems Thinking.
The Serengeti Rules: Beginning in the 1960s, a small band of young scientists headed out into the wilderness, driven by an insatiable curiosity about how nature works. Immersed in some of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth—from the majestic Serengeti to the Amazon jungle; from the Arctic Ocean to Pacific tide pools—they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life.4/18. Systems thinking can have a huge impact on recovering eco-systems.
Eli Stefanski - Making Systems Thinking Sexy TEDtalk.
James Glattfelder studies complexity: how an interconnected system — say, a swarm of birds — is more than the sum of its parts. And complexity theory, it turns out, can reveal a lot about how the economy works. Glattfelder shares a groundbreaking study of how control flows through the global economy, and how concentration of power in the hands of a shockingly small number leaves us all vulnerable. TEDtalk. See also Netwokrs.
Stafford Beer applied cybernetics to managing organizations e.g., (Allende's Chile alternative to top-down economic planning video critique) a more positive assessment) on the meaning and origins of cybernetics *** CYBERNETICS & "THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE"; Allende was assassinated by the CIA, replaced by Pinochet and the Dirty War. See Systems Thinking.
The Short Attention Span Science Video on systems and sustainability. Example: resilience.
Birth of the Global Mind Tim O'Reilly discusses how evolving technology has disrupted society, and has given birth to the global mind. "The history of civilization is a story of evolution in our ability to build complex 'multicellular minds,'" says Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media (books, conferences, foo camps, Maker Faires, Make magazine.) LongNow talk.
Sacred Economics and the Turning of the Age Charles Eisenstein.
MacArthur Genius award winner Saul Griffith, at X Prize, calls for a systems science for design, Terrarium Science (video).
TEDtalks
Derek Cabrera TEDtalk relates to education ***.
Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn't feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points. TEDtalk. In an influential paper, he asks if the planet can have a tipping point, just like a local ecosystem. What do 24,000 ideas look like? Ecologist Eric Berlow and physicist Sean Gourley apply algorithms to the entire archive of TEDx Talks, taking us on a stimulating visual tour to show how ideas connect globally.
Johan Rockstrom has found nine systems/ "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems. TEDtalk ****
George Whitesides: Toward a science of simplicity nice overview on complexity, emergent properties. ***
Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational -- able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha (wiki), has no lesser goal than to model and explain the physics underlying the universe. TEDtalk video. A New Kind of Science 2008.
James B. Glattfelder aims to give us a richer, data-driven understanding of the people and interactions that control our global economy. He does this not to push an ideology -- but with the hopes of making the world a better place.
How Thinking in Systems can Change the World: Allison Bond.
Are Humans Smarter than Yeast? explores the notion of exponential growth to environment.
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.
Nicholas Christakis (see his book below) explores how the large-scale, face-to-face social networks in which we are embedded affect our lives, and what we can do to take advantage of this fact, for example predict epidemics. TEDtalk video. Related: obesity study. see Networks.
The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison. short video 4/10
The Big Picture, why complexity matters. Rees TEDtalk.
David Christian teaches an ambitious world history course that tells the tale of the entire universe -- from the Big Bang 13 billion years ago to present day. TEDtalk video.
Robert Wright: How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict. Tedtalk.
LongNow talks
Kevin Kelly Technium Unbound. The Technium may best be considered a new organism with which we are symbiotic, as we are symbiotic with the aggregate of Earth’s life, sometimes called “Gaia.” There are pace differences, with Gaia slow, humanity faster, and the Technium really fast. They are not replacing each other but building on each other, and the meta-organism of their combining is so far nameless. KK is a cybernetic/systems thinker November 12, 02014.
Tim Flannery explores how Darwinian ideas got distorted, and how cooperation and slf-organization matters, and why there's hope. Link 4/11
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.
Benoit Mandelbrot is the pioneer of fractals, a broad and powerful tool in the study of many forms of roughness, in nature and in humanity's works -- including even art. TEDtalk video. More on fractals, including how they show up in African culture.
Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie's honeymoon he's enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain. TEDtalk****
Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. (TEDtalk).
Didier Sornette and his Financial Crisis Observatory have plotted a set of early warning signs for unstable, growing systems, tracking the moment when any bubble is about to pop, includes cascades, positive feedback, and emergent behaviors. 6/13.
Hope and fellowship By David Roberts, Grist, takes heart from chaos theory.
Meaning and connection from the brink of chaos: Joshua Freedman at TEDxSantaCruz; With an onslaught of technology and accelerating complexity, we're at risk of become dehumanized as our brains are torn between competing priorities: Data versus People. The solution is surprising and simple, and it starts with a tiny gift.
