Concept Of Social System Research Articles

Disputes over the concept of social system and the critique of sociological reason

With the advent of sociological theory, society started to be perceived as a different kind of reality, existing by its own laws as an independently functioning whole. However, from the beginning, there was no consensus among sociologists as to the nature of this totality. Are social wholes merely theoretical constructs or do they exist in reality? The separation of the social and non-social elements of social wholes, as well as the social and non-social systems was also problematic. This problem particularly concerns the interrelationships of the social system, culture, politics, economics and other systems. The holistic, systemic description of social life in sociology has a long history. Sociology has dealt intensively with the question of “systems” and much has been written on the subject. We are confronted with many different systemic perspectives In sociological theory, the notion of “social system” has various meanings and, needless to say, a full presentation of its understanding in sociology remains beyond the scope of this manuscript. The aim of the article is to analyse the ways of interpreting the notion of the system in its classical sociological models: mechanistic and organic, and to indicate the contemporary changes resulting from the spread of the new theory of systems and the new understanding of the social system. The latter is related not only to the new understanding of the subject that sociology deals with, but also to the new understanding of sociology as a science.

Social system design methodology for transitioning to a new social structure - a holistic urban living lab approach to the well-being city.

In recent years, along with the rise of new technologies such as AI, IoT, and Bigdata, there has been much discussion replacing entire cities with smart cities. These discussions have given rise to questions about what kind of society should be realized, and keywords such as well-being and sustainability are attracting attention. In this context, how concretely can we transform our current cities into new social structures? Social system design methodology is, in this paper, intend to achieve a comprehensive transition to a new social system, rather than overcoming individual social problems. In Japan, approaches to transforming society, such as elections and social activism, are not fully functional. Transitioning to a new social structure requires critiques from inside together with the presentation of concrete activities. We propose a systematized social system design methodology that aims at a principled transition; it is based on analyses of a series of practices developed in Omuta City, Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. The methodology proposes a new way of perceiving social systems, practitioner attitude, and a practical design process. It also suggests that existing social system concepts create fundamental problems that lead to discomfort for practitioners, that clarifying existing concepts through policy background analysis can lead to a new view of social system concepts, and that bottom-up practices that realize these new concepts can begin to transform social systems. In order to confirm the versatility of this methodology, two case studies involving care prevention and the work of persons with disabilities are analyzed.

Transformacja systemowa a recepcja liberalno-demokratycznego modelu społeczeństwa w uprzywilejowanym segmencie warszawskiego rynku pracy

The article describes changes in social awareness concerning social system, in particular the sphere of work. In theoretical dimension, the article refers to concept of social system and the perception of normative models: social, political, and economic. The empirical part presents the results of research into the field of social awareness, especially the awareness of members of a generation functioning in a liberal-democratic social system. The respondents were young residents of Warsaw with higher education. The research was carried out with a few-year time interval. The sphere of work is treated here as a key element of the wider social reality and included empirically through the individual orientation of the respondents in the normative models of society. In the light of research the sphere of work is clearly specific. In particular, the labour market regulations differs significantly from the reception of the remaining components of the social system.

Leadership Opportunities for Nurses in Telehealth: A King Perspective.

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are in an excellent position to provide leadership for advancing telehealth initiative. King's social system concepts of role, status, authority, power, and decision-making may be explored in this context. The authors of this article provide insight into the leadership opportunities in telehealth that exist for APRNs in current healthcare systems through a King perspective. The authors discuss some of the major challenges for APRNs in telehealth and how leadership may overcome some of those challenges.

Understanding and Changing Farming, Food & Fiber Systems. The Organic Cotton Case in Mali and West Africa

