Showing papers on "Social system published in 2020"

The social threats of COVID-19 for people with chronic pain.

Abstract: The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has changed the social environment in which people live and work, as well as the social systems they rely on.39,88 To contain the spread of coronavirus and to prepare for a dramatic increase in demand for limited hospital/medical facilities and resources, societies have enforced physical distancing measures. Consequently, there have been limitations on the use of public transportation, public spaces, and work, education, and recreational facilities. Furthermore, access to vital, but nonurgent, healthcare services (including pain management services) has been restricted. These changes have affected the way people connect with each other, manage their health and wellbeing, and fulfil their social roles. For some, these changes may present opportunities (eg, increased time with family, normalisation of flexible working, and reduced demand for travel). For others, however, these social changes can also represent significant threats to health and wellbeing. The negative impact of social changes prompted by the COVID-19 crisis may disproportionately affect individuals living with long-term painful conditions. Living with chronic pain can threaten an individuals' fundamental social needs for autonomy (agency or independence), belonging (social connection), and justice (fairness). In turn, for some, experiencing heightened social threat can maintain and exacerbate chronic pain.48 In this review, we draw attention to the potential for social and systemic changes associated with attempts to contain the spread of COVID-19 to precipitate, maintain, and exacerbate pain by increasing the social threats faced by individuals with chronic pain (Fig. ​(Fig.1).1). We also suggest strategies for mitigating the social impact of COVID-19 on those living with chronic pain, for instance by learning from the resilience demonstrated by people in pain who have found ways to deal with social threat. Finally, we suggest several time-critical, high-impact research questions for further investigation (Fig. 1). Open in a separate window Figure 1. Schematic representation of how the COVID 19 pandemic (A) exacerbates existing levels of social threat (B), thereby inducing several social challenges (C) for people with chronic pain, and ultimately increasing the risk for the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of chronic pain complaints (D). Possible protecting processes and interventions countering the effects of the pandemic are portrayed as well (E).

Beyond neoliberalism: Reflections on capitalism and education:

Abstract: Education within capitalism too often reproduces social and economic inequalities. Schools are depicted as failing and teachers are blamed. In this paper, I examine the discourses underlying this s...

The Privilege to Select : Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation

Abstract: A large part of the literature published in the ‘Global South’ is barely covered by bibliographic databases. Institutional policies increasingly require researchers globally to publish in ‘international’ journals, draining local infrastructures. The standard-setting power of ‘Global South’ scholars is minimised further. My main aim is to render visible the ways in which European academic libraries contribute to this situation. It is explained as a consequence of specific features of current world society, referred to as coloniality, social injustice, and quantified communication. The thesis analyses peripherality conceptually and scientometrically: based on a sample, how is Southeast African basic social sciences and humanities (SSH) research integrated in global scholarly communication, and how do local dissemination infrastructures develop under these conditions? Finally, how are professional values, specifically neutrality, and workflows of European academic libraries, interrelated with these developments? The methodological approach of the thesis is multi-faceted, including conceptual analyses, scientometrics, and a short survey of collection managers and an analysis of the corresponding libraries' collection policies. The off-mainstream decolonial scientometric approach required the construction of a database from multiple sources. Southeast Africa was selected as a field for some of the empirical studies included, because out of all rarely studied local communities to which a peripheral status is commonly attributed, the large majority of Southeast African authors use English as their primary academic language. This excludes linguistic reasons for the peripheral attribution.The theoretical and conceptual point of departure is to analyse scholarly communication as a self-referential social system with global reach (Luhmann). In this thesis, an unorthodox understanding of social systems theory is developed, providing it with cultural humility, inspired by decolonial thinking. The value of the approach lies in its in-built capacity for social change: peripheries are constructed communicatively, and culturally humble communication avoids adding to the accumulation of peripheral references attributed to the ‘Global South’, for instance by suspending the incarceration of area studies which tends to subsume any research from and about Africa as African studies, remote from the core of SSH. While centrality serves the necessary purpose of reducing the overwhelming complexity of global research, communicative centres can just as well be constructed as topical, and do not require a spatial attachment to be functional. Another advantage of this approach is its awareness of different levels of observation, differentiating, for instance, between whether the academic librarian's neutrality is imagined as playing out in interaction with the user (passive neutrality), as representing the diversity of the research system (active neutrality), or as balancing social bias running through society at large, and hence furthering social justice (culturally humble neutrality). (Less)

