11 quotes
A common vocabulary unifying the several "behavioral" disciplines.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
Openness is an essential factor underlying a system's viability, continuity, and its ability to change.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
Morphogenesis will refer to those processes which tend to elaborate or change a system's given form, structure, or state.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
A system is more than the sum of its parts.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
"information" is not a substance or concrete entity but rather a relationship between sets or ensembles of structured variety.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
As a suggested working definition, we may define power as control or influence over the actions of others to promote one's goals without their consent, against their "will," or without their knowledge or understanding.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
That a system is open means, not simply that it engages in interchanges with the environment, but that this interchange is an essential factor underlying the system's viability, its reproductive ability or continuity, and its ability to change.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
The modern systems view, which flowered during World War II (though building on principles in the wind much earlier), has already borne its first fruits and is in danger of a superficial acceptance into the corpus of sociology by way of the incorporation of some of its now common vocabulary.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
[The equilibrium model describes systems] which, in moving to an equilibrium point, typically lose organization, and then tend to hold that minimum level within relatively narrow conditions of disturbance.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
In essence, the process model typically views society as a complex, multifaceted, fluid interplay of widely varying degrees and intentions and intensities of association and dissociation. The "structure" is abstract construct, not something distinct from the ongoing interactive process but rather a temporary, accommodative representation of it at any one time.
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)
The more recent concern with complex adaptive organization has led to the notion of contingency as the important key. Thus Wiener, while working in the field of communications and probability theory, became convinced 'that a significant idea of organization cannot be obtained in a world in which everything is necessary and nothing is contingent'
Sociology and modern systems theory (1967)