Abstract Science should be capable of covering issues as diverse as farming systems, technology, innovation, climate change adaptation, poverty alleviation, extension, policy and practice, as they all relate to sustainable agriculture and development. Some years ago, the call for a new farming systems approach was raised to accommodate the principles of interdisciplinary, systems thinking and participatory research. Society calls for systems performance that provides stability and sustainability (SDGs!), multi-scale and territorial approaches and looks for solutions for critical issues such as employment, migration and inclusion/exclusion at the global level (World Society). We propose here a way in dealing with this complexity by addressing the mentioned problem from the communication and symbolic perspective, i.e. to consider the "object" within agricultural science but mainly observe the dedicated systems of communication. By using the concept of social systems, we can accommodate under it systems as diverse as farms, extension organizations, innovation patterns, (agricultural) sciences, policy and politics, farmer and indigenous knowledge, markets and value chains, but always in the form of communication. As such, we remain within a discipline with the potential to evolve towards a promising sub-discipline of agricultural sciences (or of sociology?). The relatively new farming approach of certified organic in combination with agroecology is relevant for family farms and small-scale entities. It depends much more on societal support for extension, technology development and policy coherence than commercial farms. Organic agriculture, with its standards, technological requirements and consumer preferences is nested in socio-economic and political networks, which makes it challenging for researchers to integrate the various components. This challenge applies particularly to countries with poorly developed institutions, weak organizations and within the context of poverty and rural exodus. We therefore use a unified approach under a single scientific system. This system observes, analyses and reports on communication aspects of involved (observed!) social systems (including networks and interactions) within the society of any given nation, including the realities of globalized markets. We are developing a case study based in Mali, in which we apply this method. The case is describing a planning process involving cotton farmers from the Sikasso region, the cotton industry, public and private extension systems, farmer organizations, local governments, the NARS (IER), FiBL, donors and the national institutions involved in climate change adaptation and food security. Various technological options of production (conventional, organic) and farming systems are available. The reflexive use of science dealing with human behavior may facilitate the pragmatic participation of researchers from various disciplines in addressing the uncertainties and opportunities that lie ahead of us and achieve the required impacts together with the practitioners.

La “giusta via di mezzo” di Pareto

In 2016 The mind and society by Vilfredo Pareto turned 100 years. This event provides an opportunity to once again reflect on one of Pareto’s main books. This article focuses on the concept of social system’s equilibrium. As argued by many authors, this concept places itself at the centre of Pareto’s work. Furthermore, this paper aims to demonstrate that the author considers the happy medium as the only way capable of ensuring social cohesion. Firstly, the article deals with the book’s framework and methodology and seeks to pinpoint the binary logic used by the author throughout the text. Secondly, it argues that Pareto suggests the happy medium be followed in various arenas, namely the social, economic, and political arenas. Finally, the article aims to show that Pareto was faithful to the happy medium from a political point of view as well by combining an authoritarian approach with a liberal one.

‘Stumbling through’? Relationship-based social work practice in austere times

In recent times relationship-based practice has become a familiar term in social work practice and education. Despite its widespread adoption, how relationship-based practice is understood varies widely. Drawing on contemporary conceptualisations of the child and family and individuals as psychosocial subjects experiencing social suffering, this paper explores how current social work practice can be understood in the context of neoliberalism and austerity. Setting these ideas in an historical context helps to inform our understanding as to why social work seems to be the focus of sustained political discontent and scrutiny, making it difficult to retain a balanced relationship-based professional stance. Contemporary responses to the current challenges of everyday practice are outlined and the contribution of psychodynamic and systemic ideas to promoting relationship-based practice is explored. The paper concludes by considering how the concept of social systems as defences against anxiety can inform our understanding of the resistance amongst practitioners to relationship-based practice and emphasises the importance of reflective spaces and places for developing and maintaining integrated, mature relational approaches to practice which impact on practice at both the individual casework and social structural level.

Social complexity, modernity and suicide: an assessment of Durkheim's suicide from the perspective of a non-linear analysis of complex social systems.

Can we share even today the same vision of modernity which Durkheim left us by its suicide analysis? or can society ‘surprise us’? The answer to these questions can be inspired by several studies which found that beginning the second half of the twentieth century suicides in western countries more industrialized and modernized do not increase in a constant, linear way as modernization and social fragmentation process increases, as well as Durkheim’s theory seems to lead us to predict. Despite continued modernizing process, they found stabilizing or falling overall suicide rate trends. Therefore, a gradual process of adaptation to the stress of modernization associated to low social integration levels seems to be activated in modern society. Assuming this perspective, the paper highlights as this tendency may be understood in the light of the new concept of social systems as complex adaptive systems, systems which are able to adapt to environmental perturbations and generate as a whole surprising, emergent effects due to nonlinear interactions among their components. So, in the frame of Nonlinear Dynamical System Modeling, we formalize the logic of suicide decision-making process responsible for changes at aggregate level in suicide growth rates by a nonlinear differential equation structured in a logistic way, and in so doing we attempt to capture the mechanism underlying the change process in suicide growth rate and to test the hypothesis that system’s dynamics exhibits a restrained increase process as expression of an adaptation process to the liquidity of social ties in modern society. In particular, a Nonlinear Logistic Map is applied to suicide data in a modern society such as the Italian one from 1875 to 2010. The analytic results, seeming to confirm the idea of the activation of an adaptation process to the liquidity of social ties, constitutes an opportunity for a more general reflection on the current configuration of modern society, by relating the Durkheimian Theory with the Halbwachs’ Theory and most current visions of modernity such as the Baumanian one. Complexity completes the interpretative framework by rooting the generating mechanism of adaptation process in the precondition of a new General Theory of Systems making the non linearity property of social system’s interactions and surprise the functioning and evolution rule of social systems.

