Compendium: Complex systems, sociotechnical, system safety

This mini-compendium covers some areas of systems thinking and complex adaptive systems, mostly with a focus on safety and risk.

There are so many threads in the systems fields: systems thinking, systems engineering, systems safety, complexity, chaos, complex adaptive systems, cybernetics, variations thereof and more.

Hence, I can’t cover them all, so it’s a highly cherrypicked and selective pick of articles. I’ve omitted more than I’ve included (e.g. not much on natural sciences, ecological approaches etc). Main focus is articles I could find a full-text link for.

Note: I’ve only included a few articles from Nancy Leveson as I have a compendium dedicated to her work.

Maybe in the future I’ll break this topic into sub-themes for separate compendiums.

Included are:

·        Dave Snowden & Cynefin

·        Paul Salmon & team

·        Russel Ackoff

·        Some Dekker, Hollnagel, Cook, Woods, JCS and cognitive systems (only a little as I’ve covered their work in other compendiums)

·        A little cybernetics

·        Systems HF/E

·        Michael Jackson

·        Donella Meadows

·        Don Norman + more

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Shout me a coffee

https://doi.org/10.1145/7474.7528

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123629

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7556/jaoa.2019.053/pdf

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2021.100017

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1057/jors.2015.21

https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dar089

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105207

https://researchportal.hw.ac.uk/files/9966842/XX_Fitting_methods_to_paradigms_author_proof_.doc

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/11/2/92/pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2014.1001445

http://jacksonworkbench.com/resources/A%20System%20Development%20Method%20(MJ%201981).pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10803548.1999.11076420

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/5164

https://doi.org/10.3390/su14105869

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2025.105621

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106754

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.11.004

https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/aviation/article/download/9589/7304

https://doi.org/10.3390/safety5040065

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2019.100031

https://doi.org/10.1097/CEH.0000000000000098

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cahyono-St/publication/361885118_Handbook_of_human_factors_and_ergonomics_fourth_edition/links/62ca4ecc00d0b4511046af45/Handbook-of-human-factors-and-ergonomics-fourth-edition.pdf#page=55

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339390048_Design_Thinking_vs_Systems_Thinking_for_Engineering_Design_What’s_the_Difference

http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/75696/1/530.pdf#page=203

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=4983172

http://www.ask-force.org/web/Discourse/White-Application-Systems-Thinking-1995.pdf

https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14071978

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.599

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106237

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106856

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2020.107222

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2021.108077

https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings60th/article/download/2857/955

https://hal.science/hal-01617044/document

https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA0038223X_2990

https://pastel.hal.science/pastel-00537770/document

https://hal.science/hal-00524485/document

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2015.1009175

https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7070090

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3233/WOR-172500

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106176

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6650057

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/hfm.20874

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2015.1015622

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=1840230

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2015.1015621

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.224

https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/407898/1/Beyond_human_error_taxonomies_in_assessment_of_risk_in_sociotechnical_systems.docx

https://dumit.net/wp-content/uploads/2004/12/Burri_Dumit-2007-Biomedicine-as-culture.pdf#page=132

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5869

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140130903521587

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tarcisio-Saurin/publication/273523161_Complex_socio-technical_systems_Characterization_and_management_guidelines/links/60ad7479a6fdcc647edb4a88/Complex-socio-technical-systems-Characterization-and-management-guidelines.pdf?trk=public_post_comment-text

http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/33007/1/62.Woo%20Bang%20Lee.pdf#page=42

https://www.academia.edu/26986306/Formal_socio_technical_barrier_modelling_for_safety_critical_interactive_systems_design

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1071181319631538

http://www.labest.eng.ufba.br/sites/labest.eng.ufba.br/files/SAFETY%20SCIENCE.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791117303657

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105930

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.104556

http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/33007/1/62.Woo%20Bang%20Lee.pdf#page=26

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2021.2005823

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236093467_Systemic_accident_analysis_Examining_the_gap_between_research_and_practice

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.487

https://www.academia.edu/47390212/Applying_the_AcciMap_Methodology_to_Investigate_a_Major_Accident_in_Offshore_Drilling_A_Systematic_Risk_Management_Framework_for_Oil_and_Gas_Industry

http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/75696/1/530.pdf#page=203

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-62470-4_8

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753523000085

https://search.informit.org/doi/pdf/10.3316/informit.T2024060200002091586664008

https://www.academia.edu/22733552/Cognition_as_control_a_pragmatic_approach_to_the_modelling_of_joint_cognitive_systems_Control_9_1_23

https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/511/447

https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10123550

https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/270350/122530_FULLTEXT01.pdf?sequence=1

https://scholar.dlu.edu.vn/thuvienso/bitstream/DLU123456789/16180/1/000000mex200903.zip

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/301153.301168

https://www.academia.edu/2849941/THE_WAY_I_SEE_IT_Signifiers_not_affordances

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15516709cog0401_1

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800045.801571

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2163.358092

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2016.01.002

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003687013000628

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/151577/greenemt_1.pdf?sequence=1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106856

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/11/2/64/pdf

https://doi.org/10.3390/systems8030023

https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc4030038

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02640414.2024.2306056

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/sres.2808

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sres.3032

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/11/1819?utm_campaign=releaseissue_buildingsutm_medium=emailutm_source=releaseissueutm_term=doilink213

https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.70002

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00140139.2015.1015623

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