- Focuses on the thinkers in the field and gives both a clear account of their lives and describes their major contributions in a way that allows the reader to see the overall shape of their ideas
- Includes very wide coverage of the field of systems thinking, bringing together a number of sub-fields that are closely connected but which are usually treated separately
- Discusses thinkers of many different types, including those who are widely recognized as the key shapers of the field, well-known figures less frequently considered as systems thinkers, major practitioners, and those who have played an important part within the field but are not well-known outside of it
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- About this Textbook
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Systems Thinkers presents a biographical history of the field of systems thinking, by examining the life and work of thirty of its major thinkers. It discusses each thinker’s key contributions, the way this contribution was expressed in practice and the relationship between their life and ideas. This discussion is supported by an extract from the thinker’s own writing, to give a flavour of their work and to give readers a sense of which thinkers are most relevant to their own interests.
Systems thinking is necessarily interdisciplinary, so that the thinkers selected come from a wide range of areas – biology, management, physiology, anthropology, chemistry, public policy, sociology and environmental studies among others. Some are core innovators in systems ideas; some have been primarily practitioners who also advanced and popularised systems ideas; others are well-known figures who drew heavily upon systems thinking although it was not their primary discipline. A significant aim of the book is to broaden and deepen the reader’s interest in systems writers, providing an appetising ‘taster’ for each of the 30 thinkers, so that the reader is encouraged to go on to study the published works of the thinkers themselves.
- Reviews
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From the reviews: “Ramage and Shipp wrote this book as a textbook for a course in the UK’s Open University. … This work examines 30 major figures from all disciplines. The authors describe each figure in terms of how their work fits the ‘systems thinking’ pattern … . This book is suitable for its stated purpose as a resource tool for a course in a specialized academic discipline. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty.” (C. G. Wood, Choice, Vol. 47 (9), May, 2010)
- Table of contents (31 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 1-8
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Gregory Bateson
Pages 11-17
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Norbert Wiener
Pages 19-26
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Warren McCulloch
Pages 27-34
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Margaret Mead
Pages 35-43
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Table of contents (31 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Systems Thinkers
- Authors
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- Magnus Ramage
- Karen Shipp
- Copyright
- 2009
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag London
- Copyright Holder
- Springer-Verlag London
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-84882-525-3
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-1-84882-525-3
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-1-84882-524-6
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- X, 316
- Number of Illustrations
- 8 b/w illustrations
- Topics
