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

# Critical Systems Heuristics

## Details

**Authors** Gates E, Muñiz R

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-13

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Systems Science

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.0000020) 
10.54120/jost.0000020

## In authors' words

### Abstract

It is not possible to examine a situation or system of interest in its entirety or from all possible perspectives. Boundaries inevitably determine what is included and excluded, which can have practical, political, and ethical consequences. Critical systems heuristics (CSH) offers a framework of questions posed in descriptive (what is) and normative (what should be) modes that can inform boundary setting and resetting in any inquiry, intervention, or evaluation. This chapter first introduces CSH and its early developments and influences. The next section highlights recent examples on the use of CSH from Colombia and New Zealand. The subsequent section identifies several open questions regarding CSH and its applicability. The chapter concludes with reflections on future directions.

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

A chapter introducing Critical Systems Heuristics: a framework of questions, in "what is" and "what should be" modes, for setting and resetting boundaries in any inquiry, intervention, or evaluation.

### What they found (results)

Boundaries inevitably decide what is included and excluded — with practical, political, and ethical consequences — and CSH makes that boundary-setting explicit and criticizable, illustrated from Colombia and New Zealand.

## Commentary

### In short

Introduces critical systems heuristics, a set of questions for deciding what a study or intervention includes and leaves out, with recent examples from Colombia and New Zealand.

### Response

Published in the Handbook of Systems Thinking (Cabrera, Cabrera & Midgley, eds., 2023), a volume built on the premise that systems thinking now has a universal theory—DSRP-484. Its contents were selected on that basis by its editorial team in concert with a team of advisors.

**Patterns it shows** D, P

## Refers to

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

**How to cite this** Gates E, Muñiz R (2023). Critical Systems Heuristics. Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-13.