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Systems Thinking
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Systems Thinking

Four Volume Set
Edited by:
  • Gerald Midgley - Centre for Systems Studies, Business School, University of Hull


February 2003 | 1 492 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Systems Thinking brings together classic and contemporary writings that cross the entire breadth of the systems field. The four-volume set includes the most influential theoretical papers, as well as applications in domains as diverse as global environmental modelling, business strategy, public sector planning, family therapy and the management of organizations.

Key critiques of the leading writers allow the researcher to understand how and why paradigm breaks took place, and to grasp the extraordinary diversification of systems theory and practice we see today.

Systems Thinking will be an essential reference for all libraries of business, management and organization studies.

International Advisory Board

Peter Allen, Cranfield University, UK

Bela H Banathy, Saybrook Institute, USA & International Systems Institute, USA

Kenneth Bausch, Institute for 21st Century Agoras, USA

Richard Bawden, Michigan State University, USA

Søren Brier, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark

David Campbell, Tavistock Clinic, UK

Fritjof Capra, Center for Ecoliteracy, USA

Peter Checkland, Lancaster University, UK

José Córdoba, University of Hull, UK

Peter Corning, Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, USA

Donald de Raadt, Luleå University, Sweden

Eric Dent, University of Maryland, University College, USA

Peter Dudley, Integra Management Systems Ltd., UK

Robert Flood, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Joyce Fortune, Open University, UK

Wojciech Gasparski, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Wendy Gregory, University of Hull, UK

Jifa Gu, JAIST, Japan & Institute of Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Enrique Herrscher, IDEA, Argentina

Kristo Ivanov, Umea University, Sweden

Mike Jackson, University of Hull, UK

James Kay, University of Waterloo, Canada

Lisl Klein, Bayswater Institute, UK

George Klir, Binghampton University, USA

Ervin Laszlo, Club of Budapest, Hungary

Harold Linstone, Portland State University, USA

Sid Luckett, University of Natal, South Africa

Gianfranco Minati, Italian Systems Society, Italy

John Mingers, Warwick University, UK

Heiner M ller Merbach, Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany

P N Murthy, Tata Consultancy Services, India

Yoshiteru Nakamori, Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan

Harold Nelson, Advance Design Institute, Seattle, USA

Roger Packham, University of Western Sydney, Australia

Yong Pil Rhee, Seoul National University, South Korea

Kurt Richardson, Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence, USA

Fenton Robb, Independent Author, UK

Ricardo Rodríguez-Ulloa, Instituto Andino de Sistemas, Peru

Simanta Roy-Chowdhury, Barnet, Enfield and Harringay NHS Trust & University of East London, UK

John Sterman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Sytse Strijbos, Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Stuart Umpleby, George Washington University, USA

John Van Gigch, California State University, USA

John Warfield, George Mason University, USA

Jennifer Wilby, The University of York, UK

Eric Wolstenholme, Cognitus Ltd., UK

Maurice Yolles, Liverpool John Moores University, UK


 
VOLUME ONE: GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY, CYBERNETICS AND COMPLEXITY
A A Bogdanov
The Historical Necessity and Scientific Feasibility of Tektology
L Von Bertalanffy
General System Theory
K Boulding
General Systems Theory
The Skeleton of Science

 
A D Hall and R E Fagen
Definition of a System
J H Marchal
On the Concept of a System
M Bunge
General Systems and Holism
E Laszlo
Systems Philosophy
P K M'Pherson
A Perspective on Systems Science and Systems Philosophy
C Emmeche, S Køppe and F Stjernfelt
Explaining Emergence
Towards an Ontology of Levels

 
J G Miller
Living Systems
Basic Concepts

 
L R Troncale
The Future of General Systems Research
Obstacles, Potentials and Case Studies

 
N Weiner
Cybernetics
C E Shannon
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
W R Ashby
Requisite, Variety and Its Implications for the Control of Complex Systems
G Bateson
Form, Substance and Difference
W Weaver
Science and Complexity
H A Simon
The Architecture of Complexity
I Prigogine
Exploring Complexity
M Gell-Mann
Complex Adaptive Systems
 
VOLUME TWO: SYSTEMS THEORIES AND MODELLING
T Parsons
Evolutionary Universals in Society
G Bateson et al
Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia
R Swenson
Emergent Attractors and the Law of Maximum Entropy Production
Foundations to a Theory of General Evolution

 
H T Odum
Self-Organization, Transformity and Information
J E Lovelock
Gaia
J W Forrester
Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems
J D W Morecroft
Rationality in the Analysis of Behavioral Simulation Models
D H Meadows, D L Meadows and J Randers
Beyond the Limits
An Executive Summary

