270
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
2 collections
    0
    shares
      scite_
       
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      System Dynamics in Action

      Published
      research-article
      1 , 2 ,
      Journal of Systems Thinking
      Cabrera Research Lab
      System Dynamics, Modelling, Systems Thinking
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            Decisions are made, actions are taken, and the world is changing constantly as a result. The consequences of past decisions create the information that affects future decisions in an iterative, continuous set of feedback processes. To better comprehend real-world systems, change, and complex interactions, identifying and understanding feedback is paramount. The system dynamics (SD) approach, part of the operations research field and identified by systems philosophers as part of the first three waves of systems thinking, emerged out of servomechanisms engineering and control theory. It has been applied to understand and manage a wide range of complex problems in natural, engineered, and social systems. The SD approach combines the theory of information feedback, human decision making, and computer simulation to create a computer-aided approach to policy analysis and design. The SD approach favors a point of view that originates from within—an endogenous approach—to explain and propose alternatives for change in complex systems. Feedback and endogeneity, core concepts in system dynamics, enable closed-loop thinking to understand complex systems which go beyond open-loop thinking and reveal, in a holistic way, not only how, but also why things change over time. Additionally, SD uses a broad system boundary to provide such endogenous structural explanations of system behavior, and embracesmethodological pluralism in order to evolve, adapt, and take advantage of advances in computer processing speed and storage, data availability and analysis, and social science research and analytical methods.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            Journal of Systems Thinking
            Cabrera Research Lab
            2767-3847
            30 October 2023
            : 3
            : 1-16
            Affiliations
            [1 ] Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, USA ( https://ror.org/05gvnxz63)
            [2 ] University of Chicago, Chicago, USA ( https://ror.org/024mw5h28)
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0021-6157
            Article
            10.54120/jost.000001
            dbbde292-20b8-43ba-94a0-e1b17c0e108b
            The Author (2023)

            Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International ( CC BY 4.0). Users are allowed to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially), as long as the authors and the publisher are explicitly identified and properly acknowledged as the original source.

            History
            Categories

            All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).
            Social & Behavioral Sciences
            System Dynamics,Modelling,Systems Thinking

            Comments

            Comment on this article