Audio
Random Rules: The basic processes of life are actually extremely sloppy. More on this theme from RadioLab
The Good Show In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why one creature might stick its neck out for another? From RadioLab
In his book The Perfect Swarm, Len Fisher talks about swarm intelligence — where the collective ideas of a group add up to better solutions than any individual could have dreamed up, including an example of how UPS reorganized its driving routes using the logic of an ant colony. (interview)
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.
A brilliant essay by Meadows 12 leverage point to intervene in a system and summary ***
Macy, J. and Brown, M. provide a good introduction as well, relating systems thinking to spiritual practices. *** (login required).
An Overview of how to think in systems, perhaps using software support.
So You Want to Change the World? Better Read This First alt link systemic thinking about the future.
From Ecosystems to Species to Cultures, Diversity Is Key to Survival 8/16.
Hope and fellowship By David Roberts, Grist. he takes heart from systems theory.
Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity by Peggy Holman (good for design thinking)
Is the “invisible hand” always benign? Or can it be bad? Free-market fans love the idea that “spontaneous order” emerges from local decisions. But what prevents “spontaneous disorder”? Does prudence reliably trump profit? Disorderly superbug and climate change situations say no. Darwin’s Wedge scenarios are where individual incentives diverge from group goals. Cooperation and altruism are more powerful and common in complex systems. "Survival of the Fittest" is commonly misunderstood. More on this can be found on Good Newspage.
14 amazing fractals found in nature Images.
Architects LAB.PRO.FAB seeks to understand the city as a social system, and the built environment as the shaper of that system.
Books and Websites
The Systems View of Life : a unifying vision / **** Fritjof Capra and & Luisi intro pdf S&E Stacks Q175 .C2455 2014 Video overview) (10 min). See People above.
Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems by Derek Cabrera and Laura Cabrera 2015. TEDtalk ***.
David Stroh’s book, “Systems Thinking for Social Change” shares the story of a program that tried to address homelessness in the United States by building more housing units. Only, it didn’t solve the problem. After significant investment, homelessness had not gotten better in the area, it had actually increased! 2015 see Senge.
Geoffrey West: "Scale: The Search for Simplicity and Unity in the Complexity TEDtalk, longer Google talk , BookTV.
New Book: Paul Raskin's Journey to Earthland (Tellus Institute, 2016).
Chaos: Making a New Science **** by James Gleick, includes a chapter on UCSC Chaos Cabal, a grad student rogue operation of pioneers.
Climate Interactive is offering a climate leader training, which involves a free system thinking course models, simulations and other tools*** 2/15
Emergence by Steven Johnson ***review interview. See also Where Good Ideas Come From
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler. TEDtalk by Christakis.
Resilience Thinking, by scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt, presents an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world.
The Building Blocks of Wholeness adapted from Christopher Alexander's Fifteen Properties from his Nature of Order Google book preview.
Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens Lost Touch with Reality while Transforming the World by James A Coffmanand Donald C Mikulecky (builds on Macy and Brown article above?).
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 Necessary Revolution: Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Bryan Smith, Peter M. Senge, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur, Sara Schley.
No Straight Lines – "the new read/write book from Alan Moore – argues that we have reached the nadir of the adaptive range of an industrialised world, in fact we are now faced with a trilemma of social, organisational and economic complexity, tensions and questions. And therefore face a design problem. No Straight Lines presents a new logic and inspiring plea for a more human-centric world that describes an entirely new way for true social, economic and organisational innovation to happen." (free but requires info exchange)excerpt/overview*** (free). Video.
Complexity Demystified: A Guide for Practitioners by Patrick Beautement and Christine Broenner 2011.
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)
Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems Edited by Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling 2012 Island Press (go Slugs).
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
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
The Web of Life : A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems / Fritjof Capra (contains an introduction to systems thinking by the author of The Tao of Physics) S&E Stacks QH501 .C375 1996
A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber (not scholarly, but does integrate environmental thinking).
From System Complexity to Emergent Properties By M. A. Aziz-Alaoui, C. Bertelle (technical)
Social Networks have some very interesting properties. Christakis and Fowler's book Connected, also see TEDtalk.
The Political Gene: How Darwin's Ideas Changed Politics by Dennis Sewell. Darwin's "survival of the fittest" has been widely misconstrued.
Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate and the author of The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex. Short video on emergence. TEDtalks
Yochai Benkler, The Penguin and the Leviathan, How Cooperation Triumphs Over Self-Interest For decades we have been designing systems tailored to harness selfish tendencies, without regard to potential negative effects on the enormous potential for cooperation that pervades society. We can do better. We can design systems -- be they legal or technical; corporate or civic; administrative or commercial--that let our humanity find a fuller expression; systems that tap into a far greater promise and potential of human endeavor than we have generally allowed in the past.
In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world.
Judith Rodin, author of The Resilience Dividend[: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong, video 2014.
Articles in category "Systems Thinking"
The following 3 pages are in this category, out of 3 total.
