Systems Theory

The article introduces recursive ontology, a general ontology which aims to describe how being is organized and what are the processes that drive it. In order to answer those questions, I use a multidisciplinary approach that combines the theory of levels, philosophy and systems theory. The main claim of recursive ontology is that being is the product of a single recursive process of generation that builds up all of reality in a hierarchical fashion from fundamental physical particles to human societies. To support this assumption, I provide the general laws and the basic principles of recursive ontology as well as a semi-formalised model of the theory based on a recursive generative grammar. Recursive ontology not only actively promotes a multidisciplinary investigation of reality, but also can be used as a general framework to develop future domain-specific theories.

This paper explores Mary Catherine Bateson's critique of individualism and argument for the recognition and development of interdependence. Individualism is presented as a cornerstone of American culture, forming a constellation along with analytic thinking, methodological individualism and free market capitalism. This constellation stands in opposition to and is held in place by the constellation of collectivism, holistic thinking, methodological holism and socialism/ communism. These constellations and their dimensions are viewed as static and reified and polarized to the extent that they are no longer useful. Creativity is introduced as a factor for change and the elements of process and transformation. The discussion is contextualized drawing on examples from both academia and popular culture.

В статье уточнены свойства трансграничных территорий с позиции системного подхода. В качестве особенностей проявления общесистемных свойств, обусловленных двухзвенной структурой трансграничья, установлены такие черты, как относительная целостность, глобальность (включенность в мировое хозяйство) и наличие дублированных элементов. Именно эти свойства
превращают трансграничье в территорию особой стратегической значимости для двусторонних
отношений сопредельных государств и место, требующее выстраивания многоуровневого многоакторного механизма сотрудничества и решения проблем. В качестве примера полимасштабного анализа сопоставлены данные плотности населения российско-китайского трансграничного региона на микро-, мезо- и макроуровнях. Сделан вывод о том, что демографические диспропорции приграничных
административных единиц низового уровня России и Китая значительно (в восемь раз) меньше диспропорций административных единиц высшего уровня. Для китайской части трансграничного региона характерны более значительные внутрисистемные демографические диспропорции, чем для российской, проявляющиеся в снижении плотности населения при переходе от макро- к мезоуровню.

The article identifies key features of cross-border regions as territorial systems and points at those of them that are influenced by their binary structure. They are relative integrity of cross-border regions, their embeddedness into the world economy and the presence of duplicated elements. These features predetermine the (bi)national strategic importance and peculiar attention to cross-border territories as well as the need for multi-layer multi-actor problem-solving and collaboration. Contrasting
population density data of the Sino-Russian borderland at multiple scales allows to conclude that demographic disproportion of administrative entities of lower level is significantly smaller (by factor of eight) than the one of regional entities. Internal demographic disproportion is substantially higher on the Chinese side of the cross-border region and its key manifestation is the decrease of population density as we downscale the research unit from the macro- and the meso-level.

From a societal point of view, art has a key relevance: Art is a means to pursue the cultural questions posed about interrelations, perceptions of realities and meanings (critique and value formation) in an aesthetic mode of working. It is a multivalent communication (communication system) which, through a varying contextualization, evades a specific translation (interpretation) and, in this way, forms a resource for reflection—on the personal level, through the beholder, and on the societal level, as a system.
In terms of the progressing differentiation of art systems (horizontal differentiation), this is accompanied by a shift of emphasis so that its focus is not (any longer) on the production of objects and in particular their display in art contexts (labelled as such). Instead, what is now its focus is the designing of processes influencing developments as well as the integration of a range of disciplines. Rather than artists being the experts on questions of design, they are now being inquired as experts on issues related to perception and its relationing. As a result, perceptual (aesthetic) skills and their artistic application in social contexts (relationing) represent a crucial ability, and the medium and the canon of media becomes secondary.


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This chapter re-interprets Polanyi’s substantive institutionalist analysis of market economies, market societies, and state intervention in the light of two later schools, namely, the Parisian regulation approach to contempo- rary capitalism and systems-theoretical accounts of the market economy as an autopoietic system. All three regard the modern economy as an operationally autonomous system that is nonetheless socially embedded and needful of complex forms of social regulation. For each, an adequate account of economic activities should explore how they are related to the wider social environment; how they are embedded in a wider nexus of social institutions; how the latter assist in reproducing the capitalist (or market) economy; and how their development is coupled to these and other environing institutions. Crucial differences among the three approaches nonetheless justify exploring their potential complementari- ties as a basis for further research. Thus, after presenting their respective accounts of economic institutedness and embeddedness, I discuss the stability and reproducibility of the capitalist economy, paying particular attention to governance and meta-governance.

