Slides for discussing basic concepts from Thinking in Systems by Donnella Meadows.

2. “Lifelong learners
are the best teachers.”
–Aunt Doris
Pedagogy for the Professoriate:
The Personal Meets the Political,
Denise Patmon

4. making the
invisible
visible

11. Seeing
relationships
and
systems

14. Yi-Yi
Edward Yang

15. “We never live
the same day twice.”

16. So what’s the same
about yesterday and today?

17. Circumstances, behaviors
and the systems that
make them possible.

18. Systems

19. Why do we care?

20. Systems affect us,
and we affect systems,
for better and for worse.

21. We are (surrounded by
and enmeshed in) systems.

22. Objects
can seemingly exist
in isolation physically,

23. but are actually often
connected to other things
through relationships.

24. Example:
Food (cheesesteak sandwich)

25. ($6)

26. Connections
BBC, James Burke

28. Systems
Elements
Interrelations
Function/Purpose

29. Elements
the things that make up a system
Interrelations
relationships among the elements
Function/Purpose
what the system does

30. Systems
Causal Relationships

32. Systems
Stocks
Flows

33. Stock
“...an accumulation of material or
information that has built up over time”
Flows
the “filling and draining” of stocks

36. Figure 38.9

38. Finding Flows
look for what’s moving
in or through the system

39. Example
Systems

40. Personal Finances

41. Every month, Zulari is paid $2000 by direct
deposit to his savings account, and his
employer makes a contribution of $200 to
Zulari’s retirement account. He then moves
some money from his savings account into
his checking account to pay his rent ($800)
and credit card bills (typically around $400)
and the checking account fee ($10/month).
If possible, Zulari moves some of the
remaining money from his savings account
to his retirement account. The rest he
keeps in his savings account which has an
interest rate of 1.5%.

42. What does
this system
look like?

43. What happens if payroll
makes a mistake, and
Zulari doesn’t get a paycheck?

44. Acid Rain

45. Rain of pH 3.5 periodically falls
on a pond that has a pH level of about 7.
After 6 months, the pond water pH
is still about 7.
After a year, the pond water pH
has dropped to about 5.5.

46. What does
this system
look like?
What could
explain
the behavior?

47. Metabolism

48. We get energy from food, and
expend energy on activities.

49. Albert running
(to class)
90 Cal in 10 min
3/5 Twinkie

50. What does
this system
look like?

51. Boundaries,
mental and “actual”

52. Example:
Perfluorinated Compounds

53. Common Chemicals Could Make Kids'
Vaccines Less Effective
by JON HAMILTON
04:05 pm http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/24/145745691/
January 24, 2012 common-chemicals-could-make-kids-vaccines-less-effective
Stig Nygaard/Flickr
Even in the remote Faroe Islands, some children have high levels of perfluorinated compounds in their blood. The chemicals
may interfere with the immune system.
The more exposure children have to chemicals called perfluorinated compounds, the
less likely they are to have a good immune response to vaccinations, a study just

54. What was the PFC system
supposed to look like?

55. Thinking in terms of
an isolated system
(manufacturing with PFCs)
can be too simplistic.

56. At least two (sub)systems:
Industrial Manufacturing
Human Immune System

57. And many more:
Human Body
Ecosystems
Waste Management
Economic Systems

58. Example:
Environmental Impact of
a Water Treatment Facility

59. Even when we build physical boundaries,
they can’t fully isolate the system
and can have negative consequences.

60. Example:
Food Production
and Food Safety

61. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/
2012/04/23/151047957/how-making-
food-safe-can-harm-wildlife-and-water

63. There is no single,
legitimate boundary
to draw around a system

64. Resilience
(a measure of)
a system’s ability
to survive and persist
within a variable environment

65. Diversity and
Redundancy

66. Vulnerability
Sensitivity
Adaptability

67. Fracture Critical
Systems that
cannot withstand
a single-part failure
(additional perspectives:
http://places.designobserver.com/
feature/fracture-critical/11477/)

68. Self-Organization
capacity of a system
to make its own structure
more complex

69. Hierarchy
aggregation of subsystems
into larger subsystems

70. Hierarchy
levels of system structure
each with unique properties

71. Hierarchical systems
are partially decomposable

72. System elements
are separable
but not separate.
—after George Lakoff

73. System structure
is the source of
system behavior.

74. Example:
The Dilution Effect

75. Pathogens, Hosts
and Vectors

76. System behavior
reveals itself
as a series of events
over time.

77. Living with
Systems

79. What’s “wrong”
with these pictures?

80. ($6)