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

# Systemic Thinking for Re-Generative Development

## Details

**Authors** Romm N, McIntyre-Mills J

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-11

**Kind of work** chapter

**Discipline** Systems Science

**Secondary disciplines** Environment & Sustainability

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.0000028) 
10.54120/jost.0000028

## In authors' words

### Abstract

The chapter offers a way of systemic thinking linked to a systemic ethics in which thinkers and actors strive to re-generate life chances of people and the living systems on which they depend. The argument takes into account the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of 2015, and extends these by propounding an ethic of inclusive wellbeing: this is based on appreciating (along with many authors advocating the relevance of Indigenous worldviews for sustainable ways of living) our connectivity to others, and nurturing compassion across all forms of life. The chapter spells out some possibilities for activating a non-anthropocentric ethic in (all) our relationships, while focusing on facilitating/strengthening our own and others’ capabilities for recognising that everything we think and do to living systems matters. Our thinking shapes the material world of which we are part. Put differently, our ways of observing/interpreting “systems” are not innocent in their consequences. The chapter offers two examples of taking co-responsibility with others for the understandings and values that affect the ongoing development of social and ecological life. Some implications for protecting the global commons as a matter of social and ecological justice are expected.

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

A chapter linking systemic thinking to a systemic ethics of re-generating the life chances of people and the living systems they depend on, extending the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

### What they found (results)

An ethic of inclusive wellbeing — non-anthropocentric, informed by Indigenous worldviews — recognizes that our ways of observing systems are not innocent in their consequences; two examples show co-responsibility in practice.

## Commentary

### In short

Offers a way of systemic thinking tied to an ethic of inclusive wellbeing that extends the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

### 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** R, P

## Refers to

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

**How to cite this** Romm N, McIntyre-Mills J (2023). Systemic Thinking for Re-Generative Development. Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-11.