Use of Systems Thinking Archetypes in Socio-Environmental Modeling

Solving problems of sustainability requires understanding social and environmental systems as being tightly coupled. Each system’s individual components or parts interact in complex ways, and feedbacks—or how change in one part of the system affects other system parts—determine the dynamics of socio-environmental systems (SES). Archetypes are a useful tool that can provide insights into a systems dynamics and facilitate development of formal system models. Archetype analysis can reveal patterns that commonly plague SES, as well as strategies for achieving sustainability across heterogeneous contexts. With its particular focus on using feedback loops as the leverage point for solving sustainability problems, the use of archetypes is growing in research and management.

This webcast will introduce the concept of archetypes, discuss some of the most common archetypes including their application in research, and describe how the use of archetypes can facilitate the socio-environmental modeling process.

If you are new to the concept of archetypes, here is an excellent explainer from SESYNC: System Archetypes for Understanding and Solving Sustainability Problems.