Systems Thinking in the Age of Transition

Elena Cogato Lanza & Anna Pagani

This course introduces the students to the mobilisation of the notion of “system” in order to initiate radical changes in the territory and cities. It will namely provide an overview of the way a system approach was addressed by two different disciplinary traditions: the territorial project, and systems science.

The course will establish a dialogue with the injunction to the use of systems thinking expressed in the book The Limits to Growth, in which most of the current global crisis dynamics were identified.

Through the lenses of the territorial project, three sessions will be devoted to three major themes addressed as systems:

(i) green spaces / park system
(ii) mobility / the exit from Automobility
(iii) agriculture / agro-food system

Through the lenses of systems science, we will look at some distinct and complementary chapters, including
(i) systems approaches
(ii) (participatory) system dynamics
(iii) social-technical-ecological systems
(iv) leverage points in a system.