Systems Thinking in the Age of Transition

Elena Cogato Lanza & Anna Pagani

This course introduces students to the mobilisation of the notion of system to initiate radical changes of the territory and cities. Mobilisation can be conceptual and/or instrumental, in the diagnostic and/or in the prospective phase, and can span across several disciplines.

The lectures provide an overview of the way a systems approach was addressed by two different disciplinary and scientific traditions: the territorial project and systems thinking. Starting from the early findings of the book The Limits to Growth, we explore the potential of thinking in systems to support the design practice in the age of transition.

Through the lenses of the territorial project, three sessions are devoted to three major themes addressed as systems: (i) green spaces / park system; (ii) mobility / the exit from automobility; (iii) / territory as an ecosystem / agro-food system.

Through the lenses of systems thinking, we look at some distinct and complementary chapters, namely (i) a systems approach; (ii) (participatory) system dynamics; and (iii) leverage points in a system.