Systems Thinking and Design

The science, art, and praxis of systems thinking applied to the challenges of being human.  This collection explores what it means to engage with the world from a systemic perspective.


Articles on systems thinking & design that you can find online:

  • Co-creating the Systems we want to See in the World – 2021. Read it now.
  • Contemplating Systems: Actionable Definitions – spanish – 2018. Read it now.
  • Living Systems, Seeing Systems, Being Systems: Learning to be the systems we wish to see in the world. Spanda Journal, 2015 on Systemic Change. Pp. 165-173. Read it now.
  • Conversation Communities in Context: A Retrospective Perspective – 2015. Get it here.
  • Connecting the DOTS: The Design Of Thrivable Systems through the power of Collective Intelligence – 2014. Get it here.
  • The Past, Present and Future of Cybernetics and Systems Research – 2013. Read it now.
  • A systems view of Ervin Laszlo, from one generation to the next: An edited and annotated autobiographical piece – 2011. Get it here.
  • Syntony and Flow: The Artscience of Evolutionary Aesthetics – 2009. Read it now.
  • Evolutionary Systems Design: A praxis for sustainable development – 2003. Get it here.
  • The evolution of evolutionary systems design – 2002. Get it here.
  • The epistemological foundations of Evolutionary Systems Design – 2001. Get it here.
  • Systems theories: Their origins, foundations, and development – Book chapter – 1998. Get it here.
  • The contribution of the systems sciences to the humanities – 1997. Get it here.
  • Building a Design Culture through Evolutionary Learning Communities – Book chapter -1995. Get it here.

Other articles on systems thinking & design – not online:

  • The systems sciences in service of humanity” (with E. Laszlo). In Systems Science and Cybernetics, [Ed. Francisco Parra-Luna], in The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK, 2003
  • Fostering design competencies: Empathizing with and enhancing individual and collective self-development capacities.” Proceedings of the Sixth International Fuschl Conversation of the International Systems Institute, Fuschl, Austria, 1992.
  • A cognitive map of cultural change: Systemic concepts of energy and culture.” In R.R. Delgado (Ed.), The International Systems Handbook. Madrid: SESGE, 1992.
  • Sociocultural systems: The cognitive dimension of cultural change.” Revista Internacional de Sistemas, 2(2), May-August 1990. 125-150.

If you have any problem getting any of these materials, feel free to contact me 🙂