Guided by a family resiliency model grounded in systems theory and social constructionism, we conducted in-depth interviews to explore how 18 Arab American couples living in New York and New Jersey perceived and dealt with the terrorist attacks and aftereffects of September 11, 2001. Results are organized around five themes: Making sense of the attacks; the social environment after September 11, 2001; construction of identity: Arab and/or American; how couples cope: reactions and resources; and immigration and acculturation. Clinical recommendations include helping couples to uncover and to explore conflicts in both Arab and American identities, using genograms to deal with family-of-origin histories, recognizing specific couple dynamics linked to traditional gender roles, helping couples connect to religious and cultural communities, and assessing acculturation.

"Purpose – The speed and variety of new business models emerging in the current economy created a disruptive environment that lacks theoretical frameworks and perspectives to help academics, practitioners and policy makers to critically understand and appraise the phenomenon of new business models emergence. This paper addresses this neglect by discussing the phenomenon of service innovation from a systems thinking perspective, shedding light on issues concerning change and adaptiveness of business models.

Design/Methodology/approach – We revisit fundamental questions raised by Normann (2001) to discuss change and creation phenomena. We also build upon his concepts of ‘bifurcation points’ of instability as well as Beer’s concepts of attenuation and amplification of variety (Beer, 1981) to differentiate ‘homeostatic change’ from ‘disruptive change’. We use the theoretical perspective developed in the paper to explain the emergence of new business models enabled by digital technologies in a service sector context.

Findings – We point out that adaptive variability does not necessarily entails reestablishment of an original state of equilibrium. This is particularly the case of companies developing new business models. The newness of a ‘new’ business model infers non-existence of an antecedent original state that provides basis for adaptation towards equilibrium. The novel state of a new business model can be considered as a new referential state for future homeostatic changes to maintain equilibrium until other disruptive changes take place.

Practical implications – From the theoretical perspectives here addressed, one can see disruptive technologies as drivers of bifurcation points of instability for organisations. To deal with these instabilities, companies can opt for implementing either an attenuation or amplification strategy. The attenuation strategy is developed through homeostatic changes that attenuate disruptions in order to maintain a state of equilibrium. On the other hand, the amplification strategy can be implemented through disruptive changes that amplify disruptions by contextualizing the disruptive technologies into a new business model proposition for the market.

Originality/value – We provide a systems thinking perspective for service innovation through new business models. We infer that the development of a new business model entails change to a different organisational state that, due to lack of a referential status for equilibrium, represents a state of dynamic disequilibrium, which paradoxically may provide basis for a state of equilibrium if the new model is successful. In this sense, we postulate that in organisations developing new business models homeostatic adaptations to restore equilibrium are typically preceded by adaptation to a different state of temporary dynamic disequilibrium.

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The management of occupational health and safety (OHS) including safety culture interventions is comprised of complex problems that are often hard to scope and define. Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of OHS management, the concept of system dynamics (SD) is used to analyze accident prevention. In this paper, a system dynamics group model building (GMB) approach is used to create a causal loop diagram of the underlying factors influencing the OHS performance of a major drilling and mining contractor in Australia. While the organization has invested considerable resources into OHS their disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR) has not been decreasing. With this in mind, rich individualistic knowledge about the dynamics influencing the DIFR was acquired from experienced employees with operations, health and safety and training background using a GMB workshop. Findings derived from the workshop were used to develop a series of causal loop diagrams that includes a wide range of dynamics that can assist in better understanding the causal influences OHS performance. The causal loop diagram provides a tool for organizations to hypothesize the dynamics influencing effectiveness of OHS management, particularly the impact on DIFR. In addition the paper demonstrates that the SD GMB approach has significant potential in understanding and improving OHS management.► We conducted a system dynamics group modelling workshop for a major drilling and mining contractor in Australia. >Rich individualistic knowledge was acquired in the workshop. ► Causal loop diagrams were created representing the complex factors influencing management of occupational health and safety. ► Paper demonstrates that the group model building approach has significant potential.

