Showing papers on "Social system published in 1995"

Mediating the Message in the 21st Century: A Media Sociology Perspective

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The Hierarchical Model 3. Shaping Social Reality 4. Individuals 5. Routine Practices 6. Media Organizations 7. Social Institutions 8. Social Systems 9. Testing Media Sociology Hypotheses 10. Media Sociology Theories in the 21st Century

Rising Gender Inequality in Vietnam Since Reunification

Abstract: Two general schools of thought offer contrasting visions concerning which kinds of social systems may best ameliorate social inequalities based on class, race, or gender. The modernization perspective holds that development results in the creation of laws, institutions, and opportunities that are conducive to the erosion of such inequalities. The opposing Marxian viewpoint maintains that inequality is rooted in private ownership, the elimination of which requires a complete transformation in the social relations of production. In regard to gender inequality, the latter socialist vision has long been favored by feminists as offering the better agenda for social advancement. Revolutionary socialist movements offered promises of social advances for women and openly sought their support, and the receipt of such support was often pivotal in the establishment of such regimes. Despite some evidence that revolutionary socialist states may have ameliorated social inequality, the current consensus is that gender inequality may be entrenched in various ways that transcend political economy. Recent commentators have noted the unpaid "promissory notes" issued to women by socialist regimes and have analyzed their default under the rubric of "women in the transition to socialism."' However, by the end of the 1980s this political context had changed considerably. After becoming disillusioned with the shared poverty that resulted from the inefficiencies inherent in socialist agricultural and industrial production, many societies in the ex-socialist bloc (including those

Continuing the Social Contract Tradition

Abstract: Social contract theory has a rich history. It originated among the ancients with recognition that social arrangements were not products of nature but convention. It developed through the centuries as theorists sought ethical criteria for distinguishing good conventions from bad. The search for such ethical criteria continues in recent attempts to apply social contract theory to organizations. In this paper, I question the concept of consent as a viable ethical criterion, and I argue for an alternate principle of impartiality as a more appropriate moral norm in a social contract theory of organizations. Abraham Lincoln, while speaking to a crowd during the Civil War, was asked from the audience why he didn't just proclaim the slaves to be free there and then. Lincoln replied: "If I told you that a lamb's tail was a leg, how many legs would a lamb have?" "Five," someone answered. "No," said Lincoln, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one."1 Calling a social system a social contract doesn't make it one, either. The social contract idea is a metaphor or analogy ? not a literal description of how organizations, societies, and other social systems originate or function. Nonliteral images and metaphors are nevertheless useful in suggesting direc? tions for social change. As Lincoln's audience implied, proclaiming all men and women to be free and equal in right is a meaningful and ethically defensible ideal. So is the view of organizations as social contracts. Lincoln reminds us, however, to be careful about distinguishing what's ideal from what's real. Political proclamations and social metaphors, to have practical value, must also admit facts. I'll address these points and try to show how the social contract metaphor might provide an ethically sound as well as practical model of organizations.

Competitions of Socio-Economic Institutions: In Search of the Winners

Abstract: This paper consists of three sections, each with a particular objective. The first section suggests a simple conceptual model of the role of institutions in social systems, to provide the present discussion with a clear conceptual framework, and perhaps also contribute to increasing the precision of the study of institutions in general. While the study of institutions is certainly more difficult to provide with a precise conceptual basis than quantitative studies of resource allocation, much improvement is still possible.

Wealth and Freedom: An Introduction to Political Economy

Abstract: Modern life places a special emphasis on private affairs. Social institutions, and especially our economies, have been organized to facilitate the pursuit of private interests. At the center of this private world is a system of private property which, more than anything, satisfies our wants. Political economy studies the properties of this private world: How does it work, and how well does it satisfy our wants? What are the limits of the world of private affairs? Wealth and Freedom provides an introduction to political economy for the student or other interested nonspecialist. The book explores such key issues as the place of our economy in the larger social system, the importance of market institutions for individual autonomy, private enterprise as a system of economic development, poverty and inequality in market economies, global inequality, and the limits of the market and the role of government. Wealth and Freedom is distinctive in employing a rights-based approach to understanding and evaluating economic institutions. The author emphasizes the distinction between needs and wants as the basis for establishing the limits of the market, and concludes the book with a discussion of the relation between private wants and public ends.

Effectuering van sociaal-economisch recht volgens de chaostheorie : beleidsinstrumentering en rechtshandhaving van (supra)nationaal gelijke-behandelingsrecht

Abstract: In search of an adequate theoretical model in order to study the (in)effectiveness of social economic law, a study is made of the principles of interdisciplinary chaos theory. Luhmann's theory of autopoiesis seems to be a promising translation of chaos theory into the social sciences. The theory of autopoiesis entails that the social systems of law, politics and economy cannot directly interconnect because of their different ways of perception and reasoning. Any effective understanding, regulation or steering between the systems therefore requires a process of translation. This again opens the possibility of misunderstanding or 'noise', adding up to an ineffective regulatory process. An effort is made to examen this hypothesis by means of a case study of the interactions between Community gender equality law, national policies on the emancipation of women and actual practices towards men and women on the national labour market. The first part of this book discusses the epistemological aspects as mentioned (chapters 2, 3, and 4). The second and third part of the book are a practical application of chaos theory to the efffectuation of (supra)national gender equality legislation in social economics. The practical research consists of an analysis of emancipatory policies (chapter 7), of (inter)national legal developments as regards the principle of equality (chapter 8) and of empirical organization processes in the labour market (chapters 11 and 12). Obstacles always seem to occur along the borderlines between politically produced images of the law as an instrument of policics, the legally produced images of the law according to its own systematicity and the econmically produced images of the law and its prescribed economic consequences. Because of 'the noise' produced along these borders one may conclude the European judicial process of eliminating gender discrimination is ineffective and sometimes even counter productive (chapter 13).

