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Systems Thinking Framework

Systems Thinking Framework and the Discourse on Rights

Human Rights, as a topic of inquiry and a social event, is a complex problem that cannot be solved through simple answers. Researchers, scholars, experts, and professionals, irrespective of their vocational training and areas of expertise, often engage with the question of human rights, because their, ultimately, touches on human rights. Unlikely other topics of human concern, where interest is driven by the need to directly and purposefully produced a desired outcome, our interest in human rights was driven by the need to prevent something from happening: human rights abuse. Because of this distinction, much work must be done not to identify the determinant system that produces human rights abuses, but the contributory systems that result in human rights abuses. This explains the varying interests in human rights across disciplines and vocations. For this, and many other reasons that are discussed on this platform, the systems thinking framework, or some version of it at least, presents itself as the most appropriate lens through which the production of knowledge on the subject of human rights.

From this page, readers and contributors can take part in

  • Discussions: Questions and answers format that consist of short essays answering focused questions,
  • Research Notes: informed and reasoned commentaries and essays on the application and applicability of systems thinking to the question of rights, and
  • Research Content: full articles and monographs that engage with the question of human rights through systems thinking and related theoretical frameworks.
  • Systems Thinking Reading List: Books and articles about/used systems thinkin framework.