![]() Despite the inherent logic of systems thinking, governments, corporations, foundations, universities, and non-profit organizations still work mostly by breaking issues and problems into their separate parts and dealing with each in isolation. Elsewhere, business as usual confidently marched on unperturbed. The actual benefits of systems theory, however, remained mostly in the realm of computers and communications technology. Systems thinking would enable us to perceive the patterns that connected otherwise disparate things and to detect the counter-intuitive logic underlying an often deceptive reality, thereby creating more coherent diagnoses, policies, and plans. Simon, Erwin Laszlo, Jay Forester, Dennis and Donella Meadows, Peter Senge and others wrote persuasively about the power of systems analysis. Based on advances in communications, operations research, and cybernetics from World War II, Kenneth Boulding, James G. The postwar decades between 19 were the grand era for systems theory. Garrett Hardin, The Cybernetics of Competition 3 History of Systems Theory One of the most important ideas in modern science is the idea of a system and it is almost impossible to define. must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.Ī system (a) a set of units or elements interconnected so that changes in some elements or their relations produce changes in other parts of the system, and (b) the entire system exhibits properties and behaviors that are different from those of the parts. The application of systems offers at least six possibilities to improve urban governance.Ī system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something. A systems perspective to urban governance is a lens by which we might see more clearly through the fog of change, and potentially better manage the complex cause and effect relationships between social and ecological phenomena.The challenge is to transition organized urban complexity built on an industrial model and designed for automobiles, sprawl, and economic growth into coherent, civil, and durable places.One of the most important lessons being that land is an evolving organism of interrelated parts soils, hydrology, biota, wildlife, plants, animals, and people. Much of what we have learned about managing real systems began in agriculture.However despite a great deal of talk about systems, we continue to administer, organize, analyze, manage, and govern complex ecological systems as if they were a collection of isolated parts and not an indissoluble union of energy, water, soils, land, forests, biota, and air. The decades between 19 were the grand era for systems theory.Reducing wholes to parts lies at the core of the scientific worldview we inherited from Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and their modern acolytes in the sciences of economics, efficiency, and management.The third part focuses on whether and how that knowledge and systems science can be deployed to improve urban governance in the face of rapid climate destabilization so that sustainability becomes the norm, not the occasional success story. The second part describes the ways in which our understanding of systems is growing−not so much from theorizing, but from practical applications in agriculture, building design, and medical science. This article first briefly explores the question of why advances in systems theory have failed to transform public policy. ![]() Yet, systems dynamics as a science has yet to transform the way we conduct the public business. ![]() The idea that nothing exists in isolation−but only as part of a system−has long been embedded in folklore, religious scriptures, and common sense. “We live in an interconnected world”, the author argues.
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