Assessing (Social-Ecological) Systems Thinking by Evaluating Cognitive Maps

Ecological conversations and systems thinking

Introduction Charles P. Snow building upon his 1950s critique of the separation of two cultures of science and humanities said later “If you are going to have a scientist in a position of isolated power, the only scientist amongst non-scientists, it is dangerous whoever he is” (Snow, 1962:118). Sir Charles went on to suggest that for intelligent and highly placed non-scientists to believe in a ...

Assessing Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems: Workbook for Practitioners

Evaluating systems thinking in housing

This paper describes and evaluates work carried out in the social housing context in the United Kingdom using a systems thinking approach called ‘lean systems’ (LS). The work, sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was designed to test whether LS could improve the efficiency of delivery of housing management and maintenance services. A pilot programme was developed in which three...

Social and Ecological Responsibility: A Critical Systemic Perspective Stream 13: OR/Systems Thinking for Social Improvement

The notion of systemic thinking for social and ecological responsibility is deconstructed and its holistic potential examined from a critical systemic perspective informed by the ideas of the systems philosopher, C. West-Churchman. Systemic thinking involves being critically aware of the boundaries in which we work and the boundaries to which we apply our expertise. It involves making boundary ...

A Structure for Assessing Systems Thinking

Many educators agree on the importance of systems thinking. Indeed, it has reached buzzword status, with many state and national educational guidelines acknowledging the importance of systems thinking skills. Recent evidence of the support for systems thinking can be seen in Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which now contain “cross-cutting concepts” that sound very much like systems th...