System Dynamics and the Evolution of Systems Movement a Historical
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ANNIKA THEOBALD – 311228 DIJONSTRASSE 2, 75173 PFORZHEIM Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst DESIGN & KYBERNETIK – Von der Dekodierung zur Synchronisation der Systeme FÜR JAMES CARSE1 ABSTRACT 1. Rajat Panwar, Robert Kozak and Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Entwicklung eines Handlungs- Eric Hansen, For- ests, Business and modells zur Adressierung und Lösung komplexer gesellschaftlicher Sustainability, Fragestellungen – Der sogenannten bösartigen Probleme. 2015, S.11 Da es sich um eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit aus dem Kernbereich der Designdisziplin handelt, gibt das erste Kapitel einen Einblick in die Defi nition des der Arbeit zugrunde liegenden Designbegriffs, um so eine disziplinäre Verortung der Argumentation gewährleisten zu können. Es folgt eine Einführung in den Charakter bösartiger Probleme und die Erläuterung der Kernproblematik im Umgang mit selbigen. Anschließend werden die Kompetenzen der DesignerInnen beleuchtet, dabei vor allem die für die Adressierung relevanten. Da bösartige Probleme in ihrer Komplexität Teilbereiche ver- schiedener Disziplinen ansprechen und die Qualitäten der DesignerInnen allein nicht alle Anforderungen der Adressierung bedienen können, ergibt sich die Notwendigkeit einer Kooperation mit den Systemwissenschaften. Entsprechend der Darstellung der Qualitäten der Designer- Innen, werden daher auch die für die Adressierung entscheidenden Kompetenzen der Systemwissenschaften vorgestellt. Auf jene Qualifi kationen aufbauend, schließt sich eine schrittweise Beschreibung der im Rahmen der Arbeit erarbeiteten -
Living Systems Theory (Under Construction)
Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Faculty and Researcher Publications Faculty and Researcher Publications 2008-06-30 Living Systems Theory (under construction) Bradley, Gordon http://hdl.handle.net/10945/38246 Living Systems Theory (under construction) Agranoff, B. W. (2003). Obituaries: James Grier Miller. Retrieved May 26, 2008, from University of Michigan: The University Record Online: http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Feb03_03/obits.shtml Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. (1968). General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. New York: George Braziller. Crawford, Raymond R. (1981). An Application of Living Systems Theory to Combat Models. Master’s Thesis. Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School. http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA101103 Duncan, Daniel M. (1972). James G. Miller's Living Systems Theory: Issues for Management Thought and Practice. The Academy of Management Journal, 15:4, 513-523. http://www.jstor.org/stable/255145?seq=1 Kuhn, Alfred. (1979). Differences vs. Similarities in Living Systems. Contemporary Sociology, 8:5, 691- 696. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094- 3061(197909)8%3A5%3C691%3ADVSILS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 Miller, James Grier. (1979). Response to the Reviewers of Living Systems. Contemporary Sociology, 8:5, 705-715. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094- 3061(197909)8%3A5%3C705%3ARTTROL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 Miller, James Grier. (1995). Living Systems. Niwot: University of Colorado. (out of print) Oliva, Terence A. and R. Eric Reidenbach. (1981). General Living Systems Theory and Marketing: A Framework for Analysis. Journal of Marketing, 45:4, 30-37. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022- 2429(198123)45%3A4%3C30%3AGLSTAM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R Parent, Elaine. -
Critical Sociocybernetics: Developing the Concept of Dispositif for an Analysis of Steering Processes Between Social Systems
Journal of Sociocybernetics ISSN 1607-86667 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Critical Sociocybernetics: Developing the Concept of Dispositif for an Analysis of Steering Processes Between Social Systems Juan Carlos Barrón Pastor and Jorge Cardiel Herrera National Autonomous University of Mexico Sociocybernetics is particularly interested in investigating how societies steer their social systems. According to Hornung (2006), sociocybernetic studies have predominantly followed three main strategies: a problem–solution scheme, a structural analysis and a normative proposal. We consider that, to have an integral constructivist foundation, sociocybernetics needs to also take a critical perspective into account. Critical theory used to be circumscribed to the first school of Frankfurt, but now it includes a wide range of approaches —such as Michel Foucault’s genealogical and archaeological project, psychoanalytical perspectives (e.g. Slavoj Žižek), schizoid- analysis (e.g. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari), feminist perspectives (e.g. Judith Butler), and de–colonialist proposals (e.g. Boaventura De Sousa Santos)— offering very diverse notions of power, ethics and transformation. Nevertheless, some key concepts, such as dispositif, event, subject, cultural industry and antagonism, link many of these critical theorists. In this article, we explore how sociocybernetics can develop a critical perspective and some of the challenges of bringing together concepts pertaining to different theories. Specifically, we develop the concept of dispositif originally used by Foucault, Agamben and Deleuze for an analysis of asymmetrical dynamics of power and steering processes between social systems. Thus, we put forth a sociocybernetical understanding of dispositifs as second–order steering mechanisms which intervene strategically between systems and couple them conditionally. Ultimately, we seek to demonstrate that sociocybernetics can benefit from critical theory and vice versa. -