 
F E Kast and J E Rosenzweig
General Systems Theory
Applications for Organization and Management

 
G M Jenkins
The Systems Approach
A D Hall
Three-Dimensional Morphology of Systems Engineering
E S Quade and H J Miser
The Context, Nature and Use of Systems Analysis
S Beer
The Viable System Model
Its Provenance, Development, Methodology and Pathology

 
F Emery
Characteristics of Socio-Technical Systems
J Fortune and G Peters
The Formal System Paradigm for Studying Failures
I R Hoos
Engineers as Analysts of Social Systems
A Critical Enquiry

 
R Lilienfeld
Systems Theory as an Ideology
G Morgan
Cybernetics and Organization Theory
Epistemology or Technique?

 
P M Allen
Dynamic Models of Evolving Systems
 
VOLUME THREE: SECOND ORDER CYBERNETICS, SYSTEMIC THERAPY AND SOFT SYSTEMS THINKING
H Von Foerster
The Cybernetics of Cybernetics
E Von Glasersfeld
Reconstructing the Concept of Knowledge
H Maturana
Reality
The Search for Objectivity or the Quest for a Compelling Argument

 
N Luhmann
The Autopoiesis of Social Systems
R Fuenmayor
The Roots of Reductionism
A Counter-Ontoepistemology for a Systems Approach

 
R Fuenmayor
The Self-Referential Structure of an Everyday-Living Situation
A Phenomenological Ontology for Interpretive Systemology

 
V E Cronen K M Johnson and J W Lannamann
Paradoxes, Double Binds and Reflexive Loops
An Alternative Theoretical Perspective

 
M Palazzoli et al
Hypothesizing - Circularity - Neutrality
Three Guidelines for the Conductor of the Session

 
L Hoffman
A Constructivist Position for Family Therapy
H Anderson and H A Goolishian
Human Systems as Linguistic Systems
Preliminary and Evolving Ideas about the Implications for Clinical Theory

 
G Vickers
Human Systems are Different
C W Churchman
Operations Research as a Profession
I I Mitroff J R Emshoff and R H Kilmann
Assumptional Analysis
A Methodology for Strategic Problem Solving

 
J N Warfield and S M Staley
Structural Thinking
Organizing Complexity through Disciplined Activity

 
R L Ackoff
Resurrecting the Future of Operational Research
P Checkland
From Optimizing to Learning
A Development of Systems Thinking for the 1990s

 
P M Senge
The Leader's New Work
Building Learning Organizations

 
J D Sterman
Learning in and about Complex Systems
J A M Vennix
Group Model Building
Tackling Messy Problems

 
R Espejo and R J Harnden
The VSM
An Ongoing Conversation

 
 
VOLUME FOUR: CRITICAL SYSTEMS THINKING AND SYSTEMIC PERSPECTIVES ON ETHICS, POWER AND PLURALISM
J Mingers
Towards an Appropriate Social Theory for Applied Systems Thinking
Critical Theory and Soft Systems Methodology

 
W Ulrich
Critical Heuristics of Social Systems Design
G Midgley I Munlo and M Brown
The Theory and Practice of Boundary Critique
Developing Housing Services for Older People

 
J P Van Gigch
A Methodological Comparison of the Science, Systems and Metasystems Paradigms
M C Jackson and P Keys
Towards a System of Systems Methodologies
M C Jackson
The Origins and Nature of Critical Systems Thinking
R L Flood, and M C Jackson
Total Systems Intervention
A Practical Face to Critical Systems Thinking

 
G Midgley
What is this Thing called CST?
W J Gregory
Discordant Pluralism
A New Strategy for Critical Systems Thinking

 
N Romm
Inquiry and Intervention in Systems Planning
Probing Methodological Rationalities

 
K C Bausch
The Habermas\Luhmann Debate and Subsequent Habermasian Perspectives on Systems Theory
R Bawden
Valuing the Epistemic in the Search for Betterment
The Nature and Role of Critical Learning Systems

 
J D R De Raadt
Multi-Modal Systems Design
A Concern for the Issues that Matter

 
H A Linstone and Z Zhu
Towards Synergy in Multiperspective Management
An American-Chinese Case

 
J Mingers and J Brocklesby
Multimethodology
Towards a Framework for Mixing Methodologies

 
K Tomm
Interventive Interviewing
Intending to Ask Lineal, Circular, Strategic, or Reflexive Questions?

 
C Flaskas and C Humphreys
Theorizing about Power
Intersecting the Ideas of Foucault with the `Problem' of Power in Family Therapy

 
V Goldner et al
Love and Violence
Gender Paradoxes in Volatile Attachments