Systems Thinking Approach For Social Problems

Author : David Peter Stroh
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2015-09-24
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781603585811

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Systems Thinking For Social Change by David Peter Stroh Pdf

Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation. How do these unintended consequences come about and how can we avoid them? By applying conventional thinking to complex social problems, we often perpetuate the very problems we try so hard to solve, but it is possible to think differently, and get different results. Systems Thinking for Social Change enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it is so important in their work. It also gives concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning without becoming a technical expert. Systems thinking leader David Stroh walks readers through techniques he has used to help people improve their efforts to end homelessness, improve public health, strengthen education, design a system for early childhood development, protect child welfare, develop rural economies, facilitate the reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society, resolve identity-based conflicts, and more. The result is a highly readable, effective guide to understanding systems and using that knowledge to get the results you want.

Author : Vivek Vijay,Sandeep Kumar Yadav,Bibhas Adhikari,Harinipriya Seshadri,Deepak Kumar Fulwani
Publisher : Springer
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2015-01-05
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9788132221418

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Systems Thinking Approach for Social Problems by Vivek Vijay,Sandeep Kumar Yadav,Bibhas Adhikari,Harinipriya Seshadri,Deepak Kumar Fulwani Pdf

The book is a collection of peer-reviewed scientific papers submitted by active researchers in the 37th National System Conference (NSC 2013). NSC is an annual event of the Systems Society of India (SSI), primarily oriented to strengthen the systems movement and its applications for the welfare of humanity. A galaxy of academicians, professionals, scientists, statesman and researchers from different parts of the country and abroad are invited to attend the conference. The book presents research articles in the areas of system’s modelling, complex network modelling, cyber security, sustainable systems design, health care systems, socio-economic systems, and clean and green technologies. The book can be used as a tool for further research.

Author : Vivek Vijay,Sandeep Kumar Yadav,Bibhas Adhikari
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2015-01-31
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8132221427

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Systems Thinking Approach for Social Problems by Vivek Vijay,Sandeep Kumar Yadav,Bibhas Adhikari Pdf

Author : Werner Schirmer,Dimitris Michailakis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-03-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780429663987

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Systems Theory for Social Work and the Helping Professions by Werner Schirmer,Dimitris Michailakis Pdf

Social systems occur in many contexts of social work. This book provides an easy-to-read introduction to systems thinking for social workers who will encounter social problems in their professional practice or academic research. It offers new insights and fresh perspectives on this familiar topic and invites creative, critical, and empathetic thinking with a systems perspective. Through introducing systems theory as a problem-oriented approach for dealing with complex interpersonal relations and social systems, this book provides a framework for studying social relations. The authors present a strand of systems theory (inspired by sociologist Niklas Luhmann) that offers innovative, surprising, and practically relevant understandings of everyday social life, inclusion/exclusion, social problems, interventions, and society in general. Systems Theory for Social Work and the Helping Professions should be considered essential reading for all social work students taking modules on sociology and social policy as well as students of nursing, medicine, counselling, and occupational health and therapy.

Author : Kambiz Maani
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2016-11-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9789814619752

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Multi-stakeholder Decision Making For Complex Problems: A Systems Thinking Approach With Cases by Kambiz Maani Pdf

In the complex world of today, important policy and business decisions are still made with a 17th Century reductionist mindset and approach. Yet, complex challenges such as climate change, poverty, public health, security, energy futures, and sustainability transcend any single science, discipline or agency. Rather, they require integration of social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental concerns to achieve acceptable and sustainable outcomes. This entails synthesis of diverse knowledge and perspectives in a transparent and unifying decision-making process, engaging stakeholders with competing interests, perspectives, and agendas under uncertain and often adversarial conditions.Multi-Stakeholder Decision Making for Complex Problems — A Systems Thinking Approach with Cases brings together a unique self-contained volume to address this challenge. The book introduces the systems approach in non-technical language for multi-issue, multi-stakeholder decision making supplemented by numerous case studies including business, economics, healthcare, agriculture, energy, sustainability, policy, and planning. The book provides a fresh and timely approach with practical tools for dealing with complex challenges facing evolving global business and society today.

