University Catalogs

Our personal health, along with the health of the human social systems we inhabit, are inextricably entwined with the wellbeing of local and global environmental systems. Living systems (including social, biological, and environmental) are complex adaptive systems that are self-organizing and give rise to emergent properties within a wider ?ecosystemic? context. To effect beneficial and sustainable changes within such systems, leaders must apply (and embody) ecosystemic principles. This course will help students learn how to understand?and to effect sustainable change in?the complex systems in their lives: personal, social, and environmental. Students will explore and develop leadership strategies and skills, using complexity theory as a theoretical framework. We are facing a multifaceted global/planetary crisis. The evidence is clear that Global Climate Change is primarily driven by human behaviors. Drawing upon the new science of Complex Systems, it is also evident that human social systems (economic, political, and cultural) are impelling us towards a planetary ?bifurcation point.? Our only hope to avoid multiple systems collapse is to make deep changes in these systems. Rigid, top-down approaches based on linear and mechanistic paradigms are ill-suited to transformative leadership, which facilitates an open-ended process of organic change. This course helps students develop transformative leadership capacities that are applicable within all types of organizations, within a wide variety of roles and positions. prereq: Jr or sr or grad student, or instructor consent