Short Course #3: Applied Systems Science for Equity and Injury and Violence Prevention
Accelerating equity necessitates elevating and integrating empirical evidence, practice-based evidence, and lived experience into our research, practice, and policies. The success of injury and violence prevention (IVP) is predicated on multisectoral collaboration; yet facilitating a process that includes rigor and allows for the development of trust, consensus building, and developing a shared language across diverse sectors (e.g., law enforcement, school system, hospitals, universities) is difficult.
Systems thinking is an approach that underscores the value of diverse perspectives to understand the social and structural drivers of an outcome of interest. Two helpful systems tools to achieve this are group model building (GMB) and causal loop diagramming (CLD). GMB is a qualitative, collaborative, systems thinking method that allows participants to collectively discuss complex problems and build resulting qualitative and quantitative models describing interrelationships among multilevel factors driving the problems over time. The collaborative nature of GMB allows for cultural responsiveness to be incorporated into the discussions. The discussions, which reference data and lived experience, are then translated into qualitative CLDs to identify potential intervention points to prevent and disrupt IVP.
Through a mixture of hands-on learning and didactic presentation, this course will teach participants how to use systems thinking to engage diverse perspectives in their efforts to achieve collective goals of equity and IVP. More specifically, participants will learn and apply the fundamentals of GMB and collectively construct a CLD.
Instructors: Belinda-Rose Young, Sable Watson, University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center
SOCKit is an interactive, dynamic, web-based tool for creating and exploring concept maps. Use simple, intuitive gestures to add concepts and link them together. The whole concept map responds when you move things around, making it easy to rearrange and organize, and it works great on mobile devices.
Concepts are connected by labeled links with arrows. Related concepts can be grouped into subsystems, which helps users divide complex systems into more manageable chunks. Subsystems also express the limits of the system being explored, and help to promote “systems thinking”.
Diagrams can be downloaded as .socme files, and later reloaded into the SOCKit web page. Diagrams can also be exported as graphics, in SVG and PNG formats.
The System-Oriented Concept Map Extension, or SOCME, is an approach to concept mapping that promotes and facilitates systems thinking. SOCKit’s “subsystem” features are designed with SOCMEs in mind.
Here’s a little Systems Seeing adventure for the new year. The idea is sketch-journaling to better understand the situations we’re in, and care about. If that is interesting to you, this “starter kit” offers prompts to help get that practice going. There are prompts and “containers” to structure quick and varied investigations. (It overlaps with the 2024 edition, so if you did that, scan for diffs.)
Link to the full System Seeing Starter Kit (pdf) in the comments.
Ruth MalanRuth Malan • Following • FollowingArchitecture Consultant at Bredemeyer ConsultingArchitecture Consultant at Bredemeyer Consulting3d • 3 days agoHere’s a little Systems Seeing adventure for the new year. The idea is sketch-journaling to better understand the situations we’re in, and care about.If that is interesting to you, this “starter kit” offers prompts to help get that practice going. There are prompts and “containers” to structure quick and varied investigations. (It overlaps with the 2024 edition, so if you did that, scan for diffs.)Link to the full System Seeing Starter Kit (pdf) in the comments.
[Already a favourite new podcast, the episode with Evan Thompson was recommended by Ivo Velitchkov today, but I started with this episode, which is inspiring. See also episode with Karl Friston]
Christopher Alexander, Pattern Language, and Place Release
A colleague has asked me this question – and there does seem to be room for systems dynamics and/or causal loop diagrams – and indeed the good old ‘archetypes’ – to describe unproductive public policy and implementation.
I see some of something like this in an economics context – usually on Twitter – discussing topics like ‘rent control’, congestion charging etc (but rarely in a formal SD sense).
I recall it being really used in the unpublished drafts of the Monroe Review of child protection – only some of which made it to the published.
I suspect there is some material out there – in Kumu, Medium, Substack, RSD Conference proceedings maybe? And there is certainly some use of this kind of mapping in international development, education (both Linda Booth Sweeney and John Raven’s work on his website and RC51)…, public health – childhood obesity famously, COINTEL of course….
I did a pointed prompt to my own slightly-trained ChatGPT but didn’t quite get nice juicy examples (see below) – and I’ll reach out to some expert practitioners. Anyone got other examples to add?
__ChatGPT respnse__
System dynamics and causal loop diagrams (CLDs) have been applied to analyse public sector policies, revealing how certain interventions can be self-defeating. Here are concrete examples, focusing on recent UK public services:
1. Energy Transition in Tees Valley, UK (2022):
– Study: Researchers developed a qualitative causal loop diagram to understand policy design challenges for a sustainable energy transition in the Tees Valley region.
– Findings: The CLD highlighted complexities in balancing job creation with decarbonisation efforts. Policies promoting renewable energy investments inadvertently risked job losses in traditional energy sectors, illustrating the “Fixes That Fail” archetype. (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4462)
2. Public Utility Policy in Cleveland, Ohio (1998):
– Study: A case study demonstrated the use of systems thinking and causal loop diagramming in developing public policy for Cleveland Public Power.
– Findings: The CLD revealed that certain competitive strategies led to unintended consequences, such as reduced service quality, embodying the “Fixes That Fail” archetype. (https://proceedings.systemdynamics.org/1998/PROCEED/00078.PDF)
3. UK Government’s Systems Thinking Toolkit (2021):
– Resource: The UK Government Office for Science published a toolkit introducing systems thinking tools, including causal loop diagrams, for civil servants.
