Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's ToolkitSystems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit explores the application of systems ideas to investigate, evaluate, and intervene in complex and messy situations. The text serves as a field guide, with each chapter representing a method for describing and analyzing; learning about; or changing and managing a challenge or set of problems. The book is the first to cover in detail such a wide range of methods from so many different parts of the systems field. The book's Introduction gives an overview of systems thinking, its origins, and its major subfields. In addition, the introductory text to each of the book's three parts provides background information on the selected methods. Systems Concepts in Action may serve as a workbook, offering a selection of tools that readers can use immediately. The approaches presented can also be investigated more profoundly, using the recommended readings provided. While these methods are not intended to serve as "recipes," they do serve as a menu of options from which to choose. Readers are invited to combine these instruments in a creative manner in order to assemble a mix that is appropriate for their own strategic needs. |
From inside the book
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... decisions of what is “in” and what is “out”; the systems field formally started to address the issue of power. All of the methods and approaches in this book display these three features—that is what makes them systemic. Some methods ...
... decision. You would be frozen like rabbits in car headlights, quite possibly with the same result. Holism, in the strictest sense, is not even an ideal. Perhaps more than any other area of social inquiry, the systems field provides a ...
... decision to give her $5 will be the result of a complex set of internal arguments and trade-offs that can change in the time it takes for you to reach into your pocket. One of the authors was recently waiting for a bus in a depressed ...
... decisions taken as a result of value-laden judgments, and the values of individuals are in turn influenced by the social groups in which we grew up and were socialized. The values that guide our behavior are controlled by our ...
... decisions. In other words, welcome to our book. References and Further Reading Bawden, Richard. 2007. A systemic evaluation of an agricultural development: A focus on the worldview challenge. In Systems concepts in evaluation: An expert ...
Other editions - View all
Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit Bob Williams,Richard Hummelbrunner Limited preview - 2010 |
Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit Bob Williams,Richard Hummelbrunner No preview available - 2010 |