Industrialized societies are presently characterized by rapid change, strong interactions and an abundance of new phenomena. To increase the likelihood of policies having the intended effects, there is a need for policy analysis with a broader perspective and longer time horizon. The main task in such broad policy analysis should be to integrate the vast amount of available information into a useful conceptual structure of the problem area. System Dynamics (SD) –relying heavily on descriptive information for a data base, on a theory of the structure of social systems for theory formation, and on computer simulation for relating structure to behaviour—offers one method of attaining such broad policy analysis. This paper reviews the historical development of the field and examines the major system dynamics literature. The impatient questions of “what is?”, “why does one do?”, “when should one do?”, and “how does one do SD?” are all answered in summary fashion. Within the system dynamics profession, intense conflicts abound as to what constitutes “proper procedure” for the policy analysis process, particularly concerning model conceptualization and testing. Much disagreement arises from implicit differences in modeling objectives. Explicit recognition of objectives and procedures could reduce much of the conflict.

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Date created

• 1976

Type

• Document

Processing Activity

• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
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ITEM CONTEXT

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dbb17ec8affa7ecbcd419a760cb61093

Scope and Contents

Part of

7f4e0cd9dcbf7a3743e13c4911e77bc2

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Part of

23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8

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Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

Scope and Contents

Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives