Sociocybernetics An actor-oriented social systems approach Vol. 2
The fifteen papers comprising this book were chosen out of the sixty-one contributions to the Symposium and Section on Social Systems held in the context of the Fourth International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 21-25 Au
- PDF / 20,360,352 Bytes
- 160 Pages / 430.87 x 649.12 pts Page_size
- 96 Downloads / 194 Views
Sociocybernetics An actor-oriented social systems approach
Vol. 2
Edited by
R. Felix Geyer,
Johannes van der Zouwen
Netherlands Universities' Joint Social Research Centre, Amsterdam
Free University, Amsterdam
tJAartinus8Vijhoff Social Sciences Division CLeiden IGJJoston ICLondon 1978
ISBN-13: 978-90-207-0855-4 001: 10.1007/978-1-4613-4097-3
e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-4097-3
Sole Distributors for North America Kluwer Boston, Inc. 160 Old Derby Street Hingham, MA 02043 USA Copyright ©1978 by R. F. Geyer and J. van der Zouwen. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the editors.
Preface
The fifteen papers comprising this book were chosen out of the sixty-one contributions to the Symposium and Section on Social Systems held in the context of the Fourth International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 21-25 August, 1978). These papers, assembled here on the basis of their topicality, depth and originality, cover a wide range of problems, ranging from 'Societies and Turing machines' to 'Dialectics and catastrophe'. An interesting array of themes is considered by authors from six countries. It is felt that these papers, some of them thought-provoking and of great merit, will cast new light on social problems. Though the contributions consider a wide variety of topics, the underlying trend is apparent in many instances. Of special value is the discussion of the relevance of cybernetics and systems to a wide spectrum of social problems. I think the treatment and the approach adopted by the contributors merit wide attention, since their contributions constitute an appreciable advance in a fairly novel field. 1. ROSE BLACKBURN (U.K.) May, 1978
Acknowledgements
First of all, we want to thank the authors for their contributions to these volumes, often produced under severe time pressure. We are particularly indebted to publisher Hans van der Sluijs and desk editor Judy Marcure for their helpful cooperation in having both volumes edited and published on schedule. We also want to acknowledge the cooperation of the Netherlands Universities' Joint Social Research Centre and the Free University, both in Amsterdam, who granted us administrative assistance and the time to fulfil our editorial duties. Moreover, we have highly appreciated the feedback received from the members of the Working Group on Social Systems of the Dutch Society for General Systems Research. Finally, we want to express our gratitude to Dr. J. Rose, the organizer of the congress for which these contributions were written, for his stimulating advice and his willingness to write the preface for this book. The editors
Contents
Preface I v Acknowledgements I VII List of contributors I X Introduction 11
R. F. Geyer and l. van der Zouwen Control theory and social change: toward a synthesis of the system and action approaches 115
l. R. Beniger Cybernetic theorems on feedback in social processes / 29
M. Mazur
A. SIGGS information
Data Loading...