Many environmental risks are multi-faceted and their health consequences can be far-ranging in both time and space. It can be a challenging task to develop informed policies for such risks. Integrated environmental health impact assessment aims to support policy by assessing environmental health effects in ways that take into account the complexities and uncertainties involved. For such assessment to be successful, a clear and agreed conceptual framework is needed, which defines the issue under consideration and sets out the principles on which the assessment is based. Conceptual frameworks facilitate involvement of stakeholders, support harmonized discussions, help to make assumptions explicit, and provide a framework for data analysis and interpretation. Various conceptual frameworks have been developed for different purposes, but as yet no clear taxonomy exists. We propose a three-level taxonomy of conceptual frameworks for use in environmental health impact assessment. At the fi...

Desde Talcott Parsons, a teoria sobre os meios simbolicamente generelizados ocupa um lugar especial na análise sociológica. Suas derivações em Niklas Luhmann e Jügen Habermas têm conseguido manter, por mais de quarenta anos, as reflexões em relação à diferenciação da sociedade e sua evolução (CHERNILO, 2002). Luhmann, diferentemente de Parsons e Habermas, modifica a teoria dos meios e os considera como “meios de comunicação” que, diante da autopossibilidade de uma negação da comunicação, possibilitam sua aceitação. Desta maneira, a abordagem de Luhmann não pretende responder a pergunta sobre “como é possível a ordem social”, que habitualmente era respondida a partir de condições normativas (LUHMANN, 2011). Ao contrário, o autor opta por considerar a pergunta a partir de uma abordagem que levasse em consideração meios de comunicação simbolicamente generalizados . Assim, Luhmann converte tal questionamento em uma pergunta de caráter teórico, considerando os MCSG como equivalentes funcionais da moral que, dada a evolução, tem conseguido estabilizar-se e condicionar as possibilidades de aceitação/rejeição da comunicação (LUHMANN, 2007, p. 246).
A teoria dos meios propicia, portanto, avanços para o estudo tanto da diferenciação, quanto da função do dinheiro, por exemplo, do amor, do poder e do direito, dentre os outros. A sociologia, ao longo de sua história, tem reiterado a importância fundamental das mudanças que a modernidade tem produzido (BOTTOMORE; NISBET, 1988; GIDDENS, 1994), sendo possível associar os avanços da teoria dos sistemas e sua observação sobre os meios aos problemas de inclusão e de exclusão social contemporâneos (CADENAS, 2012). A hipótese aqui defendida consiste na ideia de que o princípio da não conversibilidade dos meios permite estudar a desigualdade social, entendida como estruturas de distribuição que geram conversibilidade secundária dos meios.  Desta forma, fenômenos tão massificados na sociedade latino-americana como a corrupção e a coerção (MASCAREÑO, 2011), podem ser observados à luz dos desenvolvimentos teóricos mencionados, com resultados frutíferos para a análise da desigualdade social.
A partir do exposto, o presente capítulo propõe-se a: a) apresentar a teoria da comunicação, a partir de um enfoque sistêmico e de sua relação com o problema da dupla contingência; b) discutir a função dos meios de comunicação simbolicamente genereralizados para a resolução do problema da dupla contingência; c) refletir sobre a relação do problema da dupla contingência com a questão codificação/programação dos sistemas funcionais; d) refletir sobre a possibilidade de novas linhas de investigação sobre a questão da desigualdade social a partir da teoria exposta.

Systeme. Wir begegnen ihnen auf Schritt und Tritt, leben ganz selbstverständlich in und mit ihnen und sind sogar selber eines. Doch ist uns eigentlich bewusst, worüber wir sprechen, wenn wir von einem System sprechen? Die meisten von uns haben wohl eine intuitive Ahnung, aber so ganz genau könnten wir es wohl nicht erklären, wenn man uns fragen würde? Das vorliegende Buch hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, im Sinne einer Einführung in die Grundlagen des systemischen Denkens eine Antwort auf die Frage "Was ist ein System?" zu geben und die Merkmale des Systembegriffs herauszuarbeiten.

