Thinking in systems – a primer
Thinking in systems – a primer
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DOI：
10.1080/09644016.2011.589585
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发表时间：
2011-07
影响因子：
5.5
通讯作者：
Petra Wächter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Petra Wächter
自多内拉·H·梅多斯 (Donella H. Meadows) 于 1993 年完成本书的草稿以来，已经过去了近 20 年。在她于 2001 年突然去世之前，她未能完成这本书的定稿。幸运的是，戴安娜·赖特 (Diana Wright) 决定发布手稿，并编辑了文本并重新调整了插图，以便于 2009 年出版。尽管这本书并不新鲜，但它仍然很重要。梅多斯可以被视为系统、建模和通信系统动力学方面的杰出专家。她是可持续发展方面最具影响力的书籍之一《增长的极限》的主要作者。她希望将自己的系统知识带给公众，这也是她撰写《系统思考》一书的动机。要理解这本书，不需要有任何系统思考的经验。本书的介绍性特征不仅对学生有吸引力，而且对广大感兴趣的公众也有吸引力，包括政策制定者、商界人士和其他决策者，以及所有想更多地了解系统如何工作的人。它以活泼的风格编写，易于理解，并配有各种示例来帮助解释所讨论的问题。它的可访问性鼓励读者认为对于非常基本的概念来说这一切都是非常明显的，但后来你开始意识到问题的复杂性和系统方法的重要性。这是本书的关键优势：用易于理解的语言解释非常深刻的系统动力学和模型，并用有用的图表来说明想法。
It is nearly 20 years since Donella H. Meadows completed a draft version of the present book in 1993. Before her sudden death in 2001 she was not able to finalise the book. Fortunately, Diana Wright decided that the manuscript should be released and she edited the text and restructured the artwork for publication in 2009. Although the book is not new, it remains important. Meadows can be regarded as an outstanding expert on systems, modelling, and communicating system dynamics. She was lead author of one of the most influential books on sustainable development, Limits to Growth.Her desire to bring her knowledge of systems to the public was the motivation for writing the book Thinking in Systems. To understand the book it is not necessary to have any experience of systems thinking. The introductory character of the book should make it attractive not only for students but also to a broad interested public, including policy-makers, business people and other decisions-makers, and to everyone who wants to know more about how systems work. It is written in a lively style, easy to follow, and with various examples to help explain the issues under discussion. Its accessibility encourages the reader to think that it is all very obvious with very basic concepts but later you begin to realise the complexity of the issues and the significance of a systems approach. This is the key strength of the book: explaining very profound systems dynamics and models in easy to understand language with helpful figures and tables to illustrate ideas.