Complex Systems Theory: Some Considerations for Sociology

This essay presents a reflection on the main implications of Complexity Theory for science in general, redefining and dispelling myths of traditional science, and Sociology in particular, suggesting a redefinition of Parsons’ classic concept of Social System, articulated around the property of self-maintenance of order rather than on its possible discontinuity and instability. It argues that Complexity Theory has established the limits of Classic Science, leading to a more realistic awareness of working and evolution mechanisms of Natural and Social Systems and showing the limits of our capacity to predict and control events. Dissipative structures have shown the creative role of time. Instability, emergence, surprise, unpredictability are the rule rather than the exception when systems move away from equilibrium (entropy), even if these processes are generated from a system’s deterministic working mechanisms. Therefore, we have come to realize how constructive the contribution of Complexity is, in regards to the long lasting problem of the relationship between order and disorder. Today, the terms of this relationship have been re-specified in its new configuration of inter-relationship link, according to a unicum which finds its synthesis in self-organization and deterministic chaos concepts. From this perspective, as Prigogine suggested, studies on Complex Systems are heading toward a historical, biological conception of Physics, and a new alliance between natural systems and living, social systems. Non-linearity, far from equilibrium self-organization, emergence and surprise meet at all levels, as this paper attempts to highlight. In Sociology, insights of Complexity Theory have contributed to a new way of thinking about social systems, by re-addressing some fundamental issues starting to social system, emergence and change concepts. The current social system conception as complex dynamical systems is supported by a profitable use of non-liner models (in particular, the Logistic map) in the study of social processes.

An emergentist vs a linear approach to social change processes: a gender look in contemporary India between modernity and Hindu tradition.

Using Census of India data from 1901 to 2011 and national and international reports on women’s condition in India, beginning with sex ratio trends according to regional distribution up to female infanticides and sex-selective abortions and dowry deaths, this study examines the sociological aspects of the gender imbalance in modern contemporary India. Gender inequality persistence in India proves that new values and structures do not necessarily lead to the disappearance of older forms, but they can co-exist with mutual adaptations and reinforcements. Data analysis suggests that these unexpected combinations are not comprehensible in light of a linear concept of social change which is founded, in turn, on a concept of social systems as linear interaction systems that relate to environmental perturbations according to proportional cause and effect relationships. From this perspective, in fact, behavioral attitudes and interaction relationships should be less and less proportionally regulated by traditional values and practices as exposure to modernizing influences increases. And progressive decreases should be found in rates of social indicators of gender inequality like dowry deaths (the inverse should be found in sex ratio trends). However, data does not confirm these trends. This finding leads to emphasize a new theoretical and methodological approach toward social systems study, namely the conception of social systems as complex adaptive systems and the consequential emergentist, nonlinear conception of social change processes. Within the framework of emergentist theory of social change is it possible to understand the lasting strength of the patriarchal tradition and its problematic consequences in the modern contemporary India.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-015-0933-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Complexity Theory, Systems Theory, and Multiple Intersecting Social Inequalities

This article contributes to the revision of the concept of system in social theory using complexity theory. The old concept of social system is widely discredited; a new concept of social system can more adequately constitute an explanatory framework. Complexity theory offers the toolkit needed for this paradigm shift in social theory. The route taken is not via Luhmann, but rather the insights of complexity theorists in the sciences are applied to the tradition of social theory inspired by Marx, Weber, and Simmel. The article contributes to the theorization of intersectionality in social theory as well as to the philosophy of social science. It addresses the challenge of theorizing the intersection of multiple complex social inequalities, exploring the various alternative approaches, before rethinking the concept of social system. It investigates and applies, for the first time, the implications of complexity theory for the analysis of multiple intersecting social inequalities.

Clareza na utilização dos sistemas sociais da teoria de alcance de metas

Objetivou-se verificar a clareza na organização dos sistemas sociais da Teoria de Alcance de Metas. Estudo teórico-reflexivo, tendo como referencial para análise um Modelo de Análise de Teorias. Desenvolvido nos meses de abril, maio e junho de 2005, sendo analisadas uma Dissertação e duas Teses. Quanto à definição operacional dos conceitos, as três pesquisas definiram adequadamente os conceitos que o Modelo Conceitual aponta. Em relação à validade de conteúdo e construto, foram identificadas lacunas. Em um estudo, por exemplo, os grupos de trabalho nos quais os indivíduos estavam inseridos não foram condizentes com o conceito de sistema social apresentado pela Teoria. Dessa forma, os estudos necessitam ainda de atenção quanto à utilização de conceitos apresentados em teorias ou em modelos teóricos.

