csc2720h:% systems%thinking%for%%...

© 2014 Steve Easterbrook. This presentation is available free for non-commercial use with attribution under a creative commons license.

Prof Steve Easterbrook Dept of Computer Science

CSC2720H: Systems Thinking for Global Problems

University of Toronto Department of Computer Science

© 2014 Steve Easterbrook. This presentation is available free for non-commercial use with attribution under a creative commons license. 2

Course Goals ➜ To change your perspective

➜ To give you new thinking tools

➜ To provide concepts & terms to help understand dynamic, complex systems

➜ To persuade you that systems thinking offers a coherent intellectual field of study

➜ To encourage you to apply these ideas in your own research



Outline

➜ Course Intro Ä Website: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/SystemsThinking Ä Books Ä Assignments

➜ Key Ideas Ä Linear Thinking vs Systems Thinking Ä Parts vs Wholes; Reductionism vs Holism Ä Dynamic equilibrium Ä Modeling: Stocks & Flows; Feedback loops Ä Second order cybernetics Ä System transformation, collapse, and resilience Ä Boundary critique



Books

Donella Meadows Thinking In Systems

Gerald Weinberg Intro to General

Systems Thinking

Michael C. Jackson Systems Approaches to Management

Ramage & Shipp Systems Thinkers

Bryan Walker & David Salt

Resilience Thinking



Assignments ➜ Class Participation

Ä Show up Ä Do stuff Ä Get credit

➜ A 5-minute talk about a prominent systems thinker Ä Must agree on who does whom Ä Sources: Ramage & Shipp’s book, course website Ä Bonus marks: Make it a Pecha Kucha!

➜ Term Paper Ä E.g. A Case Study applying ST in your own research area Ä Or…?



Why Systems Thinking? ➜ What makes a traffic jam?

➜ How do epidemics spread?

➜ Why does the stock market fluctuate?

➜ How should we address climate change?

➜ What general principles characterize the behaviour of complex systems?



Course Overview 1.  Intro

2.  Feedback Loops

3.  Metabolism of the Anthropocene

4.  Delay and Inertia

5.  Resilience and Collapse

6.  Systems Archetypes

7.  Chaos and Complexity Theory

8.  Leverage Points

9.  Interpretivist Systems Thinking

10.  Boundary Critique

11.  Mindfulness!

12.  Applied Systems Thinking



So what is a system? ➜ Ackoff: A system is a set of two or more

elements that satisfies the following conditions: Ä The behaviour of each element has an effect on the behaviour of the

whole Ä The behaviour of the elements and their effect on the whole are inter-

dependent Ä However sub-groups of elements are formed, each has an effect on

the behaviour of the whole and none has an independent effect on it

➜ Weinberg: A system is a way of looking at the world Ä Systems don’t really exist! Ä Just a convenient way of describing things (cf: set theory)



Elements of a system ➜  Boundary

Ä  Separates a system from its environment

Ä  Often not sharply defined Ä  Also known as an “interface”

➜  Environment Ä  Part of the world with which the

system can interact Ä  System and environment are inter-

related

➜  Observable Interactions Ä  How the system interacts with its

environment (inputs and outputs) Ä  A closed system has no interaction

with its environment Ä  No system is fully closed

➜  Subsystems Ä  Can decompose a system into parts Ä  Each part is also a system Ä  For each subsystem, the remainder of

the system is its environment Ä  Subsystems are inter-dependent

➜  Control Mechanism Ä  How the behaviour of the system is

regulated to allow it to endure Ä  Often a natural mechanism, relying on

feedback loops

➜  Emergent Properties Ä  Properties that hold of a system, but

not of any of the parts Ä  Properties that cannot be predicted

from studying the parts



Open vs. Closed?



Here is a system

© 2014 Steve Easterbrook. This presentation is available free for non-commercial use with attribution under a creative commons license.

Systems AcCvity:

AVALANCHE



Reading for Next Week

Chapters 1 & 2 of Meadows



Summary: Systems Thinking

csc2720h:% systems%thinking%for%%...

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