Systems Thinking

The UK government has agreed to a 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050, against a 1990 baseline. Britain's approximately 26 million existing homes account for 27% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. Given the low-build rate for new homes, today's homes will comprise at least 80% of the 2050 housing stock. Therefore, it is essential that significant improvements are realised to existing homes if the UK is to meet its sustainability objectives. This paper develops a building rating system designed to assess the sustainability merits of existing home retrofits and to indicate the success of a range of retrofit measures. With the methodology applied to six case studies, performance of the retrofit measures adopted and their prioritisation are discussed, together with the effectiveness of a retrofit building rating system. The creation and adoption of a purpose-designed building rating system, such as the one described and demonstrated here, with escalating mandatory performance levels in energy and water efficiency, would help to drive improvement in existing homes. Such an approach would be used to rate existing homes, galvanise stakeholders around a common framework and provide long-term visibility to the marketplace. It must be integrated with existing building regulations, planning mechanisms, incentive programmes, and assessment requirements such as energy performance certificates. Encouraging action now will not only result in quality improvements to the existing housing stock and a reduced ecological footprint but will also build resilience in energy and water systems and facilitate adaptation to future climate change.

Main principles of the complex nonlinear thinking which are based on the notions of the modern theory of evolution and self-organization of complex systems called also synergetics are under discussion in the article. The principles are transdisciplinary, holistic, and oriented to a human being. The notions of system complexity, nonlinearity of evolution, creative chaos, space-time definiteness of structure-attractors of evolution, resonant influences, nonlinear and soft management are here of great importance. In this connection, a prominent contribution made to system analysis and to a necessary reform of education and thinking by Edgar Morin is considered.

"Under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), Local Government is required to have particular regard to the effects of climate change. This tool acknowledges the complexity and interconnectedness of human and natural resource systems. It uses systems-thinking tools to explore the complex dynamics of urban water supply and demand approaches, including relevant social factors, with particular regard to communities adapting to the effects of climate change.
This tool is based on findings of the Wellington case study on urban water supply management, which is part of a FRST funded collaborative research project on community vulnerability, resilience and adaptation to climate change led by the New Zealand Climate Change research Institute (CCRI). This case study used scenarios to explore the impacts of key factors such as population growth, water intensity and climate change on water supply and demand in Wellington, and systems-thinking tools to explore the implications of response options. A key finding of the Wellington case study is the importance of demand management, along with community engagement, participation and collaboration for adapting to an increased risk of water shortages."

Increasingly, successful professions in contemporary information and knowledge organisations are reliant on individual and collective information literacy capabilities. This paper argues that within the library and information management industry, professionals enjoy especially rich opportunities to cultivate requisite workplace information literacy knowledge, skills and abilities.

"Der Begriff des „Systems“ lässt sich in unterschiedlichsten Kontexten und Variationen finden. Von „systemischen Beratungen“ bis hin zur Forschung an „komplexen dynamischen Systemen“ scheint ein sehr vielseitiger und anpassungsfähiger Grundbegriff vorzuliegen. Und auch unter dem Deckmantel anderer Begriffe wie z.B. Chaostheorie, Synergetik oder Kybernetik lässt sich etwas Systemhaftes vermuten. Aber was bedeutet „Systemhaftigkeit“ überhaupt?
Um Antworten auf diese Frage zu bekommen, führte der Weg in die Wissenschaft, wo klärende Antworten erhofft wurden. Im Zeitraum von zwei Jahren interviewte ich zusammen mit einem Kollegen rund vierzig Wissenschaftler und Berater um die Bedeutung von Systemen besser verstehen zu können: Was wird als System verstanden? Welche Systemtheorien wurden entwickelt? Wie wird eine systemische Sichtweise praktisch angewendet?
Die Interviews wurden auf Video aufgenommen um sie in multimedialer Form präsentieren zu können. Aufgrund des enormen Umfangs und der Komplexität des Materials werden dabei jedoch nur Bruchteile der erfahrenen Informationen gezeigt. Aus diesem Grund wurde in dieser Arbeit etwa die Hälfte der Interviews in schriftlicher Form bearbeitet und analysiert.
System(theoret)isch zu denken und zu handeln bedeutet unter anderem nichtlineare Sichtweisen zu betonen. Deswegen konzipierte ich die Interviews in Form von strukturierten Modulen. Jedes Modul besteht aus einer prägnanten Darstellung der wesentlichsten Argumente, die in folgende sieben Kategorien gegliedert wurden: System-Beispiele, System-Definitionen, System-Theorien, System-Prinzipien, Methoden, Interdisziplinarität und Praxis. Dadurch wird trotz schriftlicher Linearität eine nichtlineare Herangehensweise und interdisziplinäres Querlesen ermöglicht.
Um das fachliche Netzwerk weiter erforschen zu können, werden anschließend empfohlene Bücher mit Anmerkungen des Interviewten, Lehrveranstaltungen und ergänzende Links aufgezeigt. Da es bei Systemforschungen immer auch um die Beobachtung der Beobachtung geht, wurden die Texte den jeweiligen Wissenschaftlern geschickt, damit sie diese redigieren und kommentieren können. Dadurch sind verschiedene Möglichkeiten des Lesens gegeben – die Wahl liegt beim Beobachter."

