This Handbook is about the past, present, and future of Systems Thinking. It captures the history of Systems Thinking over its first three ‘waves,’ which are thought of as significant paradigmatic time periods in the history of the field. It then introduces a (possible) emerging fourth wave.

The Handbook details the theory and practice of Systems Thinking in the areas of social systems, management and policy. The contributing chapters from numerous authors show the diversity of the field. The first chapter, titled "The Four Waves of Systems Thinking", seeks to identify patterns in that diversity, to demonstrate an underlying unity among the plurality of methods, approaches and interventions throughout the field.

Forty-four chapters present a diversity of systems approaches and methodologies, each illustrated with case studies of real-world application. 

This is a landmark publication, as most handbooks cost over £100 and are aimed at university libraries. By publishing with OpenScience, the editors have been able to make The Handbook of Systems Thinking available free of charge. Also, each of the chapters have been simultaneously published in a special issue of the Journal of Systems Thinking, so there are two ways in which potential readers can find the materials.

The co-editors of the Handbook are Derek Cabrera (Cornell University, USA), Laura Cabrera (Cornell University, USA) and Gerald Midgley (Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull). 

Background note about the "waves":

It is widely held that Systems Thinking has undergone three somewhat distinct “waves” (or paradigms) of development: (1) “Hard systems” in the 1950s to the 1970s, focused primarily on expert, quantitative modelling, (2) “Soft systems” in the 1970s and 1980s, switching attention to qualitative modelling in the context of participative practice, and (3) “Critical systems thinking”, from the 1990s to the present day, which emphasizes the need to take power relationships into account in systems practice. Critical systems thinking also explains the value of methodological pluralism. This came to be important in the 1990s because, previously, a paradigm war had broken out between first and second wave systems thinkers, with the systems community splitting into two competing camps. Critical systems thinkers demonstrated that the ideas of both camps were valuable for different purposes, and are therefore complementary.

These three waves represent the rich diversity of concepts, methods, and approaches that are available to systems thinkers. Critical systems thinkers were largely successful in convincing academics and practitioners to welcome the plurality of methodologies and methods as contributions to a highly flexible and responsive ‘tool kit’ for systems practice. This plurality, and its value for practice, is the strength of contemporary Systems Thinking. However, 25 years since the arrival of the third wave, a new weakness became apparent that is a direct side-effect of welcoming a diversity of methodologies, methods and concepts —it became virtually impossible to say, in a one minute introduction, what Systems Thinking actually was.

Many of the different methodologies presented in this volume embody different understandings of both ‘systems’ and ‘thinking,’ and as a result, defining what systems thinking is requires an explanation of multiple paradigms. This is problematic, as systems approaches for addressing complex problems are in greater demand from managers and policy makers, yet we are not able to provide a cohesive solution for those who look to systems thinking as an answer.

The field of systems thinking is undergoing major change, brought about by a number of forces, including: (1) the continuing proliferation of methodologies and methods, resulting in an even greater plurality of systems ideas; (2) a fragmentation of the systems research community into multiple, smaller communities focused on subdomains of practice, resulting in more and more diversity of systems terminologies; (3) the resultant problem of the lack of accessibility to newcomers to Systems Thinking has become acute; and (4) a new theory of Systems Thinking has been proposed as the fourth wave, which carries the potential to reunite the field. 

The new theory, known as DSRP, identifies four essential skills that underlie Systems Thinking: making distinctions (D); organizing systems (S); recognizing relationships (R); and taking multiple perspectives (P). Notably, methodologies and methods from the three waves of Systems Thinking involve the practice of these four essential skills, yet the foundational nature of these skills remained unarticulated until now. This Handbook builds on the first three waves to lay the foundation for an emerging fourth wave: the use of DSRP, both to bring unity to the diversity of Systems Thinking, and to offer an understanding of what Systems Thinking is that can be easily grasped by newcomers to the field. It therefore addresses the problems of accessibility and theoretical coherence without sweeping away the diversity of methods and practices that are useful resources to practitioners, decision makers, and others.

The Handbook offers chapters from the major authors associated with each of the three waves (or their successors when the original authors have passed away) on the theoretical and methodological contributions to the field. These authors explain the ideas as they were first introduced into the literature, and also contemporary developments and examples from practice. Every chapter adds value to the existing literature, making this Handbook a cutting edge resource rather than just a compilation of existing ideas that can be found elsewhere.

The Handbook also presents chapters elucidating and applying DSRP theory (categorized as the “fourth wave”). It will also point to potential future developments in the field of Systems Thinking, including the formation of composite methods. It is hoped that this Handbook will provide a simple entry point for people coming to the field for the first time. It will provide insights into the first, second and third waves, ending with methodological pluralism before presenting the patterns that connect all Systems Thinking methods and approaches in the fourth wave.

Attempting to put some structure on the history of the Systems Thinking field allows people to get their head around something unwieldy and large in hopes of applying this new knowledge to a real issue, concern, or problem. It also prevents misleading (and at worst), incorrect statements about the field, leading to the misunderstanding of Systems Thinking’s primary ideas, and application.  

