Outside the Skin

Life's game is measured in episodes of awareness, ie, self-awareness, an awareness of the way things work, or that things are not always what they seem. Systems dynamics are full of shocks to the system. Whether we are witnessing the physics of a rational system or the profundity of an irrational system, the shocks come with a sense of, "you mean you can do that?" This book examines systems dynamics from the perspective of the author's own triangulated model comprised of common environments (those shared environments at risk of over-use or degradation), the institutions we design to manage those commons and the human behaviour associated with our investment in the triad. The Feedbacks between the three comprise the Policy Arena for collective decision-making and form a backdrop for shaping personal actions. Beautifully illustrated with student case study research covering a range of topics from the past twelve years, the work is written for a wide audience including academics, researchers, designers, and the concerned citizen. AUTHOR: Darla V. Lindberg is a registered architect and a Professor of Architecture in the Department of Architecture at The Pennsylvania State University. She is the first woman in the over 100-year history of the Department to be tenured and promoted, and then to be promoted to Full Professor. She recently held a two-year Endowed Chair of Design Innovation for her work in systems dynamics as it affects thesis thinking in design. She also gave a TED talk on the question "What motivates influential people?" She grew up on a 1500-acre grain farm in North Dakota where, as natural systems farmers, life and living were both seamless and expansive. Located in the middle of the Bakken Shale, one of the largest oil developments in the US, she witnessed the horrors of coal strip mining in that powerfully productive landscape. Not surprisingly, her undergraduate architectural thesis tackled environmentalism, strip coal mining, land reclamation, and corporate greed in the design of a Scheduled and Unscheduled Maintenance Facility and Headquarters for North American Coal Corporation. SELLING POINTS: Darla Lindberg is the first woman in the over 100-year history of the department to be tenured and promoted and then to be promoted to Full Professor Lindberg recently held a two-year Endowed Chair of Design Innovation for her work in systems dynamics as it affects thesis thinking in design. She also gave a TED talk on the invitation, "What motivates influential people?" 230 colour images