Headline: Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system by Donella Meadows
The Sustainability Institute
Leverage points are areas within a system where small changes can generate seismic, system-wide effects. For example, contrary to expectations, having more low-income housing actually results in poorer outcomes for poverty-stricken residents of urban areas if the housing is not matched simultaneously with employment opportunities. To change systems requires an understanding of negative and positive feedback loops, information flows, and other system parameters, rather than merely trying to change what is obvious. Rather than attaching one's self to a single paradigm, it is better to use systems analysis because it allows the analyst to retreat from the dominant paradigm and to change his or her whole approach. Instead of changing the players of the system (such electing new political representatives), it is more important to step back and change ideas about the system itself (such what constitutes equity in taxation or parity in terms of residents' ways of life).
Link: http://www.donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
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