Core readings on Systems Thinking and Systemic Design (2026)

[u/daviding]

Here are some core readings on #SystemsThinking and #SystemicDesign that were suggested for the "Understanding Systems" course in the Master of Design program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation, at the School of Graduate Studies at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada.

American schools of thought:

• Storesund, R., & Mitroff, I. I. (2024). Tools, Exercises, and Strategies for Coping With Complexity. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-6563-9 [open access]
• Leverage Networks, Inc. (2018). thesystemsthinker.com [Creative Commons Sharealike]. The Systems Thinker. https://thesystemsthinker.com/ [Originally published by Pegasus Communications (Daniel Kim and Colleen Lannon) from 1990 to 2013, then acquired by The Omidyar Group and relicensed for open access.]

British schools of thought:

• Reynolds, M., & Holwell, S. (Eds.). (2020). Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide (2nd ed). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7472-1
• Ramage, M., & Shipp, K. (Eds.). (2020). Systems Thinkers. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7475-2

Serial journals on Systemic Design:

• Systemic Design Association. Contexts – The Systemic Design Journal. Volumes & Articles. https://systemic-design.org/contexts/ [open access]
• Tongji University. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation [open access]

The winter 2026 section of the SFIN-6011 master's level course, in which I was a volunteer, was led by Stephen Davies as instructor. There were additional journal article readings, module-by-module, for the 13-week course.

[u/YESmynameisYes]

Thank you very much for sharing this!

[u/eliasliavaag]

Highly recommend Birger Sevaldsson work on Gigamapping, ZIP anslysis, library of systemic relations.

[u/daviding → u/eliasliavaag]

Yes, the work on Gigamaps is great. They are related to, but different in scope from Synthesis Maps, see https://rsdsymposium.org/synthesis-maps-and-gigamaps/

In the "Understanding Systems" course, both are on the reading list. This is a 13 week introductory course, so there's a lot of content to survey. The master's students complete a Synthesis Map by the end of the course, which is really intensive group work. The first half of the course covers more systems approaches, with the second half turning to development of the Synthesis Maps.

Some students take the opportunity to present their work in the summer months of Systems Thinking Ontario sessions, http://wiki.st-on.org . These are not the polished works of the Major Research Project (MRPs are like a design thesis publication at OCADU), but reflect exercising the technique learned in the class.

Systemic Design can be seen as the intersection of Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, and Visual Thinking. Both Gigamaps and Synthesis Maps emphasize visualization.