Synopses & Reviews
Within a conceptual framework that is developed in the two first chapters, the actual application of systems thinking is described across a broad field of cases representing research, teaching, decision support and construction. All cases are presented by experts who have actually been involved in the activities they describe. Thus, the broad selection of cases captures the great variation of systems thinking and how it is integrated into models and theories and solid knowledge pertaining to different substantive areas. At the same time all case study authors address the same set of questions that are developed in the conceptual chapters. This gives comparability across cases - chapters - and brings cohesion to the book. The focus on Sweden, an advanced country in systems thinking, reinforces the unitary context in which comparison can be made between a systems approach for better research (theory), better practice and better design and construction. Most recent literature on systems thinking has a general (often philosophical) perspective, concerns computer systems or focuses on one highly specific problem. A special feature of this book is that, while it concerns a single nation, it simultaneously contains a broad overview of systems analysis in a number of important issue areas, for research as well as practice, against a penetrating background description of what systems analysis is, how it functions, what problems it represents and what results it may produce. The book is intended for a broad readership and can be appreciated by experts on systems thinking and analysis as well as by students, teachers, researchers, planners and policy makers who want to learn more about this topic. The book should be useful in university teaching in several disciplines.
Synopsis
In the development of an international agenda for applied systems analysis Swedish experience, developed over a considerable number of years, embraces a wide range of application domains. One international focal point for the Swedish interest in systems analysis has been the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, with its headquarters in Laxenburg outside Vienna. The Swedish Research Council for Env- onment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) is currently responsible for the Swedish contacts with . When Formas was established in it inherited the Swedish national committee for the promotion of contacts and systems a- lysis that was originally set up by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (frn ), which was abolished in conjunction with a major reform of the Swedish research ?nancing system. Within the framework of the Committee a special project was launched in line with a proposal by Gunnar Sjostedt dealing with the Swedish experience in s- tems analysis and thus, indirectly, with themes related to most of s activities. The project co-ordination and editorial tasks were given to Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjostedt under the direct surveillance of the Committee. Many of the Committee m- bers and their co-workers as well as several other Swedish scholars have contributed to this book. Several years of work have gone into bringing together Swedish experience in this ?eld, and we hope that the book will be interesting for an international as well as for a Swedish audience."
Synopsis
This book describes the application of systems thinking across a broad field of cases representing research, teaching, decision support and construction. All cases are presented by experts who have actually been involved in the activities they describe. The broad selection of cases captures the great variation of systems thinking, and how it is integrated into models and theories and solid knowledge pertaining to different substantive areas.
Table of Contents
Preface; Lisa Sennerby Forsse and Uno Svedin
Editors' Preface; Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjöstedt
Introduction; Uno Svedin
Part I: The Systems Approach: History and Schools of Thinking
1. Systems and Systems Theory; Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjöstedt
2. Schools of Systems Thinking Development Trends in Systems Methodology; Mats-Olov Olsson
Part II: Systems Analysis in Sweden -- Examples of Projects Using a Systems Approach
Part II-A: A Systems Approach for Better Theory
3. Systems Analysis in Geography; Stefan Anderberg
4. Multi-Agent Systems, Time Geography, and Microsimulations; Magnus Boman and Einar Holm
5. Analyzing Biological Systems: the Brain as an Example; Hans Liljenström and Peter Arhem
6. Defining the Concept of Sustainability -- a Matter of Systems Thinking and Applied Systems Analysis; Harald Sverdrup and Mats G.E. Svensson
Part II-B: Systems Analysis for Better Practice
7. Scenario-Based Methodologies for Strategy Development and Management of Change; E. Anders Eriksson
8. "Sweden in the Year 2021" -- A Systems Study of Sweden's Future Environment; Anita Linell
9. Environmental Accounts -- a Tool for Interdisciplinary Analysis; Sofia Ahlroth
10. Environmental Systems Analysis -- Some Ongoing Research and Ideas About Future Developments; Anna Björklund
11. Some Properties of Environmental Systems Analysis Tools -- Life Cycle Assessment as an Example; Göran Finnveden, Tomas Ekvall and Asa Moberg
12. Systems Approaches in Development Work; Semida Silveira 13. The Systems Approach in Research on International Relations: The wro Negotiations; Gunnar Sjöstedt
Part II-C: Systems Thinking for Better Design and Construction
14. Humans and Complex Systems: Sustainable Information Societies; Rune Gustavsson and Martin Fredriksson
15 Large Technical Systems: a Multidisciplinary Research Tradition; Lena Ewertsson and Lars Ingelstam
Part III: Development Trends, Future Prospects and Needs
16. Systemic Interventions in Sweden: Some Discernible Patterns; Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjöstedt
Contributors