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

SYSTEM-LEVEL EFFECTS 2)4)5)

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One of the most startling system-level effect is that an established system 's dynamics may block invasions by new species, even those endowed with superior characteristics.

In Roger LEWIN's words: "The network of connections between the species of the mature ecosystem protects those species from outside competition" (1997, p. 31)

This remains true until the existing ecosystem is deeply perturbed, with a considerable disorganization of the interrelations network. In such a situation, a sudden collapse becomes possible.

According to LEWIN, such effects can also be observed in economy: New firms, even with a superior product, could be unable to introduce themselves in the productive circle, due to a kind of global inertia of the existing system.

The disorganization of an ecosystem (biological or otherwise) is frequently a progressive process and the collapse occurs only at a critical stability threshold. Some oceanic ecosystems have been thus affected in the recent years and one may wonder if similar effects cannot appear in economic and socio-political systems.

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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