Resources

The School of System Change provides education in systems thinking and transformation, helping practitioners build the skills needed to navigate complexity and drive change. With a focus on collaboration, strategic design, and long-term transitions, their approach complements Transition Design and is a great resource for those tackling sustainability and systemic challenges.

The Transnational Institute (TNI) is an international body that researches a huge range of systemic problems (such as the climate crisis, just transitions, food and land sovereignty, public services, and municipalism) and advocates for pragmatic and systemic solutions. The TNI website has a huge range of extremely well-researched, clearly written, and downloadable reports.

The Great Transition Initiative (GTI) is an international network of authors and activists who have been leading voices in the field of transitions for many years. It focuses on addressing systemic social, economic, and ecological crises, and advocates for a new kind of civilization that recognizes our interdependencies at local, regional, and global levels. Decision making would occur at the most local level possible, while considering the well-being of the planet as a whole. The GTI website has many videos and downloadable reports on these topics.

The Transition Town Network promotes grassroots community initiatives that foster local economic self-reliance and enable communities to be more resilient to disruptions caused by breakdowns in the global economy and by the climate crisis. The movement originated in 2007 in Totnes, Devon, UK and there are now nearly a thousand groups registered as transition towns around the planet, making it one of the most important citizen networks working towards more desirable, just, and sustainable futures.

Commons transition is key to addressing systemic problems and to making the transition to sustainable futures. It refers to the process whereby communities or societies move from a system based on market-driven or state-controlled resources toward a system based on shared resources that are collectively owned, managed, and used by the community for mutual benefit, rather than being privatized or controlled by external authorities. The Commons Transition website contains a huge amount of information and downloadable resources about this topic.

This conference poster from the 2019 International Sustainability Transitions Conference (the flagship international transitions research event) illustrates and summarizes the Transition Design framework, its perspective on systems, and the approach that has been used to address complex, wicked problems.

This diagram uses the five sectors of the STEEP framework (legal, social, environmental, infrastructure, and economic) to map and understand wicked ‘systems’ problems. Different facets of any wicked problem always manifest in each sector, and what occurs in each sector will influence and shape the others. This situation is further complicated by the fact that the rates of change within each sector is different, and these differing rates of change must be taken into account when addressing a wicked problem.

Designed artifacts and processes permeate socio-technical systems in all sectors. Design and designers therefore have a key role in sustainability transitions. These concept diagrams illustrate how this applies to the transportation sector, based upon F.W. Geels’ Figure 1 in “The Dynamics of Transitions in Socio-Technical Systems: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Transition Pathway from Horse-Drawn Carriages to Automobiles.”

The Next System Project, along with its sister organization, the Democracy Collaborative, have been important voices in researching and advocacy for systemic solutions to systemic problems, such as economic inequality, racism, and the climate crisis. The Next System Project website has many downloadable reports and videos on topics relating to systemic change, such as energy, banking, governance, ownership, and racial justice. The Democracy Collaborative is an important source of information on the many aspects of community wealth building (CWB).

The Common Cause Foundation argues that our systemic crises are rooted in the cultural values that shape how we interact with each other and the natural world. Unlike most advocacy groups, Common Cause works with individuals and organizations to promote intrinsic values (such as honesty and justice) and reduce extrinsic values (such as status and power). Extrinsic values, which are promoted by dominant ideologies and embedded in our institutions, are at the core of many systemic issues. By shifting from extrinsic to intrinsic values, we can address these problems at their root. The Common Cause website offers various downloadable reports, toolkits, and visuals.

Doughnut economics, pioneered by Kate Raworth, uses the visual of a doughnut to represent a sustainable and just economy. The doughnut’s outer edge shows the “planetary boundaries,” which represent ecological limits. The doughnut’s hole represents minimum social well-being needs, such as access to food, healthcare, and education. A sustainable economy must stay within the doughnut—between the outer edge (planetary boundaries) and the inner hole (social well-being). DEAL is a global network of organizations and activists applying the principles of doughnut economics. This website is an invaluable source of information, methodologies, stories, tools, and contacts.

