Central to SEVEN's working method is the concept of systems thinking, a scientific approach in which problem-solving is based on the totality of parts that are interconnected and continually influencing each other. This method lies at the basis of transition thinking, defined by John as the insight that major changes within one social practice (such as the introduction of a new product) always require changes within other practices (such as consumption and distribution) as well as structural adjustments to rules, infrastructures and logics. 

John: ‘Precisely because the University of Amsterdam is such a broad and large university, whose faculties are all internationally highly regarded, with specialists in numerous fields, it’s pre-eminently well positioned for this systemic approach.’ 

A new way of thinking 

The first seed for this new way of thinking was planted when John worked on a couple of major sustainability projects around 1995, including a case study on agriculture. It was an eye-opener for him when he noticed that even the highly driven and enterprising professionals involved, who were eager to become more sustainable were not succeeding. He realised that if they couldn’t succeed, no one could. 

John: ‘The point was that it was literally beyond their power. Sometimes legislation got in the way, sometimes established business models, sometimes value chain rules, always something an individual could not solve on his own. And then I thought: those are systemic issues.’ He also realised that in many cases these were not consciously created obstacles, but the logical consequences of the post-war intensification of agriculture. The chains and legislation were still set up to fit the associated production processes. 

The heart of the problem 

John: ‘The core of the sustainability issue is progress thinking, the idea of bringing reality under control through science and technology to create wealth. But natural reality is now starting to talk back and we will have to learn to live in and with that natural reality again.’ 

John: ‘If you are going to build a residential area, you have to think about whether the water system at that location can handle a residential area. The local characteristics are fortunately increasingly becoming the starting point for planning: from soil, water, natural resources and infrastructure to the heating of the planned homes via, for example, thermal storage in a nearby canal or connection to a heat network. We need to start thinking in a more contextualised way. Thinking in terms of universal solutions that can be rolled out everywhere is the problem, not the solution.’ 

A question of responsibility as well as 'big grins' 

John has a background in physics, but his strong social commitment and interest in innovative research made him switch to the social sciences in 1992. There he was able to use his specific knowledge to make a major contribution to research into social issues in the fields of the environment, agriculture, energy and health, in which science and technology play a major role.  

John: ‘I met so many driven, passionate people who couldn't figure it out. Really beautiful people, people who wanted to change the world and do it so radically that if they ran into a wall, they still wouldn’t give up. When you’re paid by the taxpayer, like I am, and have the chance to think freely, to step back a little bit, it gives you a certain responsibility. Plus, of course, the satisfaction and a big grin on my face for being part of that world.’ 

On the skin of reality 

In the years that followed, John, in collaboration with Wageningen University and others, developed the first systems innovation method that was ‘really on the skin of reality’, as he likes to call it. Around that time, he also came into contact with Johan Schot and Jan Rotmans.  

Schot had rewritten the political and social history of the Netherlands of the 19th century based on its scientific and technical developments and the accompanying systems transitions. Rotmans had been appointed a professor in Maastricht and was engaged in complex-systems theory and transition management, which allowed one to reason backwards from a particular situation desired for the future and to consider what steps would have to be taken to achieve it.  

After several meetings ‘in an attic’ in Utrecht and with the help of a large grant, the three men, along with several others including Derk Loorbach and the late Ruud Smits, founded the ambitious Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations and Transitions (KSI) in 2005. Their goal was to make transition studies an independent field of study. In the network, both practical applications and international dissemination of the thinking were firmly guaranteed.  

And so from this Dutch birthplace, transition thinking has grown into an international field with research methods applied by thousands of researchers worldwide. John is genuinely pleased and proud that the journal which they founded at the time, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, still exists (as does the practice website), and that the annual conference with researchers from all continents, has had its 15th edition thanks to the efforts of people like Anna Wieczorek. 

The systemic ‘car wash’ 

Asked about his prediction of what SEVEN will have achieved in 5 years, John replies: ‘By then I hope we will be known as the institute to help solve climate issues thanks to top scientists who, in interdisciplinary collaboration, use their talent, social commitment and intellectual drive to think through and work out the complex changes.’ 

John: ‘And that the outside world knows that we have a kind of “carwash”, a mechanism that transforms projects into interdisciplinary projects in which systems thinking is well embedded; that we have ready-made methods on the shelf, ranging from complex systems models to methods for backcasting; and that the UvA by then has a Master’s programme in Systems Thinking.’ 

Elles Tukker