Author : Gillian Ragsdell,Jennifer Wilby
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781461513131

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Understanding Complexity by Gillian Ragsdell,Jennifer Wilby Pdf

Peter A. Coming Palo Alto, CA November, 2000 This volwne represents a distillation of the plenary sessions at a unique millenniwn year event -a World Congress of the Systems Sciences in conjunction with the 44th annual meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). The overall theme of the conference was "Understanding Complexity in the New Millenniwn. " Held at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Canada, from July 16-22,2000, the conference included some 350 participants from over 30 countries, many of whom were representatives of the 21 organizations and groups that co-hosted this landmark event. Each of these co-host organizations/groups also presented a segment of the program, including a plenary speech. In addition, the conference featured a nwnber of distinguished "keynote" speeches related to the three daily World Congress themes: (1) The Evolution of Complex Systems, (2) The Dynamics of Complex Systems, and (3) Human Systems in the 21st Century. There were also seven special plenary-level symposia on a range of timely topics, including: "The Art and Science of Forecasting in the Age of Global Wanning"; "Capitalism in the New Millenniwn: The Challenge of Sustainability"; "The Future of the Systems Sciences"; "Global Issues in the New Millenniwn"; "Resources and the Environment in the New Millenniwn"; "The Lessons of Y2K"; and "Can There be a Reconciliation Between Science and Religion?" Included in this special commemorative volume is a cross-section of these presentations.

Author : Kucher, J. H.,Raible, Stephanie E.
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2022-01-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781788974219

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Social Entrepreneurship by Kucher, J. H.,Raible, Stephanie E. Pdf

This accessible textbook provides a comprehensive guide to the building blocks of sustainable social enterprise, exploring how core elements contribute to either the success or failure of the social venture. It analyzes the key skills needed to synthesize effective business practices with effective social innovation and points out both what works and what does not. Taking a practical approach, it demonstrates how big ideas can be transformed into entities that produce lasting change.

Author : Donella Meadows
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2008-12-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781603581486

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Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows Pdf

The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In 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. 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.

Author : Throne, Robin
Publisher : IGI Global
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-12-10
Category : Reference
ISBN : 9781799884804

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Social Justice Research Methods for Doctoral Research by Throne, Robin Pdf

Doctoral researchers are increasingly focusing on the social justice aspects of dissertation research problems and are often uncertain on how to incorporate societal change issues within a dissertation format. Due to the current climate, this interest in social justice is likely to continue to increase. Many aim to affect change within their discipline, workplace, or communities as they conduct dissertation research across doctoral program areas. Social Justice Research Methods for Doctoral Research presents contemporary social justice research method strategies and incorporates the aspects of social justice into research design. This major reference work illustrates how, why, and where to incorporate conventional and creative social justice research methodologies across both qualitative and quantitative approaches from various theoretical and conceptual perspectives. Covering topics such as community-based research, educational leadership, and cancel culture, this book serves as a dynamic resource for researchers, post-graduate students, researcher supervisors, librarians, methodologists, research program developers, and education administrators.

Author : Cynthia Rayner,François Bonnici
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2021-10-12
Category : Social change
ISBN : 9780198857457

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The Systems Work of Social Change by Cynthia Rayner,François Bonnici Pdf

The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to 'solve' social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only beentrenching the status quo.Systemic social challenges produce bewildering results when we try to solve them due to their complexity, scale, and depth. While strategies to tackle complexity and scale have received significant attention and investment, challenges that arise from deeply-held beliefs, values, and assumptions thatno longer serve us well have been largely overlooked. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Rather than delivering solutions or being lured by grander visionsof 'systems change', these principles and practices focus on the process of change itself. Simple yet profound, these stories distil a timely set of lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers on how connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agencyfor people and communities while building social systems that are responsive in a rapidly-changing world.

Author : OECD
Publisher : OECD Publishing
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2017-08-11
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9789264279865

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Systems Approaches to Public Sector Challenges Working with Change by OECD Pdf

This report, produced by the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, explores how systems approaches can be used in the public sector to solve complex or “wicked” problems.

Author : Anthony J. Masys
Publisher : Springer
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2015-09-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319211060

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Applications of Systems Thinking and Soft Operations Research in Managing Complexity by Anthony J. Masys Pdf

This book captures current trends and developments in the field of systems thinking and soft operations research which can be applied to solve today's problems of dynamic complexity and interdependency. Such ‘wicked problems’ and messes are seemingly intractable problems characterized as value-laden, ambiguous, and unstable, that resist being tamed by classical problem solving. Actions and interventions associated with this complex problem space can have highly unpredictable and unintended consequences. Examples of such complex problems include health care reform, global climate change, transnational serious and organized crime, terrorism, homeland security, human security, disaster management, and humanitarian aid. Moving towards the development of solutions to these complex problem spaces depends on the lens we use to examine them and how we frame the problem. It will be shown that systems thinking and soft operations research has had great success in contributing to the management of complexity.

