Systems Approaches and Their Application

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. The Systems Approach: History and Schools of Thinking

   1. Systems and Systems Theory

      • Mats-Olov Olsson, Gunnar Sjöstedt

      Pages 3-29

   2. Schools of Systems Thinking - Development Trends in Systems Methodology

      • Mats-Olov Olsson

      Pages 31-74

3. Systems Analysis in Sweden - Examples of Projects Using a Systems Approach

   1. Systems Analysis in Geography

      • Stefan Anderberg

      Pages 79-93

   2. Multi-Agent Systems, Time Geography, and Microsimulations

      • Magnus Boman, Einar Holm

      Pages 95-118

   3. Analyzing Biological Systems: The Brain as an Example

      • Hans Liljenström, Peter Århem

      Pages 119-142

   4. Defining the Concept of Sustainability - a Matter of Systems Thinking and Applied Systems Analysis

      • Harald Sverdrup, Mats G. E. Svensson

      Pages 143-164

4. Systems Analysis in Sweden - Examples of Projects Using a Systems Approach

   1. Scenario-Based Methodologies for Strategy Development and Management of Change

      • E. Anders Eriksson

      Pages 167-194

   2. “Sweden in the Year 2021” - A Systems Study of Sweden’s Future Environment

      • Anita Linell

      Pages 195-208

   3. Environmental Accounts - A Tool for Interdisciplinary Analysis

      • Sofia Ahlroth

      Pages 209-217

   4. Environmental Systems Analysis - Some Ongoing Research and Ideas About Future Developments

      • Anna Björklund

      Pages 219-226

   5. Some Properties of Environmental Systems Analysis Tools - Life Cycle Assessment as an Example

      • Göran Finnveden, Tomas Ekvall, Åsa Moberg

      Pages 227-235

   6. Systems Approaches in Development Work

      • Semida Silveira

      Pages 237-251

   7. The Systems Approach in Research on International Relations: The WTO Negotiations

      • Gunnar Sjöstedt

      Pages 253-265

5. Systems Analysis in Sweden - Examples of Projects Using a Systems Approach

   1. Humans and Complex Systems: Sustainable Information Societies

      • Rune Gustavsson, Martin Fredriksson

      Pages 269-289

   2. Large Technical Systems: a Multidisciplinary Research Tradition

      • Lena Ewertsson, Lars Ingelstam

      Pages 291-309

6. Development Trends, Future Prospects and Needs

   1. Systemic Interventions in Sweden: Some Discernible Patterns

      • Mats-Olov Olsson, Gunnar Sjöstedt

      Pages 313-335

7. Back Matter

   Pages 337-340

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In the development of an international agenda for applied systems analysis Swedish experience, developed over a considerable number of years, embraces a wide range of application domains. One international focal point for the Swedish interest in systems analysis has been – the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, with its headquarters in Laxenburg outside Vienna. The Swedish Research Council for Env- onment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) is currently responsible for the Swedish contacts with . When Formas was established in it inherited the Swedish national committee for the promotion of contacts and systems a- lysis that was originally set up by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (frn ), which was abolished in conjunction with a major reform of the Swedish research ?nancing system. Within the framework of the Committee a special project was launched in line with a proposal by Gunnar Sjöstedt dealing with the Swedish experience in s- tems analysis and thus, indirectly, with themes related to most of ’s activities. The project co-ordination and editorial tasks were given to Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjöstedt under the direct surveillance of the Committee. Many of the Committee m- bers and their co-workers as well as several other Swedish scholars have contributed to this book. Several years of work have gone into bringing together Swedish experience in this ?eld, and we hope that the book will be interesting for an international as well as for a Swedish audience.

• Policy
• calculus
• complex system
• complex systems
• computer
• information
• international relations
• multi-agent system
• patterns
• simulation
• systems theory
• air pollution and air quality

• Centre for Regional Science (Cerum), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

  Mats-Olov Olsson

• The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), Stockholm, Sweden

  Gunnar Sjöstedt

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