Linking complexity economics and systems thinking, with illustrative discussions of urban sustainability

Linking Complexity and Sustainability Theories: Implications for Modeling Sustainability Transitions

In this paper, we deploy a complexity theory as the foundation for integration of different theoretical approaches to sustainability and develop a rationale for a complexity-based framework for modeling transitions to sustainability. We propose a framework based on a comparison of complex systems’ properties that characterize the different theories that deal with transitions to sustainability. ...

New Frameworks for Urban Sustainability Assessments: Linking Complexity, Information and Policy

A new framework for urban sustainability assessments: Linking complexity, information and policy

Urban systems emerge as distinct entities from the complex interactions among social, economic and cultural attributes, and information, energy and material stocks and flows that operate on different temporal and spatial scales. Such complexity poses a challenge to identify the causes of urban environmental problems and how to address them without causing greater deterioration. Planning has tra...

Thinking systems , sustainability and corporate responsibility

Understanding the systemic nature of the economic, social and environmental challenges we face today is an integral part of developing solutions for progressing towards sustainability. Yet there remains much confusion around how to define and understand systems, and much more around the notion of ‘systems thinking’. In recognition of this, the Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise (APC...

Sustainability, Systems Thinking and Professional Practice

This article explores the impact of the new sustainability agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have undergone educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at the undergraduate or the post-graduate level or through relevant professional institutions’ continuing professional development programmes. It also describes a one-day workshop for the pr...