Thinking in Systems: A PrimerIn the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, "Limits to Growth"--The first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet-- Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Meadows' newly released manuscript, "Thinking in Systems," is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world--war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation--are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, "Thinking in Systems" helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Tytania - LibraryThingRecommended to me by a coworker. Tries to teach you how to view problems not in isolation but as systems - interactions of many variables at once. Tries to help you identify the likely leverage points ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - dhmontgomery - LibraryThingI found the first half of this book to be very difficult to get through, not because it was impenetrable, but because it just didn't excite me. Once I ground through and made it to the second half, I ... Read full review
Contents
one The Basics | 11 |
Two A Brief Visit to the Systems Zoo | 35 |
Three Why Systems Work So Well | 75 |
five System Traps and Opportunities | 111 |
Six Leverage PointsPlaces to Intervene in a System | 145 |
Seven Living in a World of Systems | 166 |
Appendix | 187 |
Notes | 204 |
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Common terms and phrases
ability actors addiction balancing feedback loop balancing loop boundaries bounded rationality budworm can’t capital lifetime capital stock cause coffee common complex systems decisions Dennis Meadows discrepancy Donella Meadows dynamic economy eroding escalation example exponential growth exponentially extraction faster fertility Figure fish flows furnace Garrett Hardin goal grow growth happen heat hierarchy human increase inflow Initial stock value interconnections International Herald Tribune inventory investment keep leverage points limits Limits to Growth mental models mortality nonlinear nonrenewable nonrenewable resource oscillations outflow output paradigm percent perception delay physical policy resistance pollution population problem produce purpose reinforcing feedback loop reinforcing loop resilience resource stock response room temperature rule beating self-organization shift stocks and flows subsystems system structure systems thinking There’s thermostat tion trying understand unit capital Wendell Berry yield per unit
Bibliographic information
| Title | Thinking in Systems: A Primer |
| Author | Donella H. Meadows |
| Editor | Diana Wright |
| Publisher | Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008 |
| ISBN | 1603580557, 9781603580557 |
| Length | 218 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |