Abstract for: Opportunities, Cautions, and Lessons in Humility: Possibilities for Advancing Racial Equity

There is a strong tradition in system dynamics toward both the practical side of changing systems and deep insights that come from the rigorous study of systems. As a method, system dynamics has revealed important insights into the behavior of social systems, and yet lagged in in terms of translating the potential of powerful system insights into actual change. However, today we see both a demand for rigorous applications of systems thinking to understanding structural racism and the potential role of system dynamics in transforming social systems toward an equitable future. This talk draws on over 15 years of work to address structural racism in Cleveland, Ohio through systems thinking and perspective transformation to suggest promising directions for future research and application of system dynamics to advance racial equity. We close on answering the question the unique role that system dynamics has to play to advance equity.