Warren Mcculloch and the British Cyberneticians
Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians Article (Accepted Version) Husbands, Phil and Holland, Owen (2012) Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 37 (3). pp. 237-253. ISSN 0308-0188 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43089/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Warren McCulloch and the British Cyberneticians1 Phil Husbands and Owen Holland Dept. Informatics, University of Sussex Abstract Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. -
Journal of Sociocybernetics
JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS _________________________________________________________________ Volume 3 Number 1 Spring/Summer 2002 Official Journal of the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics (RC51) of the International Sociological Association JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS www.unizar.es/sociocybernetics/ Editor Richard E. Lee Newsletter Cor Van Dijkum Felix Geyer Editorial Board Mike Byron Tessaleno Devezas Jorge González Bernd R. Hornung Chaime Marcuello Vessela Misheva Philip Nikolopoulos Bernard Scott Mike Terpstra ____________________________________________________________________________ The JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS (ISSN 1607-8667) is an electronic journal published biannually--Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter--by the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics of the International Sociological Association. MANUSCRIPT submissions should be sent electronically (in MSWord or Rich Text File format) to each of the editors: Richard E. Lee [email protected], Felix Geyer, [email protected], and Cor van Dijkum, [email protected]. In general, please follow the Chicago Manuel of Style; citations and bibliography should follow the current journal style (APA). Normally, articles should be original texts of no more than 6000 words, although longer articles will be considered in exceptional circumstances. The Journal looks for submissions that are innovative and apply principles of General Systems Theory and Cybernetics to the social sciences, broadly conceived. COPYRIGHT remains the property of authors. Permission to reprint must be obtained from the authors and the contents of JoS cannot be copied for commercial purposes. JoS does, however, reserve the right to future reproduction of articles in hard copy, portable document format (.pdf), or HTML editions of JoS. iii SOCIOCYBERNETICS traces its intellectual roots to the rise of a panoply of new approaches to scientific inquiry beginning in the 1940's. -
A Dictionary of Cybernetics
Annenberg School for Communication Departmental Papers (ASC) University of Pennsylvania Year 1986 A Dictionary of Cybernetics Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania, kkrippendorff@asc.upenn.edu This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/asc papers/224 A DICTIONARY OF CYBERNETICS by Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania version 2/2/86 A dictionary like the discipline whose terminology it aims to clarify is constantly in flux. It is aided by communal efforts and in turn aids communication within the community of users. Critical comments and suggestions, especially for including new or omitting useless entries, for improving the wording, for references that may need to be added should be directed to: Klaus Krippendorff The Annenberg School of Communications University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia PA 19104 NOTE: This dictionary is not intended to represent the American Society for Cybernetics nor the opinions of any of its members: neither does it replace the current Cybernetics Glossary. Klaus Krippendorff has been kind enough to make his work available to ASC members in order to stimulate discussion on the language of cybernetics. as well as on the idea of a dictionary itself. ABSOLUTE DISCRIMINATION: ->LIMIT OF ABSOLUTE DISCRIMINATION ADAPTATION: STABILITY of success in the face of a changing environment. Two kinds of adaptation are distinguished. (a) Darwinian adaptation after Darwin who observed how organisms change their internal STRUCTURE when their environment makes existing forms no longer viable. E.g., Ashby's HOMEOSTAT searches for a new pattern of behavior as soon as disturbances in its surroundings drive or threaten to drive its essential VARIABLEs outside specified limits. -
