Abstract for: System Dynamics Literature Reviews: a new method for theorizing

Systematic literature reviews are widely used to integrate knowledge on complex social problems but are often based on a linear understanding of reality. This paper contributes to theorizing complex social problems, by exploring how qualitative system dynamics modelling can complement the shortcomings of systematic literature reviews. we explain our six-step procedure of distilling and integrating feedback loops from large bodies of literature into comprehensive causal loop diagrams. The steps include problem selection; searching and collecting relevant literature; screening and coding the literature; modelling the codes; validating by counter reading and falsifying; simplifying the causal loop diagram and presenting the output. We do so, by drawing on a system dynamics literature review on Central and Eastern European migrant workers’ quality of work in Western European food production.