Author : Bankole Osita Awuzie,Peter McDermott
Publisher : Springer
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-07
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9789811372919

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Infrastructure Delivery Systems by Bankole Osita Awuzie,Peter McDermott Pdf

This book provides a framework for governing policy implementation by various stakeholders during the delivery of infrastructure projects. This framework relies on the tenets of the Viable Systems Model (VSM), a systems cybernetic model that enjoys a high level of acceptance in organizational analysis. The book presents a step-by-step guide for the multi-level governance of implementation during project delivery. Although the book focuses on the context of local content development policy and construction projects (infrastructure), it is presented in a manner that allows it to be adapted to other policies and sectors. The book includes a step-by-step methodology for assessing policy implementation in project or policy delivery systems. In addition, it shares insights into the probable challenges faced by the actors within the delivery system in achieving optimal implementation performance. Critical success factors are also highlighted, and illustrative diagrams of the framework are provided to facilitate understanding. The book is logically structured and presented in a straightforward manner. Also, the transposition of the VSM from a conventional organizational context to a multi-organizational context will appeal to readers with a background in systems thinking, monitoring or evaluation.

Author : Michael C. Jackson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 830 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03-15
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781119118398

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Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity by Michael C. Jackson Pdf

From the winner of the INCOSE Pioneer Award 2022 The world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. They must deal with problems that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity, and spread across traditional boundaries. Simple solutions to complex problems are usually inadequate and risk exacerbating the original issues. Leaders of international bodies such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO and WHO — and of major business, public sector, charitable, and professional organizations — have all declared that systems thinking is an essential leadership skill for managing the complexity of the economic, social and environmental issues that confront decision makers. Systems thinking must be implemented more generally, and on a wider scale, to address these issues. An evaluation of different systems methodologies suggests that they concentrate on different aspects of complexity. To be in the best position to deal with complexity, decision makers must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and learn how to employ them in combination. This is called critical systems thinking. Making use of over 25 case studies, the book offers an account of the development of systems thinking and of major efforts to apply the approach in real-world interventions. Further, it encourages the widespread use of critical systems practice as a means of ensuring responsible leadership in a complex world. The INCOSE Pioneer Award is presented to someone who, by their achievements in the engineering of systems, has contributed uniquely to major products or outcomes enhancing society or meeting its needs. The criteria may apply to a single outstanding outcome or a lifetime of significant achievements in effecting successful systems. Comments on a previous version of the book: Russ Ackoff: ‘the book is the best overview of the field I have seen’ JP van Gigch: ‘Jackson does a masterful job. The book is lucid ...well written and eminently readable’ Professional Manager (Journal of the Chartered Management Institute): ‘Provides an excellent guide and introduction to systems thinking for students of management’

Author : Michael C. Jackson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 740 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2019-04-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781119118374

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Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity by Michael C. Jackson Pdf

From the winner of the INCOSE Pioneer Award 2022 The world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. They must deal with problems that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity, and spread across traditional boundaries. Simple solutions to complex problems are usually inadequate and risk exacerbating the original issues. Leaders of international bodies such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO and WHO — and of major business, public sector, charitable, and professional organizations — have all declared that systems thinking is an essential leadership skill for managing the complexity of the economic, social and environmental issues that confront decision makers. Systems thinking must be implemented more generally, and on a wider scale, to address these issues. An evaluation of different systems methodologies suggests that they concentrate on different aspects of complexity. To be in the best position to deal with complexity, decision makers must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and learn how to employ them in combination. This is called critical systems thinking. Making use of over 25 case studies, the book offers an account of the development of systems thinking and of major efforts to apply the approach in real-world interventions. Further, it encourages the widespread use of critical systems practice as a means of ensuring responsible leadership in a complex world. The INCOSE Pioneer Award is presented to someone who, by their achievements in the engineering of systems, has contributed uniquely to major products or outcomes enhancing society or meeting its needs. The criteria may apply to a single outstanding outcome or a lifetime of significant achievements in effecting successful systems. Comments on a previous version of the book: Russ Ackoff: ‘the book is the best overview of the field I have seen’ JP van Gigch: ‘Jackson does a masterful job. The book is lucid ...well written and eminently readable’ Professional Manager (Journal of the Chartered Management Institute): ‘Provides an excellent guide and introduction to systems thinking for students of management’