No. 2025-06 - Systems thinking in UK environmental policy making

Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a marked rise in the use of systems thinking approaches in UK policy making institutions, especially in environmental domains. To better understand practice ‘on the ground’, we conduct a review of examples of systems thinking projects being run by, or for, the UK government in these domains. We conduct a semi-systematic review of grey, academic, and unpublished literature, and interview researchers and policy makers involved in projects. We find evidence of the growing popularity of systems thinking across environmental policy areas. Typically, systems thinking projects concentrate on building understanding during the early stages of the policy cycle. We find fewer instances of it being used in direct instrumental applications and few applications in policy implementation. This reflects a perception of systems thinking as an exploratory tool, and in some cases, as a luxury. Projects employing systems thinking approaches exhibit a diverse array of designs, funding structures, and expertise sources, with both in-house and consultancy-style contributions. We find few project evaluations, discussion of conditions for success or failure predominantly centre on basic good practice. This reflects the inherent challenge in quantifying changes in mental models, with limited time and resource constraints. This poses an obstacle to establishing good practice for systems thinking and achieving broader adoption. Wider socialisation of systems thinking and its value propositions, that challenge perceptions of it as a luxury or exploratory-only tool, and more evaluation of its use, are key priorities for broader adoption.

Supplementary data