People new to the field assume (based on the "wave" metaphor) that each wave is the current state of the field. This is problematic as it is not how the field sees itself nor how things play out in reality. We must see that what we perceive to be "new" waves are not replacements of the prior - but historical additions and paradigmatic shifts that also coexist in the present time. This means that the important work that came before is subsumed into the new wave , not rejected, ignored, supplanted, or "washed away."

Contents Page: 

• The Four Waves of Systems Thinking / Derek Cabrera, Laura Yenisa Cabrera, Gerald Midgley  

• The Systemic Intervention Approach / Gerald Midgley   

• Integrated Resource Planning: A Systems Approach to Utility Planning / Andrea Turner, Simon Fane      

• System Dynamics in Action / Ignacio Martinez-Moyano   

• PANDA (Participatory Appraisal of Needs and Development of Action): A Multi Methodological Framework / Ann Taket, Leroy White   

• The Simple Rules of Complex Networks: A Heuristic for Determining the Potential Complexity of Any Network and Making Structural Predictions / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera   

• Leapfrog Leaders: How lowlighting content, and highlighting cognitive structure and dynamics can leapfrog leaders to the next level. / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera, Hise Gibson   

• Map-Activate-Check: A Systems Thinking-based Approach to Curriculum and Program Design / Jeremy Solin   

• The Viable System Model: An Introduction to Theory and Practice / Angela Espinosa, Jon Walker, Andrea Martinez-Lozada   

• Ecological Governance / Bryan Jenkins   

• Systemic Thinking for Re-Generative Development / Norma Romm, Janet McIntyre-Mills   

• Evolutionary Learning Laboratories: Diagnosing And Overcoming Complex Or ‘Wicked’ Problems / Nam Nguyen, Ockie Bosch, Kwamina Banson, Thanh Nguyen   

• Feminist-Systems Thinking: From mere principles to a United Nations Framework / Anne Stephens   

• The Future of Systems X?: If you want a better Systems X discipline or program, upgrade your Systems Thinking to version 4.0 / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera, Graeme Troxell   

• Developing and Validating a Measurement of Systems Thinking: The Systems Thinking and Metacognitive Inventory (STMI) / Laura Cabrera, Jessica Sokolow, Derek Cabrera   

• Systems Scribing: An Emerging Visual Practice / Kelvy Bird, Jessica Riehl   

• Dialogic Design Science: An Approach for Co-Creating Visionary Anticipations / Maria Kakoulaki, Thomas Flanagan, Alexander Christakis   

• Delphi Method: A democratic dialectical, consensus seeking open systems approach / Shankar Sankaran, Karyne Ang, Stewart Hase   

• Critical Systems Thinking: An Evolving Systemic Approach / Luis Arturo Pinzon-Salcedo   

• The Universal Cognitive Grammar of Systems Mapping: A Rubric to Evaluate the Various Tools and Techniques of Systems Mapping / Arturo Castellanos Canales, Paulina Lucio Maymon, Derek Cabrera   

• Introduction to Soft Systems Methodology / Giles Hindle   

• Critical Systems Heuristics / Emily Gates, Raquel Muñiz   

• A Systemic Lens on the Multi-store Model/Modal Model / Yeni Oktavia Mulyono, Elena Cabrera, Unur Sukhbaatar, Laura Cabrera, Derek Cabrera      

• Systems and Futures / Anthony Hodgson   

• Adaptive Leadership for Agile Organizations / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera   

• Strategic Assumption Surfacing and Testing (SAST) / Vince Barabba, Ian Mitroff   

•  ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ Methods in Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS): Agent Based Modeling (ABM) and the Agent Based Approach (ABA) / Yeni Oktavia Mulyono, Unur Sukhbaatar, Derek Cabrera   

• WSR: A Chinese Systems Approach / Zhichang Zhu   

• Systems Thinking For Systems Engineers: A Foundational Skill / Hise Gibson, Stephen Gillespie, Paul Evangelista, Matthew Dabkowski   

• Developing Personal Mastery in Systems Thinking / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera   

• Defining Learning: A Change in Mental Model / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera   

• AMESH: An Ecosystems Approach to Managing for Sustainability and Health / David Waltner-Toews   

• The Formal System Model: Understanding And Preventing Information Systems Project Failures / Geoff Peters, Joyce Fortune, Diana White   

• Meta Rational Ways Of Knowing / Raghav Rajagopalan   

• The Autopoietic Character of Society / Dionysios Demetis   

• Mixing Methods in Systems Practice / John Brocklesby   

• The Vanguard Method : Beyond Command and Control / John Seddon, Brendan O’Donovan   

• Systems Thinking and the Engineering Leader / James Schreiner, Hise Gibson, Ricardo Morales   

• Systemic Innovation / Erik Lindhult   

• Interactive Planning / John Pourdehnad   

• Systems Evaluation (SysEval): Applying Systems Thinking to Evaluation / Jennifer Kushner, Laura Cabrera, Derek Cabrera   

• Systems Thinking for Project Management? Risky Not To / Fran Ackermann   

• A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera, Elena Cabrera   

• Any Person, Any Study: A Different Kind of Theory of Everything (ToE) / Derek Cabrera, Laura Cabrera 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++