Towards productive and sustainable forms of interaction in governance

PurposeA central question of governance in our time is how actors in complex, diverse and dynamic contexts can be harmonized, respecting the needs and limitations of their contexts. New technologies enable shaping and modelling interactions to an extent hitherto unknown. They constitute a huge potential to support and integrate interactions and to reshape governance. This paper sets out to explore a concept of interaction applicable to media which captures and addresses the specific characteristics of social systems required to ensure their viability.Design/methodology/approachThe potential of cybernetics and systems theory for both the design and application of media in social contexts is explored. Building on an autopoietic concept of social systems, a notion of governance as a process of interaction is established. Beer's Viable Systems Model (VSM) and Schwaninger's Model of Systemic Control is applied to derive the characteristic elements, configurations and types of interaction required to support balancing actors' images in social systems. Links to political and social science theory are provided.FindingsCybernetic and system theories provide a solid conceptual basis for capturing the complexity, dynamics and diversity of interaction. Identifying and addressing the relevant characteristics of interaction in social systems can be achieved through the application of cybernetic tools and vocabulary. These can be used to specify and secure the necessary and sufficient design principles for media through which the viability of social systems can be promoted.Originality/valueThe paper shows that requirements to the structure of media applied in social contexts can be specified. Analysing interactions in all kind of social systems does provide clues for the development, implementation, and configuration of improved media. When applied properly, these can boost up governing interactions to much more productive and sustainable forms. This turns out to be a remarkable opportunity to promote the governance of social systems.

Structuration Theory and Self-Organization

Social systems theory is dominated by a reductionistic individualism and a dualistic functionalism. Especially the latter does not, adequately integrate the human being. In order to avoid dualism, mechanistic determinism, and reductionism, a dialectical concept of social systems that is based on the notion of self-organization seems necessary. In order to establish a dialectical theory of social self-organization it is appropriate to integrate aspects of Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. Giddens acknowledges the importance of knowledgeable human actors in society and argues that structures are the medium and outcome of actions (theorem of the duality of structure). Structures both enable and constrain social actions. This idea corresponds to saying that social systems are re-creative, i.e., self-organizing social systems. Re-creativity is based on the creative activities of human beings. Social structures exist in and through the productive practices and relationships of human actors. The term evolution can be employed in a nonfunctionalist way that acknowledges the importance of knowledgeable human actors in social systems by conceiving the historical development of society based on a dialectic of chance and necessity and theprinciple of order through fluctuation in situations of instability and bifurcation. All self-organizing systems are information-generating systems. Giddens' concept of storage mechanisms that allow time–space distanciation of social relationships helps to describe the relationship of information and self-organization in social systems.

Activity theory and the design of educational systems: examining the mediational importance of conversationa

AbstractEducational systems design, largely communicative in nature, depends on discourse as a semiotic tool for mediation within the cognitive, cultural, and creative activities essential to overcoming deep sociohistorical patterns woven into the fabric of society. The use of activity theory as a framework for understanding the mediational importance of conversation in educational systems design represents a sociocultural and inquiry‐oriented perspective that illuminates the relationship of design as a human activity system and the sociocultural context in which the design activity unfolds. As in Banathy's idealized concept of social systems design the importance of conversation is acknowledged in activity theory. Likewise, the importance of language as a symbol‐based mediational tool connects systems design and activity theory. Essential to the design of human activity systems, such as educational systems, is the ability of participants to acknowledge the dialectical contradictions that have emerged in their past or present activity system(s), while also acknowledging the importance of creating dialogical relationships toward the goal of designing new systems.Design conversation and systems language underlie the socially constructed process of educational systems design. The framework of activity theory suggests that mediational artifacts such as language and discourse do not exist inside or outside of individual consciousness; rather they reside on the borderline between oneself as designer and the others who are also designers and users. From this perspective one has to take and use cultural artifacts (i.e., design conversation and systems language), to appropriate these artifacts with the intentions of the designer and the design community.This paper will examine the mediational importance of conversation in the design of human activity systems that are educative and intentioned as learning systems. The paper will first examine activity theory and human activity systems, seeking to make connections between the systemic nature of activity theory as drawn from sociocultural learning theory and human activity systems grounded in social systems design. The paper will then examine educational systems design, viewing design as post‐epistemological in nature. Design conversation is then deconstructed to create an understanding of how this type of discourse draws from other genres or types of discourse such as dialogue, discussion, dialectic, ethical and critical discourse. The paper will then elaborate on design conversation as activity through an activity theory framework, demonstrating the dynamic relationship between participants, purpose, mediational artifacts, community, design work, and sociocultural rules governing design. The author will conclude with reflections on the mediational importance of design conversation in transcending dualisms that challenge social change. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Principals and tools for evaluating community-based prevention and health promotion programs.