Local Futures and its partner website Localization Action Guide argue that the global corporate-led economy is endangering all life on Earth, and that action is needed to bring about systemic change through humanly scaled, decentralized, and localized economies. This will strengthen communities and democracy, improve livelihoods, and protect ecosystems. These websites have a huge number of videos, podcasts, interviews, and reports that discuss the problems caused by globalization, alternatives to it, and guides to the development of such alternatives in multiple sectors. They are also important portals to many other websites and resources relating to local activism and systems-level change.

Emergence Magazine is an online publication with an annual print edition and weekly podcast series. It shares stories, interviews, and discussions that explore the connections between ecology, culture, and spirituality and the development of the ecological worldview in which Transition Design is grounded. Contributors to Emergence include many of the leading voices in this field, such as botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, ecophilosopher David Abram, and poet Jane Hirshfield.

‘Just Transitions’ refers to efforts to transition to regenerative, low-carbon economies in ways that ensure justice and equity for those that might be negatively affected and marginalized by this process. Just transition initiatives have been led by trade unions and some governmental organizations and have focused particularly on communities and regions that currently rely on fossil fuel industries. They advocate for these communities to play an active role in shaping the emerging green economy.

The Young Person’s Guide To Systems Change from The 50 Percent (a platform for young leaders supported by The Club of Rome), is designed as a collaborative space that empowers young people to develop a deep understanding of systems thinking and apply it to transform the world around them. It challenges the misconception that systems thinking is too complex for young people, recognising their ability to navigate interconnected challenges.

This 12-page paper critically examines how the global green energy transition can reproduce imperialist structures. Drawing on decolonial political economy scholarship, it explores ecological imperialism, militarized extractivism, and the complicity of authoritarian regimes in the Global South. It calls for an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial vision of just transition—one rooted in climate justice, reparations, and democratic control of resources.

World Resources Institute (WRI) is one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to research and advocacy for systems-level change across a wide range of areas, including cities, water, climate, energy, forests, and food. It examines how these sectors are shaped by national and global economic, financial, and governance structures, and works to influence policy accordingly. WRI is involved in numerous projects and initiatives that collaborate with stakeholders to promote equitable, sustainable, low-carbon local economies. Its website serves as a vital resource, offering extensive information and data on these issues and related projects.

John Thackara is one of the leading authors on sustainable futures, with a particular focus on social and ecological design. His regularly updated blog has articles going back many years and is an important and inspiring archive of information and commentary on topics such as bioregionalism, ecological restoration, food systems, and urban ecology. Thackera’s book ‘How to Thrive in the Next Economy’ describes the activities of many grassroots, community-based projects all over the world which are addressing real social and ecological needs.

Transition Design is influenced by diverse fields such as systems theory, social ecology, sustainability transitions, alternative economics, and the study of history and Indigenous cultures. These influences share a focus on systemic approaches to complex social, ecological, political, and technological problems, and support an emerging ecological worldview. This short article lists some of the key books on the intellectual foundations and core principles of Transition Design, and articles giving overviews of its theory and applied approach.

Indiscriminate economic growth is at the root of many systemic, wicked problems. Advocates of degrowth propose alternative economies centered on quality of life, equity, and ecological well-being, rather than the pursuit of endless consumption. The website of the International Degrowth Network, which has over 70 member organizations, is an important resource hub for the movement. It provides a wealth of materials on this topic, including toolkits, guides, news, and links to scholarly papers.

Sustainability challenges demand the restructuring of institutions and organizations at local, regional, and global scales. The NODUS group explores design solutions, business models, grassroots initiatives, and governance innovations with the potential to contribute to sustainability transitions. NODUS advances and promotes transdisciplinary research and co-creative approaches to knowledge generation. The group’s work is grounded in key concepts such as socio-ecological-technological system transformations, sustainability science, practice theory, participatory and collaborative design, and futures studies.

A global community of systemic design scholars and practitioners, working on complex organizational and systems change initiatives, contributes to an annual cycle of symposia, journal issues, and informal, peer-led online gatherings. These activities generate the resources available on RSDsymposium.org and Contexts—The Systemic Design Journal.