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

STRUCTURE (Hierarchic) 2)

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A multi-level structure, where some components, parts or subsystems are subordinated to other ones.

Hierarchic structures appear in complex systems with regulations. Normally a regulator manages or controls some functional-structural subsystem, or the relationship between two or more subsystems.

In many cases, different local or specific regulators must be controlled or coordinated and a supra-regulator becomes necessary. Hierarchic structures thus build up in a progressive way.

Like any structure, they are diachronic as well as synchronic. Some of them do only become visible in the time dimension, due to the widely different periods of many regulations, and cannot, for this reason, be observed statically.

This is specially of utmost importance for the understanding and management of human systems, wherein long-term structural effects are many times ignored.

E. JANTSCH states: "Hierarchical description of structure usually express the ideal of equilibrium both at a given structural level and in the relations between levels" (1976, p.51).

Hierarchic structures are characteristic of strongly integrated systems, tending to homeostasis. Such systems are prone to growing rigidity with time.

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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