Twelve Leverage Points
Growing Meta #3
Hello from Riyadh - welcome to Growing Meta.
I will be sharing the most insightful bites of scholarly conclusions and discoveries that augment our understanding of knowledge & complexities. This newsletter will slowly climb the mountain range of meta to discover what are the best lenses that view all other lenses?
Here’s an idea you should read about this week: Leverage Points in Systems.
Donella Meadows identified 12 different places you can look at to change any complex system. They call these leverage points. They were first conceptualized by her in her essay: "Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System".
Image source: Leverage Points for Sustainable Transformation
The Lake example in the ‘Twelve Leverage Points’ wikipedia page is a good one.
Here are a couple of recent papers applying leverage point thinking to real problems:
Leverage points for sustainable wool production in the Falkland Islands (2020)
How can we improve grazing management (how sheep eat from pastures) for 500,000 sheep in Falkland Islands in a way that is good for both the environment and the farmers? Due to increased demand on wool, more sheep grazing the rangelands “ is thought to have significantly altered the vegetation of the Falklands and caused the decline of several plant species …” .
Read this paper to learn about Holistic Management (HM), a more sustainable way of managing livestock land eating patterns. It considers connections between social, ecological and economic goals. It is based on systems thinking and leverage points.
Software Engineering for Sustainability: Find the Leverage Points! (2018)
Interesting take on software engineering. They apply it on the UK public transportation system.
Software is a pervasive driver of change in society. Therefore, software professionals need to take a systems perspective – and identify leverage points to understand the role of software for transformational change towards sustainability.
Meta Finds
I found a really great map charting the history of complexity science, done by researcher Brian Costellani.
