BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

FRAGMENTATION 1)2)4)

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The breakdown of a system into various separated parts.

The original concept comes fron A. TOYNBEE, who applied it to the final destruction of empires, which he attributed to the loss of some critical monopolies.

Fragmentation seems however to be a quite general phenomenon related to some types of systems widely extended in space, as populations or species. It seems to be mostly determined by the severance of communication lines, which in turn is generally a result of their overextension and the existence of very different conditions in distant parts of the system.

Fragmentation can also be considered as inverse or complementary to the process of percolation.

For example, a result of general ecological transformation of ecosystems by man is their progressive splitting into impoverished, iII-connected or disconnected patches. Extreme fragmentation may lead to the reduction and even total destruction of some types of elements, as they become unable to reproduce and propagate in the fragmented setting.

The same process occurs in archaic societies under the pressure of invaders or colonists.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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