Conference with special session on transforming towards a post-growth world
STRUBEN Jeroen
Dear All,
I would like to bring your attention to the 2026 International System Dynamics Conference (ISDC) conference (July 20-24, 2026, in Delft, the Netherlands), which may be of interest to some of you. The ISDC is the main conference of the global community of people passionate about system dynamics and systems thinking. The conference fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among participants from academia, government, business, other institutions, and civil society more widely. Traditionally, many sustainability-oriented papers are discussed at the conference. Conference details and links, including to older conferences and proceedings, are below.
Furthermore, as one of the conference program co-chairs I would like to share information about a special plenary session we are organizing, and for which we are looking for engaged scholars to participate in. For now the session is loosely defined around the topic “transforming towards a post-growth world”. We need many different approaches to tackle this problem, and this session (format tbd, plenary talks, panel,...) has as a main goal to build bridges across research communities interested in this topic and particularly across those that do not and that do use “modeling” (meaning computer-based simulation as well as other forms, including e.g. participative group model building).
Questions could for example evolve around how could modeling contribute to understanding important aspects of the transformation and/or to taking effective action towards an inclusive, prosperous, sustainable society?; and, for what specific problems/scopings could this be the case?; what are opportunities to bridge between existing data collection and modeling efforts?; what are important barriers to effective modeling of this phenomenon?; and how can different approaches (e.g., including modeling and non-modeling) complement and/or learn from each other? Etc.
We are very excited to initiate such conversations in this session among scholars and especially including those who may not themselves be modelers. The idea is to organise opportunities for follow-up conversations among interested conference participants during a slot after the plenary session.
If you are interested and would like to be part of this discussion at the ISDC conference, and possibly particpate in this plenary session, please send me an email: str...@em-lyon.com.
If you have other thoughts, also feel free to contact me directly or, of course, express these at the list serve.
Many thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Best,
Jeroen Struben
(On behalf of the 2026 ISDC Program Chair Team, Hyunjung Kim, David Lounsbury, Jeroen Struben)
2026 Conference Call:
Navigating uncertainty, managing instability, and crafting futures together
We face an array of unprecedented and interconnected global challenges ranging from the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, overconsumption of natural resources, proliferation of misinformation, to increasing socio-economic and epistemic divides. Tensions are rising, and political and economic systems are being tested.
Systems scientists are uniquely positioned to help understand the underlying dynamic complexities cutting across social, economic, material, and informational realms. We can combine our best hard and soft skills, and create networks, partnerships, and alliances–within and beyond our fields—to inform policies and interventions addressing key societal challenges and opportunities.
The ISDC 2026 welcomes any submissions from researchers, students, educators, and practitioners using system dynamics in any application area, both work-in-progress and completed. We particularly encourage work that addresses societal challenges, presents novel approaches for analyzing these, or clarifies our roles and responsibilities as systems scientists. We invite papers that draw upon the experience within and showcase the rigor of our field, as well as those that challenge what needs to be questioned in order to craft better futures.
Note: The conference also offers the possibility of organizing “Convened Sessions” – sessions with a specific theme and consisting of papers invited by the organizer of the convened session. (Papers will go through the regular conference review process.) Please contact the program chairs directly if you want to organize such a session.
https://systemdynamics.org/past-conferences/
Jeroen STRUBEN
Associate Professor of Strategy & Organisation
144 avenue Jean Jaurès
69007 Lyon, France
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