National Vision

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Exploring the Field of ISD

Integrative Systems + Design at the University of Michigan embraces a national vision for integrative, system, design, and critical thinking through exceptional education, creativity, connection, and translational research.

Integrative thinking requires seeing problems from multiple viewpoints, taking them all into consideration, and searching for creative solutions through a multidisciplinary and transformative approach. 

Integrative thinking also requires shifting the focus to the vulnerabilities and capacities of single systems or sectors to interconnected systems, taking into account the multidirectional interactions of projected changes, responses, and effects.

Understanding Integrative

Integrative comes in a variety of forms:

  • Connecting skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences.
  • Applying skills and practices in various settings.
  • Using diverse and even contradictory points of view.
  • Understanding issues and positions contextually.

Integrative, in its many splendid forms, can help solve the planet’s most pressing, longstanding, and highly complex issues.