This article is an overview and practical guide for the evaluation of community-based disease prevention and health promotion programs. The article first offers a rationale for evaluating community-based programs, then enumerates five selected principles that are contemporary to community evaluation. The principles are as follows: (1) evaluation of community programs should include an assessment of program theory; (2) evaluation instruments that are used to measure community programs must be contoured to each individual community; (3) evaluation approaches used should be guided by the questions asked and often require both a quantitative and qualitative orientation; (4) evaluation should be informed by social ecology and social system concepts; and (5) community evaluation should involve local stakeholders in meaningful ways. At the end of each principle, an annotated reference list is provided that contains tools for applying the principle to community evaluation.

Establishing bonds with the future: The inclusion of posterity within social system boundaries

In this paper we consider three arguments for the inclusion of the concept of posterity within social system boundaries: (1) as a survival strategy, (2) as a response to an ethic of compassion, and (3) to develop a more nearly complete social system concept. In conclusion, suggestions for achieving the goal of including posterity within the social system are reviewed.

Developmental stages: an integrating theory of group psychotherapy.

The inadequate nature of research into group psychotherapy stems from the lack of a satisfactory general theory that accounts for the group as a social system as well as for the functioning of the individual. A critique is presented of the group-as-whole tradition and a brief introduction given to social system concepts, particularly as they relate to group developmental stages. The idea that groups progress through a series of stages implies the notion of the group as a single entity with its own organizational structure. Specific stages are described through which the group acquires interactional complexity. These are conceptualized as epigenetic phenomena in that the mature structure is attained through an invariate sequence of transformations. Adequate resolution of any one stage is a prerequisite for further development. Group developmental tasks are described for the following stages: Engagement, Differentiation, Individuation, Intimacy, Mutuality and Termination. This set of higher order concepts has been found useful as a theoretical background against which specific group events can be evaluated. By using the idea of stages, the leader can monitor the progress of the group as a unit and compare the activity of any one member with the collectivity.

Structured Imbalances of Gratification: The Case of the Caribbean Mating System

A description and analysis of the sex life of Negro peasants in a community of Eastern Trinidad will reveal how a social system that is based on complementarity between sexual partners nevertheless presents such asymmetry that its equilibrium is extremely precarious. The notion of equilibrium, if useful at all, must be seen in relation to those disequilibrating forces which seemingly stable systems create in the course of their operation. Just as a figure cannot be perceived except in relation to the ground in which it is imbedded, so the notion of balance gains significance only when it is examined in relation to the imbalances which it may occasion even as it attempts to contain them. In order to search for sources of disequilibrium, we can turn to the same theoretician who originated the notion of equilibrium in social systems. Strangely enough, when modern sociologists discovered in Pareto the concept of social system, they overlooked Pareto's equally important notions concerning disequilibrium. The idea of disturbance and imbalance is implicit in Pareto's distinction between what he calls 'utility for' and 'utility of' a community. An item that can be said to have maximum utilityfor the community is one through which each individual attains the maximum possible satisfaction. In contrast, utility of a community refers to the maximum utility not of individuals but of the group or society as a whole. Economists, Pareto argued, can only treat the problems of utility for the community since they can only consider wants of individuals which are heterogeneous and whose satisfactions therefore cannot be added up to yield a measure of the maximum utility for the entire group or society. In sociology, however, matters are different, '[A community] can be considered, if not a person, at least as a unity.'1 The maximum utility to a society can be analysed sociologically, and, this being the crux of the matter for our present purposes, it may not necessarily coincide with the maximum satisfaction of the wants of the individual

The Ethics of Rational Decision

In recent years a great deal of attention has been paid by social scientists and others to the problem of the theory of decisions. The decision is a basic concept of social systems, especially in social dynamics. It represents perhaps the most important single class of events, an event being defined as a kind of step-function which separates one position of a social system from the next in point of time. Some events are not the result of human decision at all, such as aging or accidents; some are the results of previous decisions, such as depreciation of a previously created capital structure; but when all these are removed, there remains an important category of events which constitute a deliberate change in state of a social system as a result of human action. Address presented at the 27th National Meeting of the Operations Research Society of America, Boston, Massachusetts, May 7, 1965.