Second-Order Economics As an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 18, nos. 3-4, pp. xx-xx Second-Order Economics as an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics Stuart A. Umpleby1 Heinz von Foerster proposed that the observer should be included in the domain of observation. He suggested that this approach to cybernetics be called second-order cybernetics. Heinz was primarily interested in understanding cognition, based on neurophysiology and mathematics. But there has also been strong interest in cybernetics as a theory of social systems. Using the “second order” idea for existing social science fields would focus attention on the role of the observer and on reflexive phenomena such as the effect of theories on what is being studied. This article considers how the field of economics might adopt the second order idea. A Current Task for Cybernetics In emphasizing the role of the observer and creating the term second-order cybernetics Von Foerster was ahead of his time. One example is the fact that the field of economics may be on the verge of beginning research on second-order economics. But before explaining why that is happening, some background is necessary. Von Foerster was persuaded that the observer needed to be studied as well as the observed. The traditional philosophy of science maintained that scientific observations should be independent of the characteristics of the observer. However, as Humberto Maturana noted, “Anything said is said by an observer” (Maturana, 1970, p. 4). Hence, excluding the observer from consideration is a kind of denial. Von Foerster sustained and advanced the field of cybernetics when many others had returned to their home disciplines. -
Serendipities Vol.1 No1.Fin
ARTICLE A “Not Particularly Felicitous” Phrase: A History of the “Behavioral Sciences” Label Jefferson D. Pooley [email protected] Abstract The article reconstructs the history of the "behavioral sciences" label, from scattered interwar use through to the decisive embrace of the newly prominent Ford Foundation in the early Cold War. The rapid uptake of the label, the article concludes, was the result of the Ford Foundation’s 1951 decision to name its social science unit the “Behavioral Sciences Program” (BSP). With Ford’s en- couragement, the term was widely adopted by quantitative social scientists eager to tap the founda- tion’s social science funds. The label’s newness and its link to the gigantic foundation’s initiative generated much suspicion and resistance as well. Keywords Behavioral sciences, Ford Foundation, Cold War There are few behavioral scientists today. But as recently as the 1950s and 1960s, self-identified “behavioral scientists” occupied the elite ranks of American social science. The rapid uptake of the label was the result of the Ford Foundation’s 1951 decision to name its social science unit the “Be- havioral Sciences Program” (BSP). With Ford’s encouragement, the term was widely adopted by quantitative social scientists eager to tap the foundation’s social science funds. The label’s newness and its link to the gigantic foundation’s initiative generated much suspicion and resistance as well. This paper reconstructs the label’s career from scattered interwar use through to Ford’s embrace. Existing histories trace the term back to psychologist James Grier Miller’s Committee on the Be- havioral Sciences at the University of Chicago. -
From Cybernetics to Construction Cybernetics“
Fachhochschule Kärnten Carinthia University of Applied Sciences Villacher Straße 1 9800 Spittal an der Drau Tel : 0043(0)5/90500-0, Fax: -1110 [email protected] www.fh-kaernten.at DEGREE PROGRAM „CIVIL ENGINEERING“ MM AA SS TT EE RR TT HH EE SS II SS „From Cybernetics to construction cybernetics“ Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the academic degree Dipl.-Ing. for „Civil engineering – Project Management“ Author: Lukas Gehwolf, BSc Registration number: 0810292014 Supervisor: Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Otto Greiner Second supervisor: Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Hans Steiner, MBA h.c. Spittal/Drau, September 2010 stamp of study program Statutory declaration Name: Lukas Gehwolf Registration number: 0810292014 Date of birth: 03.10.1981 Address: Markt 10 A-5611 Grossarl Statutory declaration I declare that I have authored this thesis independently, that I have not used other than the declared sources / resources, and that I have explicitly marked all material which has been quoted either literally or by content from the used sources. (place, date) (student´s signature) Introduction Introduction I would first like to thank all of those who contributed to the successful completion of this work. The completion of this paper would not have been possible without the help and support of countless individuals. I would especially like to mention my supervisors at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Otto GREINER (Professor of Construction Project Management), Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hans STEINER MBA h.c. (Landesinnungsmeister Stv. construction industry, Carinthia) and Prof. PhD. Stuart A. UMPLEBY (Department of Management) at George Washington University, they supported me with their great dedication and many valuable insights. -
212 © 1978 Scientific American
