Appendix I - Elaboration of Whole Systems Thinking

In the first section, I review succinctly some of the influences and trends, which, seen in relationship, may be viewed as informing bases for whole systems thinking. The four areas reviewed are systems thinking, indigenous worldviews, organicism/ecologism, and complexity. Whilst these areas are referred to in the main Thesis, this Appendix allows something of the provenance of whole systems thinking to be outlined in more depth. In the second section ‘A Whole Systems Model’, I further develop the triadic model of paradigm and experience (Seeing, Knowing, Doing) which is then used to help represent the dimensions of paradigm change, in parallel with the model of staged learning levels introduced in the main Thesis. In section 3 ‘Whole Systems Thinking and Sustainability’, the model is employed as a framework for a discussion of a whole systems view of sustainability.