Housing and systems thinking

This working paper outlines the value of using systems thinking concepts to frame understanding of the housing sector. The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) was funded in part on the basis that it would, where appropriate, integrate a focus on housing as a system into its evidencing, knowledge exchange and research strategies. Systems thinking provides an array of useful concepts, mental models and modes of thinking that can inform and help structure housing policy and strategy development. To pursue this line of argument, the paper goes through the following stages. First, we set out core ideas associated with systems thinking, stressing a complexity-based perspective; to this we add other relevant systems thinking ideas such as system archetypes and other mental models. Second, we define a housing system and demonstrate how we can apply these ideas to thinking about the housing sector. Finally, the paper suggests ways in which this body of work can directly and indirectly contribute to housing policy and strategy development.