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

STABILITY (Poly-) 2)4)

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"A stability involving many alternatives and sometimes only temporary equilibria" (K. KRIPPENDORFF, 1986, p.58).

KRIPPENDORFF explains: "(it) is characteristic of systems involving many weakly interacting components. When systems are joined to form larger wholes, communication among them tends to have the effect of disturbing each other's individual equilibria. The equilibrium of the whole is not merely selective of, and may not even coincide with the equilibria of its parts" (Ibid).

It is now understood that, as simultaneous events in different parts of the system cannot propagate instantaneously to the whole, local desequilibria can never become completely settled.

The effects of poly-stability are seldom understood by managers of economic or political systems, which explains that they in many cases merely try to "catch up".

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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