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

INCREMENTALISM (Disjoined) 1)4)

← Back

Small changes introduced in a system, based on inadequate information and understanding (Adapted from J.van GIGCH, 1978, p.360).

This concept has been introduced by D. BRAYBROOKE & C.E. LINDBLOM (1963), according to whom it is characterized by decisions "subject to constant reconsideration and redirection… typical of ordinary political life". They state that, as most political decisions are based on small incremental changes, "old programs go on to being developed into new programs as a sequence of decisions". Such a new program "is not a program at all; it is not a comprehensively considered and coordinated policy". Rather "it is the product of a number of small specific moves… whereby old programs are modified through… an endless stream… of decisions" (as quoted by J.van GIGCH, p. 360).

This kind of ad hoc tinkering is of course anti-systemic, and is the main cause of global suboptimization, squandering and pathological bureaucratization.

This problem is closely related to J. WARFIELD's underconceptualization.

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint