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

SUSTAINABILITY (Supply side) 2)

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T.F.H. ALLEN, who developed this model recommends the following steps (hierarchically organized), to create the general conditions for sustainability in complex systems:

- manage for whole ecosystems, not resources

- manage from the context to facilitate internal functioning: the healthy ecosystems in context subsidize the effort

- use positive feedbacks to achieve systems change (1998, p. 4)

In short, sustainability of processes must be subordinated to the system's sustainability

which in turn can be maintained only through a permanent symbiosis of the system with its environment.

Of course such a symbiosis implies some aspects that frequently remain hidden, as for example:

- the system's outputs must be carefully managed in order to avoid spoiling the environment

- technical change can (and generally does) modify the balance between the system and its environment. Such a change should be carefully scrutinized. Indeed a change can be initially beneficial and turn negative in the long run or it may be costly at the beginning and become positive later on

- the use of positive feedbacks to achieve systems change should be cautious, lest they lead to a global and possibly irreversible loss of dynamic stability, i.e. long term sustainability

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]

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