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

K – STRATEGY 1)2)

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A system's strategy that aims at having fewer, larger and higher energy-using elements whose life spans are long and rate of replacement low (adapted from R.N. ADAMS, 1988, p.134).

ADAMS explains as follows this concept, borrowed from ecology: "Hierarchical structures behave (according to) K-strategy: they are large but consume more energy" and "They take a longer time to come into being" (p.134).

K-strategy is better adapted in conditions of general environmental stability, where elements or parts are in less danger of individual destruction.

However, when systems constructed according to a K-strategy dissolve in parts due to some considerable environmental disturbance these parts "… often cannot sustain themselves and thus need to reorganize along different lines in order to survive" (Ibid).

In many cases, they are not able to do this: scattered populations close to extinction, imperial structures losing control, disorganized conglomerates are examples.

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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