Chapter 26: Systems thinking and complexity in transitions research: Understanding system dynamics, feedback loops, and non-linear change

Sustainability transitions research focuses on understanding and fostering fundamental change processes in our human systems and making our societies more sustainable. It is urgent that these systems transitions increase in scope, scale and speed as highlighted by the IPCC’s 2018 Special Report on limiting warming to 1.5C, (de Coninck et al., 2018). Interventions in our human systems intended to bring about the necessary transitions have to come from a systems-based view that accounts for interactions within and across systems (Andersen and Geels, 2023; Köhler et al., 2019; Papachristos et al., 2013). While the sustainability transitions field has developed its own theoretical frameworks and related approaches, such as the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP, see Chapter 2) and Technological Innovation Systems (TIS, see Chapter 4), it has also benefited significantly from insights drawn from complexity science and systems thinking. These approaches are particularly valuable because they provide frameworks and tools for the analysis of interactions, feedback loops, and emergent behaviours that characterize transition processes.