system

A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something.

– Thinking in Systems

If you look at that definition closely for a minute, you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.

– Thinking in Systems

So what is a system? Simply a set of things that are interconnected in ways that produce distinct patterns of behaviour – be they cells in an organism, protestors in a crowd, birds in a flock, members of a family, or banks in a financial network. And it is the relationships between the individual parts – shaped by their stocks and flows, feedbacks, and delay – that give rise to their emergent behaviour

– Doughnut Economics

• A system is more than the sum of its parts.
• Many of the interconnections in systems operate through the flow of information.
• The least obvious part of the system, its function or purpose, is often the most crucial determinant of the system’s behavior.
• System structure is the source of system behavior. System behavior reveals itself as a series of events over time.

– Thinking in Systems

most of the challenges that really matter involve systems, for example, energy and global warming; water, food, and population; and health and social justice.

– A Systems Literacy Manifesto