System Dynamics and the Evolution of the Systems Movement - A Historical Perspective

The purpose of this contribution is to give an overview of the role of System Dynamics in the context of the evolution of the systems movement. "Systems movement"--often referred to briefly as "systemics"--is a broad term, which takes account of the fact that
there is no one systems approach, but a range of different ones. Indeed, the development of the System Dynamics methodology, and the worldwide community that applies SD to the modeling and simulation in the most different contexts, suggest it is a "systems
approach" on its own. Nevertheless, taking "System Dynamics" as the (one and only) synonym for "systemic thinking" would go too far, as there are other approaches to systemic thinking as well as a variety of systems theories and methodologies, which - to a
certain extent - are complementary to SD. The purpose of this article implies working out the actual and potential relationships between System Dynamics and the other strands of the systems movement.
An overview on the temporal sequence of some milestones in the evolution of the Systems Approach in general and System Dynamics in particular is given in the Appendix. Elaborating on each one of the sources and dates quoted therein would reach beyond the possibilities of this paper.