Includes bibliographical references and index.

"This book explores various approaches to systems thinking, including soft and critical systems thinking, to provide a comprehensive overview of how systems theory can be integrated into service design in order to address societal problems. The field of service design has evolved significantly in recent years, from focusing on touchpoints and user interactions, to being seen as a driver for organizational transformation and increasingly, a key component in transdisciplinary spaces involving complex systems. However, while service design has grown over the past few decades, it has also recognized its limitations in addressing complex societal problems. For example, the book highlights how a lack of holistic understanding of the systems in place can lead to service failure, which ultimately results in societal issues relating to unemployment, healthcare, and public transportation. As such, this book offers theoretical and practical resources specifically tailored to service designers in order to equip them with the ability to develop solutions that are appropriate in scope, depth, and feasibility to address these complex issues. Contributing authors draw upon and integrate theories from related disciplinary fields to extend the contextualisation of service design within complex systems, thus providing readers with more scientific frames of reference. The book also draws upon case studies from South and North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, to provide readers with comprehensive perspectives and real life examples to further their understanding of systemic service design and how to integrate it successfully. The book provides theoretical and practical knowledge for students and designers in the fields of service design, design for policy, social design, and also for managers, public and private sector planners, engineers and politicians"-- Provided by publisher.