Kurt Lewin was a visionary and deeply original thinker. He was highly committed both to social change and to developing theories about human behaviour, summing up the connection between the two in saying that “there is nothing so practical as a good theory” (Lewin 1951, p. 169). The list of ideas that he originated is long, notably including group dynamics and action research; he also had a huge impact through institutions he founded, projects he worked on, and students he taught. Often described as the founder of social psychology, Lewin can also been seen as a key bridge between Gestalt psychology (a predecessor to systems thinking), and several early traditions in systems thinking. Burnes (2004, p. 981) has summed up his interests and values as follows: Lewin was a humanitarian who believed that only by resolving social conflict, whether it be religious, racial, marital or industrial, could the human condition be improved. Lewin believed that the key to resolving social conflict was to facilitate learning and so enable individuals to understand and restructure their perceptions of the world around them.
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Ramage, M., Shipp, K. (2009). Kurt Lewin. In: Systems Thinkers. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-525-3_27
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