Neorealism is one of the most influential theories of international relations, and its first theorist, Kenneth Waltz, a giant of the discipline. But why did Waltz move from a rather traditional form of classical realist political theory in the 1950s to neorealism in the 1970s? A possible answer is that Waltz's Theory of International Politics was his attempt to reconceive classical realism in a liberal form. Classical realism paid a great deal of attention to decisionmaking and statesmanship, and concomitantly asserted a nostalgic, anti-liberal political ideology. Neorealism, by contrast, dismissed the issue of foreign policymaking and decisionmaking. This shift reflected Waltz's desire to reconcile his acceptance of classical realism's tenets with his political commitment to liberalism. To do so, Waltz incorporated cybernetics and systems theory into Theory of International Politics, which allowed him to develop a theory of international relations no longer burdened with the problem of decisionmaking.

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's "cross of reality," a structure that fuses a vertical spatial dyad of inner-outer and a horizontal temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This tetrad is compatible not only with the human-centered phenomenological point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favors, but also with a world-centered scientific point of view. It is applied by him explicitly or implicitly to a wide variety of individual and collective human experiences. In this paper I mention a few examples of these applications from the realm of language, religion, and social critique. I also show that Rosenstock-Huessy's tetradic structure accords with and diagrams some basic concepts in systems theory.

Creative Inquiry frames learning and education as a larger manifestation
of the creative impulse rather than as the fundamentally instrumental acquisition, retention, and reproduction of information, or Reproductive Learning.
Montuori, A. (2011). Creative inquiry. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), The encyclopedia of the sciences of learning. Heidelberg: Springer.

Relying on media archaeology of Friedrich Kittler, this article examines a large-scale installation, Self-Portrait. Structure. Report. 9.6.72 (1972), by Peruvian artist Teresa Burga (b. Iquitos, 1935) in comparison with the structuralist underpinnings of the dominant formulations of Conceptual art. I argue that in Self-Portrait, Burga mobilizes the logic of the media in order to open up closed, disciplinary system inscribed within both tautological/linguistic and so-called critical currents of Conceptual art. Under a familiar concept, Burga’s project combines diagrams, blueprints, photographs, medical records, light, and sound. Thus, it functions at the critical juncture of language, media, and material experiences. On the one hand, through text-based proposals and diagrams, Burga asserts the role of the artist as a creator of ideas—the paradigm of Conceptual art. On the other, she puts forth encounters with highly experiential structures, prevalent in minimal, postminimal, and technology-based art. I investigate how the artist deploys the logic of the media to transpose the content of the documents, which at first seem to constitute a repressive, police-like, archival system. I maintain that as a consequence of the transposition, Burga manifests that in reality the discourse and the media are not equivalent. In her Self-Portrait there are impassable gulfs between every single element of the piece, even if they are all supposed to encompass just one body. Therefore, by exposing self-contained and self-referential limitedness of discourse, Burga decenters the subject and opens up spaces of freedom in the closed systems that captured the imagination of her generation.

BORDERS & BELONGING:      
From Adversity to Diversity in Cultural Child & Family Psychiatry

Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD, DFAPA
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Montreal

Abstract:

Objectives: To provide a perspective on a career in community and cultural child psychiatry through the triple lenses of children, families, and culture, focusing on culture change syndromes, migration, and trauma.

Methods: Employing the lenses of children, families, and culture, Di Nicola has argued throughout his career that we cannot simply add layers to our understanding of these domains but rather that these elements have to be brought into dialogue with each other, sometimes radically challenging each other: 1) To study children across culture is to revision how we think about development. 2) To take family therapy seriously is to radically rethink how we imagine all relationships, from attachment and belonging to diverse family configurations and evolving constructions of gender and sexuality. 3) It’s also true that for cultural psychiatry and family therapy to take children seriously, they have rethink received notions of families and culture. None of these domains are fixed, stable or unchanging - they are all in flux.

Results: This layered and dialogic approach to children, families, and culture led Di Nicola to forge these syntheses: 1) Cultural family therapy (transcultural psychiatry & family therapy). 2) Transcultural child psychiatry (child psychiatry & transcultural psychiatry). 3) Child- and family-centered global mental health (child & family psychiatry with the global mental health movement).

Conclusions: Beyond evidence-based medicine, child psychiatry is nourished by meaningful personal and professional values. Di Nicola concludes with metaphors that inspire his work from social adversity to cultural diversity: 1) “A stranger in the family” (title of his book on cultural family therapy that explores three levels of strangeness – the mentally ill child in the family, the family that finds itself estranged in society due to migration or other socio-cultural differences, and finally, the therapist who arrives as a stranger in their midst with often alien or estranging views of their predicament). 2) “Looking across at growing up” (developmental psychologist Charles Super’s view of anthropology's horizontal or cross-cultural approach). 3) “Cultural changelings” (children’s experience of migrating across all the domains relevant to culture, including class, gender, race, religion and other aspects of belonging and community).

