Systems approaches and their application : Examples from Sweden

The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) is currently responsible for the Swedish contacts with . When Formas was established in it inherited the Swedish national committee for the promotion of contacts and systems a- lysis that was originally set up by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (frn ), which was abolished in conjunction with a major reform of the Swedish research ?nancing system. Within the framework of the Committee a special project was launched in line with a proposal by Gunnar Sjöstedt dealing with the Swedish experience in s- tems analysis and thus, indirectly, with themes related to most of ’s activities. The project co-ordination and editorial tasks were given to Mats-Olov Olsson and Gunnar Sjöstedt under the direct surveillance of the Committee. Many of the Committee members and their co-workers as well as several other Swedish scholars have contributed to this book.