General System(s) Theory for Social Systems (original) (raw)
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Acta Physica Polonica A, 2010
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Democracy and Nature, 2000
In this paper the central ideas and history of complexity theory and systems theory are described. It is shown how these theories lend themselves to different interpretations, and different interpretations lead to different political conclusions.
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This paper draws a sketch of a possible definition of social complexity. It includes defining humans as complexity patterns. Following the example of Sandra Mitchell expanding on complexity, I introduce notions to categorize human activity in the most simple, abstract and logical way possible. The aim is to provide with a tool, to design future, precisely in terms of open choices, restricting as little as possible future options. This draft is a purely creative and artistic rewording of all definitions of human beings, shifting from the biological determinism to the uncertainty of complexity in contingency.
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Systems theory has been challenged in the recent literature due to its perceived disconnection from today’s research and practice demands. Moving away from the reductionist frameworks and the complicated domain predominated by known unknowns and order, a call is being made to the social sciences to begin adopting complexity theory and newer connectionist methods that better address complexity and open social systems. Scholars and scholar-practitioners will continue to find the need to apply complexity theory as wicked problems become more prevalent in the social sciences. This paper differentiates between general systems theory (GST) and complexity theory, as well as identifies advantages for the social sciences in incorporating complexity theory as a formal theory. Complexity theory is expanded upon and identified as providing a new perspective and a new method of theorizing that can be practiced by disciplines within the social sciences. These additions could better position the s...
Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2019
Von Bertalanffy's General System Theory represents in a streamlined way most of his career, the key ideas he developed, the most important applications, and developments in a variety of fields. We as editors believe that the book, the man, and their influence deserve attention and renewed praise. Not only because of their historical value, past contributions to the formation of systems theory, complexity theory, and other fields but also because von Bertalanffy's theory of open systems can still contribute to a myriad of disciplines and, importantly, to discussions crossing disciplinary lines, from climate change to mental health. Indeed, the twisted and often obscured genealogies of systems theories and the disciplines borrowing from them suggest all too easily that the theory of open systems is passé, without much relevance. The contributors to this special issue wholeheartedly disagree and believe General System Theory has been systematically underrated and misunderstood.
Complex Systems Theory: Some Considerations for Sociology
Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 2016
This essay presents a reflection on the main implications of Complexity Theory for science in general, redefining and dispelling myths of traditional science, and Sociology in particular, suggesting a redefinition of Parsons' classic concept of Social System, articulated around the property of self-maintenance of order rather than on its possible discontinuity and instability. It argues that Complexity Theory has established the limits of Classic Science, leading to a more realistic awareness of working and evolution mechanisms of Natural and Social Systems and showing the limits of our capacity to predict and control events. Dissipative structures have shown the creative role of time. Instability, emergence, surprise, unpredictability are the rule rather than the exception when systems move away from equilibrium (entropy), even if these processes are generated from a system's deterministic working mechanisms. Therefore, we have come to realize how constructive the contribution of Complexity is, in regards to the long lasting problem of the relationship between order and disorder. Today, the terms of this relationship have been re-specified in its new configuration of interrelationship link, according to a unicum which finds its synthesis in selforganization and deterministic chaos concepts. From this perspective, as Prigogine suggested, studies on Complex Systems are heading toward a historical, biological conception of Physics, and a new alliance between natural systems and living, social systems. Non-linearity, far from equilibrium self-organization, emergence and surprise meet at all levels, as this paper attempts to highlight. In Sociology, insights of Complexity Theory have contributed to a new way of thinking about social systems, by re-addressing some fundamental issues starting to social system, emergence and change concepts. The current social system conception as complex dynamical systems is supported by a profitable use of non-liner models (in particular, the Logistic map) in the study of social processes.
Complexity in Economic and Social Systems
Entropy, 2021
During recent years we have witnessed a systematic progress in the understanding of complex systems, both in the case of particular systems that are classified into this group and, in general, as regards the phenomenon of complexity [...]
Social systems according to specific systems theory
Sciences, 2023
The Specific Systems Theory (STS) proposes a system definition that describes them precisely based on six postulates that establish the sufficient and necessary elements for some real entity to be a system. This contradicts and rejects the traditional definition of Bertalanffy (1968), which mentions that a system is a conglomerate of interacting components. Based on the definition of system that is the main foundation of STS, the various types of social systems, which have been scarcely studied, are analyzed in this study. The literature that exists in this regard is abundant in arguments about their behavior, but all the arguments generated have been developed based on various concepts that have no relation to their systemic properties. In this work, social systems are analyzed from the perspective of their systemic characteristics, their systemic nature and their systemic properties. The definition of system that supports STS makes it possible to clearly and easily understand how social systems work and explain their behavior as systems and not simply as societies, which is the inadequate approach that has been used to discuss them until now.