week three: systems thinking
The concept of systems thinking kept popping up in small corners when I kept digging deeper into this idea of intersectional policy. So what is it and how can it be applied to the way we approach sustainability. Well the short answer is that system thinking is a perspective that believes that parts of a whole will act differently when isolated from the system.
It is the belief that we should examine parts of a problem holistically, outside of the silos they are placed in, and more importantly scrutinize the interconnectedness of everything. The diagram above shows six different ways that we should be approaching problems when using this way of thinking. Here are some of the basis tenants according to a Stanford’s Millenium Alliance for Humanity & Biosphere:
- Looking at the big picture
- Taking a wider perspective
- Considering multiple perspectives
- Peeling back the layers of the onion
- Examining how things relate
- Looking for root causes and improvements
- Challenging and changing our paradigms
When putting this into perspective it boils down to the idea that you cannot just think of a more climate friendly campus environment as one that recycles and composts. It must be a campus that commits to address wages, racism, unequal access to food, lack of transportation, lack of mobility in buildings, etc. Why? because in the grand scheme of things climate justice is a human rights issue. Climate injustices disproportionately affect communities of color and low income communities. And these injustices are disproportionately caused by higher income communities and those in power.
This article in Sustainability: The Journal of Record Vol. 12, №6 discusses the importance of systems thinking in sustainability as related to curriculum changes. I think while it’s important to address curriculum change, what if we approached our climate plans like this?
Instead of just wanting to improve waste management we decided to think about where the waste was coming from? what communities the waste wil. affect? does everyone have access to dispose of waste properly? can everyone read the signage on these bins? etc. The questions are numerous and when we started drawing those arrows we start including the communities we need to be.
In conclusion I believe systems thinking is the future model of progressive sustainability policy. I think it’s time we look beyond the classic three legged stool and the venn diagram and think about who else we can bring to the table.