Prioritising Sustainable Outcomes: Insights and Practices from System Dynamics

Abstract

This paper follows an increasingly expressed awareness that while systems thinking and system dynamics can be taught without involving sustainability, the reverse is not the case. Systems thinking is characterised by concepts such as interconnectedness, feedback loops, emergent properties, dynamic complexity, leverage points, and so on. A purpose here is to put flesh on these theoretical bones in terms of applying systems concepts to problems prioritizing sustainability, rather than talking about them in generalities. Because system dynamics is the methodology used in the Limits to Growth study, a substantial part of the literature review focuses on specific aspects of that study and controversies that have surrounded it since its first publication. Its 50th anniversary in 2022 generated a spate of publications, supporting both the substantive value of its outcomes and its methodological approach. The second part of this paper introduces and applies concepts and procedures of system dynamics to problems that can be understood without specialist disciplinary knowledge. The purpose is to provide access to processes at a level that enables application of systemic insights and methods in addressing the plethora of different problems associated with the challenge of achieving sustainable development in our interconnected world.