This year’s Local Conference Of Youth Austria (LCOY), the Austrian Youth Climate Conference, in Vienna from 8 to 10th of November featured two sessions on systems thinking. The registration lists for the two sessions were already full in the early mornings, when most students had not yet registered for most other workshops. This overwhelming response showed how strongly young people care about new and systemic approaches to societal problems.

Full rooms at LCOY 2019

BCSSS Program Manager Angelika Schanda was invited as a guest for a fireside chat about the question ‘How do systems actually change – and what you can do about it’. Furtermore, she contributed to the workshop by PrimeMovers founder Okan McAllister with the title ‘How we can change systems: introduction to systems thinking’. Read more about these workshops in the official program.

Students present their own map of factors and causal loops

That young people are not turned away from complex issues, but instead excited about systemic perspectives is an encouraging sign for the future development of systems science and design, the intersection that lies at the heart of the BCSSS. The center is looking to further build on this work to inspire future generations of changemakers and professionals in all fields, who are concerned with such complex problems.