"The Cooum River is an extremely polluted stream that flows through Chennai, India. Past attempts to rehabilitate the river have focussed on physical interventions such as dredging. However, the problem continues to worsen. This research has borrowed techniques from adaptive management and soft systems methodology to apply an ecosystem approach to the problem. This involved participatory development of conceptual models of relevant systems that informed construction of a GIS-based DSS and environmental model. This paper addresses the link between conceptual models and the DSS. The process of problem identification, system conceptualization, development of the GIS database and DSS, and its use for exploratory scenario analysis was found to stimulate learning about the situation and promoted novel solutions to the problem.

Keywords: Conceptual model; GIS; Decision support system; Soft systems methodology; Adaptive management; Urban environmental management; Environmental model"

I processi cognitivi coinvolti nell’apprendimento basato sulla simulazione possono essere analizzati alla luce del concetto di simulazione mentale, oggetto di studio in molte aree delle scienza cognitiva. Ma quali sono le similiarità e le differenze fra la simulazione “in silico” e quella mentale? E come possono questi due tipi di simulazione integrarsi per facilitare ed estendere i processi mentali degli studenti nella comprensione dei concetti scientifici? La risposta a queste domande richiede una rinnovata attenzione al computer come “strumento per pensare” e ai processi mentali sottostanti l’apprendimento. Sono a tal fine discussi alcuni esempi specifici e presentate delle linee guida per la creazione di ambienti di apprendimento basati sulla simulazione.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

"This paper examines the relation of two basic concepts in the social sciences, system and network. It asks whether they have normative implications (manifest or latent) and if so, if the choice of concept by different authors or in different approaches can be explained this way.

It is commonly held that system approaches deal primarily with questions of control and regulation whereas networks are much more associated with lose structures. It turns out, however, that this is only true with respect to dictionary definitions. Current system theories, it will be argued, avoid the notion of control altogether by stressing the self-regulating and non-hierarchical features of social systems. Current network theories on the other hand seem to realize that there is a need for maintenance and control of the social fabric."

"La presente ponencia hace parte de los avances de la tesis doctoral “Internacionalización de la Educación Superior en Colombia durante la primera década del siglo XXI: El caso de la UPTC sede Tunja”, que se realiza en la Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia.
Knight (2003, pp. 2-3), define la internacionalización de la educación superior como una integración internacional o intercultural que se da dentro de las funciones y los objetivos que asumen las instituciones de educación superior. La complejidad que demanda la comprensión de la influencia que la internacionalización tiene dentro del proceso formativo de los educandos de pregrado, hace necesario asumir su estudio desde una perspectiva sistémica. Conllevando a percibir a la internacionalización como un sistema, definido por la sistemología interpretativa como la “relación autorreferencial dinámica entre figura y fondo” Andrade et. al. (2001, p. 82).
Siendo la internacionalización la figura, el fondo está compuesto por los aspectos socio-culturales-económicos-educativos sobre el cual se desarrolla e interrelaciona. Identificar y representar la manera en que ocurre la relación autorreferencial, permitirá construir un modelo de interdependencias, que permita mejorar la comprensión del fenómeno de estudio.
Dentro de los aspectos que han de considerarse como perteneciente a la figura se encuentra: la política de internacionalización de la institución; la movilidad académica; la movilidad estudiantil; los convenios interinstitucionales; entre otros. En lo que al fondo se refiere se considera: la política educativa de la universidad; la percepción de docentes y educandos sobre la internacionalización; los recursos con los que cuenta la comunidad académica; las políticas educativas del Estado; entre otros.
Además la comprensión del fenómeno de la internacionalización, hace necesario identificar el suprasistema que lo contiene, y así poder identificar el rol que juega dentro de este. Tal suprasistema es la Educación Superior, la cual también debe ser comprendida como un sistema."