BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

PLANNING (Anticipatory) 1)

← Back

"A planning process which attemps to foresee potential problems and to develop solutions to them before they become real, current problems" (UNESCO – UNEP, 1983, p.20).

Anticipation depends on predictability, which is always imperfect, and more so for complex situations and systems – whose complexity is frequently underestimated (see above and below).

W.D. GROSSMANN and K.E.F. WATT offer the following proposals for a "planning branch unit" in government:

"A. … (Would) function as a continuous monitor of the institution (i.e. the Government), its activities and its environment, looking for… strategic errors… and determining (needed) corrections…

"B. … foster, facilitate and expedite the free flow of information… (with the possibility that) anyone inside or outside the institution could seek an audience with this unit, to point out… a potential treat they have noticed…

"C. … (manage) innovative structural changes in organization, or activity within the institution…

"D. … act as a self-corrective unit which would be constantly asking and following questions… inviting people both inside and outside the institution to offer their views" (1992, p.12).

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint