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Ramage, Magnus and Shipp, Karen (2020). Systems Thinkers (2nd edition). London: Open University/Springer-Verlag.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7475-2
Abstract
In our profoundly complex and interconnected world, there is a pressing need for systems thinking, to consider environmental, societal and organisational issues as interconnected wholes rather than separating them into parts and looking at each in isolation. This book presents a biographical history of systems thinking, by examining the life and work of thirty of its major thinkers.
Systems Thinkers discusses each thinker’s key contributions, the way this contribution was expressed in practice and the relationship between their life and ideas. This discussion is supported by an extract from the thinker’s own writing, to give a flavour of their work and to give readers a sense of which thinkers are most relevant to their own interests.
Systems thinking is highly interdisciplinary, so the thinkers selected come from a wide range of areas, including biology, management, physiology, anthropology, chemistry, public policy, sociology and environmental studies. Some are core innovators in systems ideas; some have been primarily practitioners who also advanced and popularised systems ideas; others are well-known figures who drew heavily upon systems thinking although it was not their primary discipline. The book provides an appetising ‘taster’ of the writings of each of the thirty thinkers, to encourage the reader to explore the published works of the thinkers themselves.
This second edition has been updated to reflect continuing scholarship in the academic community about the thirty thinkers, and in some cases new writing by them, bringing fresh insights about these inspiring and deeply relevant figures who challenged accepted ways of thinking and seeing, and continue to do so.
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About
- Item ORO ID
- 69810
- Item Type
- Book
- ISBN
- 1-4471-7475-5, 978-1-4471-7475-2
- Extra Information
-
Contents:
Introduction
Early Cybernetics
Chapter 1: Gregory Bateson
Chapter 2: Norbert Wiener
Chapter 3: Warren McCulloch
Chapter 4: Margaret Mead
Chapter 5: Ross Ashby
General Systems Theory
Chapter 6: Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Chapter 7: Kenneth Boulding
Chapter 8: Geoffrey Vickers
Chapter 9: Howard Odum
System Dynamics
Chapter 10: Jay Forrester
Chapter 11: Donella Meadows
Chapter 12: Peter Senge
Soft and Critical Systems
Chapter 13: C. West Churchman
Chapter 14: Russell Ackoff
Chapter 15: Peter Checkland
Chapter 16: Werner Ulrich
Chapter 17: Michael Jackson
Later Cybernetics
Chapter 18: Heinz von Foerster
Chapter 19: Stafford Beer
Chapter 20: Humberto Maturana
Chapter 21: Niklas Luhmann
Chapter 22: Paul Watzlawick
Complexity Theory
Chapter 23: Ilya Prigogine
Chapter 24: Stuart Kauffman
Chapter 25: James Lovelock
Learning Systems
Chapter 26: Kurt Lewin
Chapter 27: Eric Trist
Chapter 28: Chris Argyris
Chapter 29: Donald Schön
Chapter 30: Mary Catherine Bateson
- Keywords
- biographical history; systems ideas; systems thinkers
- Academic Unit or School
-
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Computing and Communications
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) - Copyright Holders
- © 2020 The Open University
- Depositing User
- Magnus Ramage
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)