A Systems Theoretical Perspective on Communication

Abstract: This essay asserts that it is impossible to understand any communica- tive utterance outside the context in which it is uttered. Within this context, I expound a conception of communication based on ideas in information theory and on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, which provides a theoretical founda- tion for the context dependency of utterances. At the same time, I introduce readers to Luhmann's version of systems theory, which is becoming more and more influential in German literary theory. The view of communication ex- pounded here implies that as all meaning is founded on difference, an utterance can acquire meaning only by differing from other utterances, that is, by negat- ing other positions. Therefore, the context is always part of the utterance; it enters, so to speak, into the utterance. At issue here is a specific type of con- text, a specific axis of difference, correlated with the utterance in a particular way. I try to show exactly how this specific conceptualization of the relation be- tween meaning and context, between communication and difference, is to be understood. First, I discuss the systems theoretical concept of communication and illustrate it with several examples taken largely from political and literary communication. Next, I address the way this concept of communication and difference diverges from (post)structuralist theories, to which it might seem to bear some resemblance. Finally, I examine the difficult question of the relation- ship between communicative utterances, contexts, and their place within social systems, focusing especially on Luhmann's conceptualization of the art system. The first thing the pope asked on his arrival in Chicago was, "Where are the prostitutes in this city? I want to visit them first." A rather surprising

Select Annotated Bibliography to Luhmann's Systems Theory and Its Applications in Literary Studies

Abstract: Luhmann has written more than forty books and three-hundred-odd articles, so the choice presented below is highly selective. The emphasis is on works that have specific relevance to literary and communication studies. Biographical Note Niklas Luhmann was born in Lfineburg in 1927. After studying law in Freiburg, he became a civil servant. In 1960 he obtained a year's leave of absence to study at Harvard under Talcott Parsons, who strongly influenced his thinking, although from the very beginning Luhmann had difficulties with-in fact, rejected-two key elements of Parsonian systems theory: the primacy of structures over functions and the emphasis on norms and normativity. The works of Husserl were also important for Luhmann's intellectual development at this stage. In 1965 Luhmann was "discovered" by Helmut Schelsky; three years later he became professor of sociology at the University of Bielefeld. In 1971 Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie, a debate between Luhmann and Habermas, was published and brought Luhmann fame. At this time Luhmann still conceived of social systems as open systems consisting of actions ("the early Luhmann"). In the early eighties he incorporated Maturana's concept of autopoiesis (self-referentiality) into the theory. From this point on, he conceptualized social systems as autopoietic processes consisting of

Collective Subjectivity and Multidimensionality

Abstract: I shall now undertake a discussion of collective subjectivity’s hermeneutic dimension and of what will be called its material constitution. Conceived overall, the whole comprising the hermeneutic dimension and the material constitution, plus the space-time dimension to be introduced below, furnishes what could be declared the ‘formal’ causality of social systems, that is the conditions whereby they are (re)produced and changed. The multidimensionality of social systems, recently underscored by Alexander1 – who handles it with reference to the ‘conditional’ and the ‘normative’ aspects of individual action as well as within a renewed version of Parsons’ AGIL scheme – will be thereby assessed, albeit in a different key.

7.1.1 Social Systems Engineering and Architecture

Abstract: Although the methods of systems engineering were developed to build complex technological systems, many practitioners feel they can be equally well applied to social and political processes and problems. This desire to rationalize social systems, and to do so through the application of the principles of science and engineering, is not new. It clearly dates back at least 200 years to the French Revolution. Unfortunately, the history of these attempts is mixed. This paper surveys the engineering approach to human systems and examines general criticisms of such an approach. We propose a classification of problem types and suggest variants of the system approach that may be better suited to particular classes of social system problem. Many of these issues, and the resulting classifications, can be seen in the long history of civil architecture and its attempts to deal with the interaction of engineering and society.

Parsons: Social Systems and Collective Actors

Abstract: The second main version of a theory of collective subjectivity is found in the work of Talcott Parsons. However, it did not come about in his first formulations, and Parsons never freed himself completely from the constraints of the heritage of the liberal thought he acknowledged as his world-view. Nevertheless, he advanced some very interesting ideas, connected to his notion of social system, which consisted in an important departure from some key elements of Enlightenment principles. But, lest the expectation of a break away from that movement’s centred subject occur to the reader, it must be stated that Parsons did actually accept this as a core feature of his notion of collective actor.

