Feedback Dynamics

Feedback dynamics refers to the time-varying behavior of a system that is created by a particular class of causal forces referred to as feedback loops—circular chains of cause and effect among system traits or actors. Such chains create a bidirectional flow of causality: changes or movement at one point influence system behavior in such a way that propagates through the chain to eventually reinforce or mitigate the original change. Feedback comes in two forms: balancing (negative) and reinforcing (positive). As the names imply, balancing feedback balances or mitigates movement away from equilibrium, while reinforcing feedback reinforces and accelerates such movement. The history of feedback thought as an emerging concept in systems theory is documented in references under Historical Roots of Feedback Dynamics. Feedback loops and the dynamic behavior they create are evident at all scales, from the molecular to the global—and they are ubiquitous. Their presence and role in the natural world is discussed under Feedback Dynamics in the Biosphere. Because of limitations in human reasoning and the significant role of feedback dynamics in socio-ecological systems, the presence of feedback poses special problems for exercising judicious management of environmental resources. The literature in Effects of Feedback on Human Decision Making describes the limits of human decision making in the presence of feedback and points to the role of feedback modeling to augment the decision-making process. Building on this thread of reasoning, the literature under Modeling Feedback Dynamics and all its subsections describes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to modeling feedback and discusses the limitations and advantages of each approach. The works in Feedback Dynamics in Socio-ecological Problems provide a summary of several instances of studies involving feedback in socio-ecological systems and highlight that some of the most influential feedback dynamics involve the interacting influences of the natural environment and the humans that depend on that environment for survival. Hence, scientists employing a feedback view of the world and who work on socio-ecological problems have increasingly recognized the need to engage stakeholders in jointly creating models of system feedback dynamics in order to build consensus and a common vision for addressing problems involving human interactions with the environment. Key works describing approaches to engaging stakeholders in feedback modeling are discussed under Group Modeling: Engaging Stakeholders in Feedback Analysis.