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Soft Systems Methodology: A Thirty Year Retrospective a
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In the Society for General Systems Research (SGS) as discussed by the authors, a meta-level language and theory in which the problems of many different disciplines could be expressed and solved, and it was hoped that doing this would help to promote the unity of science.Abstract:
Although the history of thought reveals a number of holistic thinkers — Aristotle, Marx, Husserl among them— it was only in the 1950s that any version of holistic thinking became institutionalized. The kind of holistic thinking which then came to the fore, and was the concern of a newly created organization, was that which makes explicit use of the concept of ‘system’, and today it is ‘systems thinking’ in its various forms which would be taken to be the very paradigm of thinking holistically. In 1954, as recounted in Chapter 3 of Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, only one kind of systems thinking was on the table: the development of a mathematically expressed general theory of systems. It was supposed that this would provide a meta-level language and theory in which the problems of many different disciplines could be expressed and solved; and it was hoped that doing this would help to promote the unity of science. These were the aspirations of the pioneers, but looking back from 1999we can see that the project has not succeeded. The literature contains very little of the kind of outcomes anticipated by the founders of the Society for General Systems Research; and scholars in the many subject areas towhich a holistic approach is relevant have been understandably reluctant to see their pet subject as simply one more example of some broader ‘general system’!read more
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The dynamic sustainability framework: addressing the paradox of sustainment amid ongoing change
TL;DR: A Dynamic Sustainability Framework is proposed that involves: continued learning and problem solving, ongoing adaptation of interventions with a primary focus on fit between interventions and multi-level contexts, and expectations for ongoing improvement as opposed to diminishing outcomes over time.
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Systems approaches to integrated solid waste management in developing countries.
TL;DR: The importance of founding new SWM approaches for developing country contexts in post-normal science and complex, adaptive systems thinking is demonstrated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Principles for knowledge co-production in sustainability research
Albert V. Norström,Christopher Cvitanovic,Christopher Cvitanovic,Marie Löf,Simon West,Simon West,Simon West,Carina Wyborn,Carina Wyborn,Patricia Balvanera,Angela T. Bednarek,Elena M. Bennett,Reinette Biggs,Reinette Biggs,Ariane de Bremond,Ariane de Bremond,Bruce M. Campbell,Josep G. Canadell,Stephen R. Carpenter,Carl Folke,Carl Folke,Elizabeth A. Fulton,Elizabeth A. Fulton,Owen Gaffney,Owen Gaffney,Stefan Gelcich,Jean-Baptiste Jouffray,Jean-Baptiste Jouffray,Melissa Leach,Martin Le Tissier,Berta Martín-López,Elena Louder,Marie-France Loutre,Alison M. Meadow,Harini Nagendra,Davnah Payne,Garry D. Peterson,Belinda Reyers,Belinda Reyers,Robert J. Scholes,Chinwe Ifejika Speranza,Marja Spierenburg,Marja Spierenburg,Mark Stafford-Smith,Maria Tengö,Sandra van der Hel,Ingrid van Putten,Ingrid van Putten,Henrik Österblom +48 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a set of four general principles that underlie high-quality knowledge co-production for sustainability research, and offer practical guidance on how to engage in meaningful co-productive practices, and how to evaluate their quality and success.
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Energy cultures: A framework for understanding energy behaviours
TL;DR: The Energy Cultures framework as mentioned in this paper is a conceptual framework that aims to assist in understanding the factors that influence energy consumption behavior, and to help identify opportunities for behaviour change, while drawing also from lifestyles and systems thinking.
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Challenges to science and society in the sustainable management and use of water: investigating the role of social learning
TL;DR: The SLIM (Social Learning for the integrated management and sustainable use of water at catchment scale) project as mentioned in this paper is a multidisciplinary group of researchers to research social learning in catchments of different type, scale, and socioeconomic situation.
References
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