From the father of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Peter Checkland, comes a new, accessible text which clearly and concisely looks at SSM. The book leaves out all of the development detail and historical/intellectual material which can be found in Checkland’s other classic works, but contains the practical essentials that will allow teachers to teach SSM accurately and students to learn it with real understanding. Features: · Short and definitive account of SSM containing the practical essentials. · Written with great clarity and presented in a reader-friendly way. · Contains examples of SSM in action. · Includes cases.
Systems 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.
Resilience thinking challenges us to reconsider the meaning of sustainability in a world that must constantly adapt in the face of gradual and at times catastrophic change. This volume further asks environmental education and resource management scholars to consider the relationship of environmental learning and behaviours to attributes of resilient social-ecological systems - attributes such as ecosystem services, innovative governance structures, biological and cultural diversity, and social capital. Similar to current approaches to environmental education and education for sustainable development, resilience scholarship integrates social and ecological perspectives. The authors of Resilience in social-ecological systems: the role of learning and education present a wealth of perspectives, integrating theory with reviews of empirical studies in natural resource management, and in youth, adult, and higher education. The authors explore the role of education and learning in helping social-ecological systems as they respond to change, through adaptation and transformation. This book also serves to integrate a growing literature on resilience and social learning in natural resources management, with research in environmental education and education for sustainable development. This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Education Research.
Society is now facing challenges for which the traditional management toolbox is increasingly inadequate. Well-grounded theoretical frameworks, such as systems thinking and cybernetics, offer general level interpretation schemes and models that are capable of supporting understanding of complex phenomena and are not impacted by the passage of time. This book serves the knowledge society to address the complexity of decision making and problem solving in the 21st century with contributions from systems and cybernetics. A multi-disciplinary approach has been adopted to support diversity and to develop inter- and trans-disciplinary knowledge within the shared thematic of problem solving and decision making in the 21st century. Its conceptual thread is cyber/systemic thinking, and its realisation is supported by a wide network of scientists on the basis of a highly participative agenda. The book provides a platform of knowledge sharing and conceptual frameworks developed with multi-disciplinary perspectives, which are useful to better understand the fast changing scenario and the complexity of problem solving in the present time.
"Reveals progressive insights developed over a six-year period while serving as Assistant Dean at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Associate Dean at San José State University, and University Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver."--Page [vi]. =610 20$aRobert E. Kennedy Library$vCase studies.
By fostering principles of systems thinking and informed learning though an inclusive, participatory design process that advances information exchange, reflective dialogue, and knowledge creation, the Informed Systems Approach promotes conceptual change in workplace organizations. Informed Systems explores theory-based participatory action research and provides examples of agile process models for activating sustainable design, dialogue, and reflection processes in today’s organizations. This book also examines forward thinking frameworks for academic libraries, and how they can be used in the context of dynamically changing scholarly communications. Chapters further the expression of collaborative information practices that enrich information experiences by simultaneously advancing both situated domain knowledge and transferable learning capacity. Design (and redesign) activities well integrated into the workplace culture are expressed through sustainable processes and practices that produce rich information experiences. Informed learning both promotes and sustains continuous learning, including collective reflection on information sources, collaborative practices, and systems functionalities. In these ways, transferable topical understandings and information resiliency manifest action oriented intention to ensure improvements of real world situations. Transferable critique of the leadership issues facing contemporary library organizations across the globe Agile process models for activating sustainable design, dialogue, and reflection processes in today’s organizations Theory-based participatory action research illustrations of the efficacy of systems thinking interventions Forward thinking frameworks for academic libraries in dynamically changing scholarly communications contexts Proven organizational transformation strategies, building upon theoretical concepts, for nimble responsiveness
With the increasingly complex and ubiquitous data available through modern technology, digital information is being utilized daily by academics and professionals of all disciplines and career paths. Information Seeking Behavior and Technology Adoption: Theories and Trends brings together the many theories and meta-theories that make information science relevant across different disciplines. Highlighting theories that had their base in the early days of text-based information and expanding to the digitization of the Internet, this book is an essential reference source for those involved in the education and training of the next-generation of information science professionals, as well as those who are currently working on the design and development of our current information products, systems, and services.