Structure and Culture of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract: “Information systems are not technical systems which have behavioural and social consequences, rather they are social systems which rely to an increasing extent on information technology for their function” (Land and Hirschheim as quoted by Lawrence and Lowe, 1983).

Principles of social systems structure and social interaction: an application to the health planning process.

Abstract: The purpose of this article was to explore how applications of principles of social structure and social interaction may enhance health program planning. Theoretical aspects of social structure and social interaction and their relationships to planning were discussed. Potential problems in health planning as a result of not considering social system structure and interaction within a system were discussed. It was concluded that the health educator could benefit by applying principles of social structure and social interaction in health planning. Practical applications to the health planning process were postulated.

Sports Rule Revision and Its Adaptability

Abstract: This study intends to search for obvious criteria for all involvement in the process of revising the rule in artistic gymnastics. As a starting point, this study probed the Theory of Adaptablity by Talcott Parsons, which was ieading to a philosophical interpretation of the theory. Why has this study entered the field of Sociology in search for the criteria? It is because sports activities are part of our social activities. And Sociology, as a precondition, is one of the basic foundations of Sports Science. The four elements required to sustain the social system, according to Parsons, are pattern-maintenance, integration, goal-attainment and adaptation all of which must continue to function.When the four elements are introduced into artistic gymnastics, they will become as follows: Pattern-maintenance: Training activities and study meetings for coaches and judges. Integration: It denotes the various rules in artistic gymnastics. Goal-attainment: It refers to such governing bodies as the FIG and national federations. And Adaptation means various competitions.As a result, it has become obvious that revision of gymnastic rules became inevitable to avoid confusion in scoring due to anachronistic difference in technical levels and interpretation of artistic gymnastics on a global scale. Thus, revision of rules becomes necessary to solve all those issues. Furthermore, it also meant that revisions were effective measures to solve various global problems.However, as the revised rules were once not adopted by whole world and became meaningless, it had taught a great lesson to all those concerned. Therefore, all those engaged in the process of revising the rules must fully realise that they should draft rules that are adaptable to the fast maving world of today.

Service organization and evolution in Europe

Abstract: SUMMARY -The extension services belong to the Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS), that comprehends research and higher education in agriculture too. The services transmit the information on technical and managerial innovations to farmers and translate the innovation's demand into research and higher education, thus playing a double "pivot" function: one inside the organization of farming and rural systems and other in the natural and social systems' co-evolution. We must make an effort to better link natural and social sciences in order to explain the Gaia hypothesis' evolutionary games. This effort is possible through a set of models that utilize the information, organization, change and evolution's paradigm in a similar way. Generally, the SR-information in the biological and social systems and, particularly, the knowledge accumulated in the "human capital" are the key words that may unify the natural and social co-evolution. The services actively work on the "knowledge spiral" segment, where the agrarian sciences' explicit and, codified knowledge is converted into tacit, contextual knowledge of farmers, directly contributing to farmers competitive capabilities as an important component of farming and rural networks' organization and indirectly as a strong factor of AKS' growth. The services organization empirically shows an evolutionary feature, according to technological change and social evolution, as well as it is described by the development stages. Developed countries are questioning if the AKS is still important in affluent societies: the OECD conference in Paris in 1995 replied that food quality and safety, rural world mantainence, environment preservation and sustainability of economic development are all the goals that still need a strong AKS in developed countries too. In the third millennium the extension services will have the task to master social and natural co-evolution so that the speed of the economic development does not destroy the capability of the natural and social systems' evolution to live side by side.

Interaction, System and Structure

Abstract: Although there certainly are other analytical units in sociology, such as ‘aspects’ (or ‘elements’) and ‘units’ of action, 1 shall follow Marx and deem interaction the ‘cell’, the ‘elementary form’ for the analysis of social systems. As we have seen in Chapter 4, in its reified commodity expression under capitalist conditions, it received a privileged place in his approach to the analytical study of that mode of production. 1 therefore agree also with other authors, such as Jonathan Turner, who hold a similar point of view.1 It is by fastening upon interactions that we can understand individuals’ behaviour and action; otherwise we are caught up in the same dilemmas first faced by individualists of different kinds and even by Parsons, when he tried, after his analysis of the unit act, to move on and investigate broader features of social life. More precisely, I regard the ‘dyad’2 as the most elementary form of interaction, which can be found in a clear-cut form exclusively by means of abstraction, though, since it is their intertwining that constitutes social life.

Coping with change

Abstract: This chapter discusses coping with change. The technical system refers to the technology and technical methods employed in the organization, the practices, procedures, systems, and techniques used to get work done. The formal social system refers to the formal reporting structure of the company as expressed in organizational charts or described by the pattern or shape of the company including the number of levels in the hierarchy, spans of control, range of expertise and roles, and the communication networks employed. Coupled with the idea of differing perceptions is the concept of relative deprivation, where an individual or a group comparisons gives rise to feelings of being deprived not in an absolute sense but in relation to the situation of other groups or individuals. The changes planned within the technical system affected both the formal and informal social system. In the formal social system it was possible to anticipate and plan for the changes required in organization, roles, and expertise to operate the new warehouse setup.