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

SOCIETAL ORDER PARAMETERS 2)4)

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K. De GREENE proposes this specific use of the concept of order parameter to living and specially to human systems. He explains: "When applied to complex living systems, order parameter describes the evolutionary waxing and waning of the system. The order parameter is a macroscopic collective field, emergent at critical points out of myriad interactions at the microlevel. The order parameter expresses stochastic generation of the new (structural change) and deterministic maintainance of the now established (structural constancy). The emergence of the order parameter represents a great loss of degrees of freedom at the microlevel; microlevel behavior now becomes Slaved to the order parameter. Human languages, the great theistic religions, political belief systems, economic belief systems, and scientific/societal belief systems like the Newtonian paradigm are example of order parameters" (1994, p.12).

De GREENE offers a very interesting table of characteristics of Societal Order Parameter in human societies comprising ways of values creation and transformations, social learning, social bifurcations, and long-wave cycle structure (p.13).

The German systemist N. LUHMANN offers a similar view of the dominance of the social system, whose intrinsic global logic overwhelms the individuals. As resumed by M.C. JACKSON: "Humanity is dragged in the wake of the system. Individual hopes and aspirations simply respond to the system's needs, and consensus is engineered to improve the system's functioning. Even internal dissension, strikes and conflict represent the system readjusting to increase its viability and effectiveness" (1992, p.33).

The progressive destruction-absorbtion of small archaic societies by and within great cultures seems to be another similar phenomenon, in this case also favoring global efficiency and internal differentiation to the detriment of lesser social units. Inefficient gigantism does however lurk.

Societal order parameters can also be observed in animal societies, specially but not exclusively in social insects.

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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