Title:
Bucking the system : systems concepts and development
Authors:
Williams, B.
Year:
2008
Serial number:
11
Journal:
The Broker
Pages:
16
-
19
ISSN:
1874-2033
Language:
eng
Subject:
Development Cooperation General
Keywords:
development policy
,
research
Abstract:
Over the last 50 years the systems field has expanded to encompass more than 1,000 methodologies. In this article, Bob Williams describes three core concepts of systems thinking. He argues that the potential for using systems concepts in international development has increased. In particular, the ways in which systems methods pose questions of boundaries provide an intellectual base for and practical means of resolving many of the big issues confronting international development. These issues include at what scale (national, trans-national, local) should interventions be conceived and assessed, who should be the primary beneficiaries and who or what could be harmed by that choice, can that tension be resolved, what expertise is considered relevant to an intervention and who should control what resources?
Organization:
The Broker
Category:
Policy
Right:
© 2008 IDP. This article has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.
Document type:
E-article
File:
137984.pdf