– Application: The toolkit provides guidance on using CLDs to model policy problems, understand feedback loops, and anticipate unintended consequences in policy implementation. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/systems-thinking-for-civil-servants/toolkit)
4. Policy Resistance and Systemic Mindset (1991):
– Analysis: A Department of Energy tutorial on system dynamics discussed how policy resistance occurs when a policy is applied to a system dominated by negative feedback processes, and the policy change does not alter the desired states of the negative loops. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep20101.10)
5. Implementation of Systems Thinking in Public Policy (2023):
– Review: A study investigated the state of systems thinking application in public policy, highlighting the value of systems thinking in decision- and policy-making within the government and civil service. (https://pure.strath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/153163650/Nguyen_etal_Systems_2023_Implementation_of_systems_thinking_in_public_policy.pdf)
6. Systems Thinking in Policymaking (2023):
– Insight: An article discussed how systems thinking can be applied in policy design, emphasizing the importance of understanding complex systems to improve public services. (https://publicpolicydesign.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/08/systems-thinking-for-policymaking/)
The 2025n1 Banathy Conversation is scheduled to convene at the Center for Corporate Rehabilitation near Fairfield, Iowa, beginning on Sunday, April 13, 2025, and ending on (Good) Friday, April 18.
Participants in the Conversation can plan for the event with more detailed descriptions under:
The Conversation centers on Gathering, Exploring and Reflecting, in-person, over six days. Activities preceding and following the residential event are conducted on Google Workspace.
2025n1 Banathy Conversation + CSRP Institute AGMThe 2025n1 Banathy Conversation is scheduled to convene at the Center for Corporate Rehabilitation near Fairfield, Iowa, beginning on Sunday, April 13, 2025, and ending on (Good) Friday, April 18.Participants in link:Conversation can plan for the event with more detailed descriptions under:Booking (including Lodging, Registering, Routing)Equipping (including Apple-Platform, Google-Platform, Alternative-Platforms)Engaging (including Connecting, Agreeing, Gathering, Exploring, Reflecting, Recollecting)The Conversation centers on Gathering, Exploring and Reflecting, in-person, over six days. Activities preceding and following the residential event are conducted on Google Workspace.
Over the past few years I’ve been working with a couple volunteers– PhD students who had found Robert Rosen’s work and then found me– to get all of my father’s papers and out of print books digitized with the goal of putting everything up on a new website so that it’s accessible to everyone who has been looking for it. One student in particular, Pedro Marquez-Zacarias, who has earned his PhD in the process of all this and is currently a post-doc at the Santa Fe Institute… who flew up to Rochester, stayed in our guest room and worked his a$$ off, opening boxes of Dad’s stuff that I’ve got stored in my basement, gathering and digitizing papers, photographs, notes, and more. In lieu of payment, I gave him total access and he has copies of everything including photographs of all of my father’s artwork. It has been a symbiotic partnership of the first order and the website is finally ready to launch publicly. I could not have done it without him. On this last trip up here he brought his friend, fellow PhD student from Atlanta, Emma Bingham, who has been doing a lot of the coding and indexing on the new website. The fact that they are delightful people is a bonus! I consider them extended family, by now, and friends for life.
The new website is www.rosenlife.org and is fully searchable. Most of the digitized files are free, the ones that aren’t free are inexpensive, and then there’s the burgeoning “store”… As I was getting feedback from a few friends, there were a lot of jokes about the coffee mugs. I wrote:
“The mugs! Yeah! I laughed so hard. That was Pedro and Emma’s idea. They were reading the free association notes Dad used to type first thing in the morning [over a pot of black coffee] in preparation for actual writing and they said “This would be hilarious on a coffee mug!” The more we noticed, after that, the more it seemed like a brilliant idea, particularly as a means for funding the site. If they take off, I suggested we find a different shape and size of mug. Dad and I both favor a curved, rounded cup that holds at least 16 oz, preferably 20. I think T-shirts would be good too. His quote from Life, Itself: “The Machine Metaphor of Descartes is not just a little bit wrong; it is entirely wrong– and must be discarded.” I want one of those! I’ll wear it to the ISSS conference in July.”
Every little bit helps. Websites are expensive. Any profit above the expenses will go to Pedro and Emma, helping them avoid Academic poverty if at all possible.
I intend to start a blog on the site. Pedro wants me to send him my Facebook posts about Dad’s work, of which there have been MANY. I’ve tagged most of them as important so I’m hoping they are searchable.
Any constructive criticisms and suggestions are welcome. This is just a beginning. It’s a lot different from the first website I created back when the internet was new (under the auspices of rosen-enterprises), which may still be on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. That one was very personal and hand-crafted… This one is more goal-oriented and official. The main goal is to create access to the scientific work of Robert Rosen for people around the planet, wherever they are. And it already achieves that goal, thanks to Pedro.
The next big task is one that only I can finish: getting the book written that translates Robert Rosen’s scientific work to plain English. By this time next year I hope to be looking for a publisher for the finished manuscript.
By my late 60s, perhaps I will finally be able to get back to being a fiction writer. :~) A long detour but the time has not been wasted!
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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