Invited Reviews on System Dynamics
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Invited Reviews on System Dynamics
Dynamics of Commodity Production Cycles DL Meadows Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. xi 104 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0 262 13141 2 Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World
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Readings in Urban Dynamics: Volume 2 WW Schroeder III, RE Sweeney and LE Alfeld Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. viii 305 pp. $55.00. ISBN 0 262 19170 9 Towards Global Equilibrium DL Meadows and DH Meadows Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. x 358 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0 242 13143 9
DL Meadows, WW Behrens III, DH Meadows, RF Naill, J Randers and EKO Zahn Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. xi 637 pp. $60.00. ISBN 0 262 13141 0
Urban Dynamics
Introduction to Urban Dynamics
World Dynamics
LE Alfeld and AK Graham Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1996. xvii 337 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0 914700 01 4
JW Forrester Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. xiii 142 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0 262 18088 X
Readings in Urban Dynamics: Volume 1 NJ Mass (Ed) Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. x 303 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0 262 13141 4
JW Forrester Productivity Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994. xiii 285 pp. $45.00. ISBN 1 56327 0587
These eight books are examples of the application of System Dynamics. All have been published previously but are part of Productivity Press's re-release of important texts of that ®eld. The founding ideas of the ®eld of System Dynamics1 and the various books which deepen these ideas and provide tailored study materials2±5 have also been re-
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released by Productivity and have been reviewed in previous numbers of JORS. As more detailed reviews of these texts have already appeared, I intend to round off this survey of the re-releases by commenting only brie¯y on these eight volumes (brie¯y, that is, measured using the ratio words/ books). The aim is to announce their appearance so that those with a particular interest in the problem domains that they deal with can investigate further. Four books result from Forrester's attempts to understand the forces that produce the growth, stagnation, decline and revival of a city. Urban Dynamics resulted from a chance encounter between Jay Forrester and John Collins, an ex-mayor of Boston. The two convened an impressive array of specialists in business and urban planning and government to be involved in an extensive modelbased study. The resulting book presents a model of a general city and studies the types of behaviour that can result and the policies which might reverse decline. It is a characteristically Forrestian undertaking. It is audacious and courageous. It provides some powerful insights into the structural causes behind urban stagnation. Furthermore, the proposed solutions are counter-intuitive and seemingly designed to outrage. One of the key ideas, namely, that the construction of low-cost housing acts to inhibit rather than re-energise growth, was strongly against the prevailing wisdom. Nevertheless, the book provides a good case for the s
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