Thinking Like a System: Are Museums Up to the Challenge?

Systems thinking is a necessary part of sustainable development work, which tries to strike a balance between social, economic, and environmental concerns to foster the well-being of current and future generations. This article suggests that many conventional museums are limited in their capacity to contribute to this work because of their focus on reductionism, and that this might be countered by the systems thinking and conceptual models associated with human ecology. Details are provided about an established model called the adaptive renewal cycle, which describes how the behavior of complex systems affects everything from the abundance and movement of natural capital to the generation and transmission of knowledge. Insights about the value of this model for museums are drawn from experiences with The Human Factor exhibit at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, especially a series of displays called the "Towers of Power."