[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Response to paper “Systems thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.:: The unification of systems thinking: Is there gold at the end of the rainbow?

## Details

**Authors** Midgley, G.

**Year** 2008

**Publisher** Evaluation and Program Planning

**Kind of work** press

**Discipline** Public Policy

**Secondary disciplines** Systems Science

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149718908000360)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A theoretical critique responding directly to Cabrera, Colosi and Lobdell. It sets the DSRP unification project against methodological pluralism, transdisciplinarity, general systems theory and earlier attempts at theoretical unification. Not an empirical study of DSRP.

### What they found (results)

Midgley concludes that seeking greater unity in systems thinking is worthwhile, but that DSRP should not be treated as an alternative to methodological pluralism — rather, linked to the diverse methods the systems field already has. He regards its eventual uptake as an open question, and suggests its proponents can learn from the history of previous attempts to unify systems thinking and science.

## Commentary

### In short

Qualified theoretical support with a significant methodological critique. Midgley takes DSRP seriously as a unifying theory and does not reject the four-pattern architecture. His concern is that it is positioned against methodological pluralism when it could be strengthened by absorbing the plurality of systems methods — useful at the meta-level, while it remains open whether four rules alone give practitioners enough to work with.

### In more detail

Midgley examines the four-pattern account and its criticism of methodological pluralism, and argues that DSRP is multifaceted enough to accommodate different systems methodologies rather than oppose them. He explores whether existing methods can be aligned with DSRP and argues for extending systems practice outward from it using resources already available.

He then places the unification effort in the history of previous attempts to establish unified systems and scientific frameworks. The major issue becomes whether DSRP will be adopted broadly enough to function as a shared transdisciplinary language. His recommendation is not to discard DSRP but to connect it to the established methodological diversity of systems practice.

### Response

In 2008 Midgley accepted the four-pattern architecture and objected to positioning a unifying theory against methodological pluralism rather than alongside the systems field's existing methods — a claim about position rather than structure. He went on to co-author The Four Waves of Systems Thinking with Derek and Laura Cabrera in 2023, and to co-edit the Handbook of Systems Thinking, whose editorial premise is that the field now has a universal theory and whose contents were selected on that basis.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

## Refers to

- [The Four Waves of Systems Thinking](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/421)
- [Handbook of Systems Thinking](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/382)

## Questions it bears on

- Referred to by: [The Systemic Intervention Approach](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/425)

**How to cite this** Midgley, G. (2008). Response to paper “Systems thinking” by D. Cabrera et al.:: The unification of systems thinking: Is there gold at the end of the rainbow?. Evaluation and Program Planning.