Article ID: | iaor200970531 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 24 |
Issue: | 4 |
Start Page Number: | 479 |
End Page Number: | 488 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2008 |
Journal: | Systems Dynamics Review |
Authors: | Hovmand Peter S, O'Sullivan Joseph A |
Keywords: | system dynamics |
System dynamics has long held a promise of solving social problems. Such efforts benefit from interdisciplinary teams that can combine strong technical skills for modeling and analysis with people skills for working with stakeholders and understanding the substantive issues of social problems. In this note we describe a joint graduate system dynamics course between social work and electrical and systems engineering that emphasizes students learning how to develop and work in interdisciplinary teams to address social problems. We discuss the advantages of such teams, some of the challenges, and share lessons from the experience.