Kybernetes: Volume 26 Issue 6/7
Strapline:
The international journal of cybernetics, systems and management sciencesTable of contents
Observing observations empirically: methodological innovations in applied sociocybernetics
Heinrich W. AhlemeyerDiscusses the differences between systemic social research and conventional, non‐systemic empirical research. Outlines paradigmatically the major stages, methodological decisions…
Reconstructing the public sphere: AST and the observation of postmodernity
Adam ArvidssonWhile sociology has usually aimed at producing general accounts of the postmodern social condition, it has not been influenced by the postmodern epistemological challenge but kept…
System entropy analysis
Kenneth D. BaileyA number of entropy models of social systems have been developed recently. Unfortunately, the complementarity of these approaches remains largely unanalysed, due to terminological…
Towards a post‐foundational understanding of community
Paolo BarbesinoBy reviewing the ongoing debate on “community” within the social sciences, highlights major inconsistencies in the standard definitions, as well as in their operationalization in…
Assessing human values
Bruce BuchananConsiders the light thrown on values by cybernetics, the systems science which deals with goal‐directed behaviour. Values function as criteria which govern goals at various levels…
Crisis‐driven evolutionary learning: conceptual foundations and systemic modelling ‐ a summary abstract
Michael P. ByronEvaluates the hypothesis that the real‐world political system constitutes a complex adaptive learning system. Abstracts relevant parameters of this system to create a computer…
From cybernetics to the science of complexity
Cor van DijkumCybernetics started when Wiener stated that not only observations but also the way the observer feeds them back into reality are part of science. Dynamic system analysis supported…
The creativity question in the perspective of autopoietic systems theory
Galin Petrov GornevAims to build a theory of human creativity on the premisses of autopoietic systems theory (AST) in contrast to the classical representationist paradigm. Correspondingly…
Reflexivity and feed‐before: from sociology to systemics
Torcuato Perez de GuzmanUpholds the equivalence between the sociological notion of reflexivity and the idea of self‐reference, which epistemologically and structurally distinguish those complex systems…
Hypothesis testing for positive feedback models: some uses of a modified Poisson distribution for loops involving the self‐fulfilling prophecy
Richard L. HenshelBriefly reviews the standard Poisson distribution and then examines a set of derivative, modified Poisson distributions for testing hypotheses derived from positive…
Conceptual modelling for technology assessment of IT systems ‐ smart cards and health information systems
Bernd R. Hornung, Fatima T. AdilovaA method peculiar to sociocybernetics as a paradigm is dynamic simulation. In the case of information technological (IT) systems, which are socio‐technical systems, a qualitative…
Systems interpretation of the concept of alienation
Vessela MishevaThe theory of autopoietic social systems (Luhmann) is used as an explanatory framework for such historico‐sociological puzzles as the origins of social crisis, totalitarianism…
The notion of system as a conceptual bridge between the sociology of organizations and organizational efficiency
Francisco Parra‐LunaIt seems that sociology (the science of society) has not until now seriously undertaken the operational definition of the concept of “organizational efficiency” or “social…
Inadvertent pathologies of communication in human systems
Bernard ScottUsing the framework of second‐order cybernetics, explores the institutional practices which lead to inadvertent pathologies of communication. As an example, a certain university…
Knowledge acquisition in changing realities
Gerard de ZeeuwVarious devices have been identified to support research as a way of improving on observations; those in the social sciences appearing to be less effective than those in the…
The validation of sociocybernetic models
Johannes van der ZouwenIn a computer simulation experiment, the sociocybernetic concepts of self‐referencing control, disturbances from the environment, goal‐oriented behaviour, and morphogenesis are…
ISSN:
0368-492XOnline date, start – end:
1972Copyright Holder:
Emerald Publishing LimitedOpen Access:
hybridEditor:
- Prof. Dr. Gandolfo Dominici