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

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS (IIASA) 1)

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M.C. JACKSON describes IIASA as follows: "In 1972 the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), a nongovernmental interdisciplinary research institution, was set up in Laxenburg (Austria), on the initiative of the academies of science (or equivalent institutions) of 12 nations. This Institute has been seeking to apply RAND-style systems analysis to major world problems related to, for example, energy, food supply and the environment… "According to the IIASA "handbooks", Systems Analysis aims to help public and private decision makers to resolve problems arising in complex sociotechnical systems.

"It brings to bear the tools of modern science and technology, searching for regularities in system behavior and to provide evidence about the costs, benefits, and other consequences of various possible responses to the problem at hand…

"The methodology of systems analysis can be seen as consisting of seven major steps, as follows:

- Formulating the problem

- Identifying, designing and screening alternative responses

- Building and using models for predicting the consequences of adopting particular responses

- Comparing and ranking alternative responses

- Evaluating the analysis

- Decision and implementation

- Evaluating the outcome" (1992, p.76).

This methodology seems to have been oriented basically to technical systems planning, without participation of many stakeholders (notably people personally interested in the issues and politicians).

As a result, and very unfortunately, IIASA studies had scant impact on concrete complex issues from 1972 on.

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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