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

# Why We Stay Stuck: A Complex Conceptual Systems Theory for Wicked Problems

## Details

**Authors** Donaldson

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Systems (MDPI), 14(4):431

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Systems Science

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14040431) 
10.3390/systems14040431

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Wicked problems spanning systemic educational inequities, economic disparities, and environmental sustainability resist most traditional change efforts. This theory-building article advances a systems explanation that introduces complex conceptual systems theory, modeling collective conceptualizations as complex adaptive systems composed of densely interconnected ideas. These systems stabilize around attractor states that generate emergent potentials for what becomes sayable, seeable, doable, and valuable. It presents operational principles and a CCSA workflow combining qualitative coding and network modeling, grounded in prior studies rather than a new dataset.

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

Theory-building and methodology article synthesizing an existing multi-year empirical research program; it does not report a new empirical dataset. The paper explicitly describes itself as the first formal synthesis of the theory and says the underlying studies were published separately.

### What they found (results)

Collective conceptualizations can be modeled as distributed, self-organizing networks of interdependent ideas that stabilize around attractor states. Their organization generates possibility spaces for what becomes sayable, seeable, doable, and valuable; mapping that organization can identify leverage points where sustained intervention may reorganize the system.

## Commentary

### In short

Directly positions CCST relative to DSRP. Donaldson accepts DSRP as a universal cognitive formalism/general grammar for systems thinking, but distinguishes CCST as a community-level, empirically grounded and intervention-oriented model of distributed conceptual systems, attractor states, leverage points, and change.

### In more detail

Donaldson formalizes seven principles of Complex Conceptual Systems Theory and introduces Complex Conceptual Systems Analysis (CCSA). CCSA codes metaphors, characterizations, paradigmatic stances, worldview stances, and practices; constructs networks from relationships among ideas; uses clustering to identify attractor states and centrality to identify candidate leverage points; then examines emergent practices, justice implications, and possible interventions. The paper synthesizes prior applications in learning, economics, creativity, academic work, DEI, and software development.

### Response

Accepts DSRP as a universal cognitive formalism and general grammar for systems thinking, and positions Complex Conceptual Systems Theory beside it as a community-level, intervention-oriented model of distributed conceptual systems. Acceptance of the structural claim from an author building something different on top of it.

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

**Added** 2026-08-27

**How to cite this** Donaldson (2026). Why We Stay Stuck: A Complex Conceptual Systems Theory for Wicked Problems. Systems (MDPI), 14(4):431.