212 © 1978 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC Adaptation The manifest fit between organisms and their environment is a major outcome of evolution. Yet natural selection does not lead inevitably to adaptation; indeed, it is sometimes hard to define an adaptation by Richard C. Lewontin he theory about the history of life iors that appear to have been carefully These "organs of extreme perfection" that is now generally accepted, the and artfully designed to enable each or were only the most extreme case of a TDarwinian theory of evolution by ganism to appropriate the world around more general phenomenon: adaptation. natural selection, is meant to explain it for its own life. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural two different aspects of the appearance It was the marvelous fit of organisms selection was meant to solve both the of the living world: diversity and fitness. to the environment, much more than the problem of the origin of diversity and There are on the order of two million great diversity of forms, that was the the problem of the origin of adaptation species now living, and since at least chief evidence of a Supreme Designer. at one stroke. Perfect organs were a dif 99.9 percent of the species that have Darwin realized that if a naturalistic ficulty of the theory not in that natural ever lived are now extinct, the most con theory of evolution was to be successful. selection could not account for them but servative guess would be that two billion it would have to explain the apparent rather in that they were its most rigorous species have made their appearance on perfection of organisms and not simply test, since on the face of it they seemed the earth since the beginning of the their variation. -
THE BIOCYBERNETIC APPROACH AS a BASIS for PLANNING and GOVERNANCE Dipl
THE BIOCYBERNETIC APPROACH AS A BASIS FOR PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE Dipl. Geol. Gabriele Harrer Senior Systems Expert Management cybernetics & Bionics Malik Management Zentrum St.Gallen AG Geltenwilenstrasse 18 CH – 9001 St.Gallen www.malik-mzsg.ch E-Mail: [email protected] Keywords: Bio cybernetics, Complexity, Interdependency, Interconnected Thinking, Ecopolicy, Functioning Systems, Fuzzy Logic, Governance, Management, Pattern, Planning Tools, Resilience, Systems, Self Regulation, Self Organization, Sensitivity Model Prof. Vester, System Tools, Viability The last decades, with societies and economies mostly focussing on quantitative growth and at the same time wasting natural resources with linear production pro- cesses, are now culminating in a critical situation for our social, ecological and eco- nomical systems. Regardless that general consciousness about the interdependencies in our intercon- nected global world, caused mainly by the world wide web and effects of globaliza- tion, and also the knowledge about ecological contexts have grown, the use of this knowledge in our reality - in politics, governance, economy, education - is still miss- ing. It seems that something constrains fundamentally the necessary change in our modes of governance and planning. Until now, generations of scientists, politicians, organizations and individuals have been dealing with interdisciplinary questions, with the nature of complex systems, with models of complex problems and their possible solution – an actual example is climate research and the huge international climate conferences. But we have to recognize, if we want to see it or not, that real systemic and integrated solutions in order to govern our society towards resilient technical, economical and social developments are despite this big efforts not consequently designed or imple- mented. -
Complexity Theory and Conflict Transformation
Centre for Conflict Resolution Working Paper 17 Department of Peace Studies Complexity Theory and Conflict Transformation: An Exploration of Potential and Implications Diane Hendrick June 2009 Other titles in this Series International Conflict Resolution: Some Critiques and a Response Tom Woodhouse, June 1999 Working Paper 1 The Failure of State Formation, Identity Conflict and Civil Society Responses - The Case of Sri Lanka Sunil Bastian, September 1999 Working Paper 2 International Non-Government Organisations and Peacebuilding - Perspectives from Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Nick Lewer, October 1999 Working Paper 3 From Conflict Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding: Reflections from Croatia A. B. Fetherston, April 2000 Working Paper Women, Gender and Peacebuilding Donna Pankhurst, August 2000 Working Paper 5 Psychological 'Conflict Mapping' in Bosnia & Hercegovina: Case Study, Critique and the Renegotiation of Theory Steve Gillard, October 2000 Working Paper 6 Confronting Ethnic Chauvinism in a Post-War Environment: NGOs and Peace Education in Bosnia Laura Stovel, December 2000 Working Paper 7 Developing an Online Learning Pedagogy for Conflict Resolution Training Laina K. Reynolds & Lambrecht Wessels, May 2001 Working Paper 8 Citizenship Education or Crowd Control? The Crick Report and the Role of Peace Education and Conflict Resolution in the New Citizenship Curriculum Catherine Larkin, July 2001 Working Paper 9 "All You Need is Love"... and What About Gender? Engendering Burton's Human Needs Theory Cordula Reimann, January 2002 Working Paper 10 Operationalising Peacebuilding and Conflict Reduction. Case Study: Oxfam in Sri Lanka Simon Harris and Nick Lewer, August 2002 Working Paper 11 Community Peace Work in Sri Lanka: A Critical Appraisal Dileepa Witharana, October 2002 Working Paper 12 NGOs and Peacebuilding in Kosovo Monica Llamazares and Laina Reynolds Levy, December 2003 Working Paper 13 Post-War Peacebuilding Reviewed.