Learning Objectives:

1. To provide a framework for the interaction of three crucial factors for child and family psychiatry: children (developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology), families (attachment theory, belonging, family systems theory and therapy), and culture (anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, transcultural psychiatry).

2. To demonstrate the relevance of the interaction of these domains with examples of their syntheses: (a) cultural family therapy (transcultural psychiatry with family therapy); (b) transcultural child psychiatry (transcultural psychiatry with child psychiatry; and (c) child- and family-centered global mental health (global mental health with child psychiatry and family therapy).

3. To give examples of theoretical implications of the interaction of child, family and cultural factors for culture-inclusive theories of child and family development and clinical examples of culture-bound and culture-change syndromes such as Selective Mutism and Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders.


Biography

Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD, DFAPA is chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, Montreal University Institute for Mental Health, tenured full professor of psychiatry, University of Montreal, and clinical professor, The George Washington University. Dr. Di Nicola trained in psychology (McGill University, University of London) and medicine (McMaster University), with residencies in paediatrics and psychiatry (McGill), where his mentor was Professor Raymond Prince, and fellowships in family therapy (McGill) and child psychiatry (University of Ottawa). He later specialized in Refugee Trauma and Global Mental Health with Professor Richard Mollica at the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, leading to interdisciplinary investigations on trauma with a doctorate in philosophy (European Graduate School). Dr. Di Nicola was founding president of the Canadian Association of Social Psychiatry, co-founder and past chair of APA Caucus on Global Mental Health and Psychiatry, serving twice as President, APA Quebec District Branch. Currently, he is Representative to the APA Assembly and Chair, Assembly Committee on Psychiatric Diagnosis and DSM, as well as board member and Program Committee co-chair, Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture. He has won numerous scholarships and prizes throughout his career for both scientific and literary pursuits. Dr. Di Nicola characterizes his career as a community and cultural child and adolescent psychiatrist and cultural family therapist working with disadvantaged and cultural communities in Montreal, as well as teaching and consultations in child psychiatry and family therapy around the world, notably in Brazil and Haiti.

Some thought spent on the sad disintegration of Europe and the termination of democracy. After Brexit and several battles of regions striving for more autonomy in Europe, we now face a horrendously violent crisis in Catalonia, of which Europe is not only the witness, but also an active promoter. All representatives of European institutions fail to understand that they cannot stand passively watching at the butchery of democracy committed by Spain against Catalo-nia. Passivity here is the equivalent of active brutality. European leaders know this crisis has been building up for decades, if not even centuries. And all European leaders failed understanding how trauma through oppression derives in popular surge, like we see it now in Catalonia. Europe is not a safe space for democracy. Europe has not reworked its trauma and its trauma implication through feudal structures based on greed, fame, violence and domination. The violence rackets in Europe are still active through representatives of few families playing what epigenetics have inscribed in their genes, the game of fierce dominance. Europe never deserved the Peace Nobel, and it deserves it even less now in the face of the crisis in Catalonia. Sadly enough, we can witness European leaders are repeating patterns as in early 1930s until 1935, allowing for brute force to subjugate the will of citizens in Catalonia who simply are tired of the abuses committed by a plutocracy reigning with impunity in Europe but even more so in Spain. We shall remember that European leaders left Catalan citizens alone facing a Spanish dictator and his fellow NAZI friends. We shall understand that history has changed, humanity progressed at least partly, but some patterns of history repeat.

Major depression is a debilitating condition characterised by diverse neurocognitive and behavioural deficits. Nevertheless, our species-typical capacity for depressed mood implies that it serves an adaptive function. Here we apply an interdisciplinary theory of brain function to explain depressed mood and its clinical manifestations. Combining insights from the free-energy principle (FEP) with evolutionary theorising in psychology, we argue that depression reflects an adaptive response to perceived threats of aversive social outcomes (e.g., exclusion) that minimises the likelihood of surprising interpersonal exchanges (i.e., those with unpredictable outcomes). We suggest that psychopathology typically arises from ineffectual attempts to alleviate interpersonal difficulties and/or hyper-reactive neurobiological responses to social stress (i.e., uncertainty), which often stems from early experience that social uncertainty is difficult to resolve.