Social Barriers in Ecological Landscapes: The Social Resistance Hypothesis

Abstract: Across animal societies, individuals invest time and energy in social interactions. The social landscape that emerges from these interactions can then generate barriers that limit the ability of individuals to disperse to, and reproduce in, groups or populations. Therefore, social barriers can contribute to the difference between the physical capacity for movement through the habitat and subsequent gene flow. We call this contributing effect ‘social resistance’. We propose that social resistance can act as an agent of selection on key life-history strategies and promote the evolution of social strategies that facilitate effective dispersal. By linking landscape genetics and social behaviour, the social resistance hypothesis generates predictions integrating dispersal, connectivity, and life-history evolution.

Contextual self-organizing of manufacturing process for mass individualization: a cyber-physical-social system approach

Abstract: Under the tendency of mass individualization demands, social manufacturing has been proposed as a new paradigm. This paper proposes a contextual process configuration model for realizing the mass i...

Cultural Evolution of Sustainable Behaviors: Pro-Environmental Tipping Points in an Agent-Based Model

Abstract: Summary To reach sustainability transitions, we must learn to leverage social systems into tipping points, where societies exhibit positive-feedback loops in the adoption of sustainable behavioral and cultural traits. However, much less is known about the most efficient ways to reach such transitions or how self-reinforcing systemic transformations might be instigated through policy. We employ an agent-based model to study the emergence of social tipping points through various feedback loops that have been previously identified to constitute an ecological approach to human behavior. Our model suggests that even a linear introduction of pro-environmental affordances (action opportunities) to a social system can have non-linear positive effects on the emergence of collective pro-environmental behavior patterns. We validate the model against data on the evolution of cycling and driving behaviors in Copenhagen. Our model gives further evidence and justification for policies that make pro-environmental behavior psychologically salient, easy, and the path of least resistance.

Reciprocity and behavioral heterogeneity govern the stability of social networks

Abstract: The dynamics of social networks can determine the transmission of information, the spread of diseases, and the evolution of behavior. Despite this broad importance, a general framework for predicting social network stability has not been proposed. Here we present longitudinal data on the social dynamics of a cooperative bird species, the wire-tailed manakin, to evaluate the potential causes of temporal network stability. We find that when partners interact less frequently and when social connectedness increases, the network is subsequently less stable. Social connectivity was also negatively associated with the temporal persistence of coalition partnerships on an annual timescale. This negative association between connectivity and stability was surprising, especially given that individual manakins who were more connected also had more stable partnerships. This apparent paradox arises from a within-individual behavioral trade-off between partnership quantity and quality. Crucially, this trade-off is easily masked by behavioral variation among individuals. Using a simulation, we show that these results are explained by a simple model that combines among-individual behavioral heterogeneity and reciprocity within the network. As social networks become more connected, individuals face a trade-off between partnership quantity and maintenance. This model also demonstrates how among-individual behavioral heterogeneity, a ubiquitous feature of natural societies, can improve social stability. Together, these findings provide unifying principles that are expected to govern diverse social systems.

Social versus liberal collective skill formation systems? A comparative-historical analysis of the role of trade unions in German and Swiss VET:

Abstract: We distinguish between social and liberal collective skill formation systems and demonstrate that the German VET system is a social system with a strong (parity) role for trade unions in its govern...

COVID-19 Pandemic: Socio-Economic Consequences of Social Distancing Measures in Italy

Abstract: The lock-down measures adopted in all countries of the world have led to far-reaching social and economic changes. The health emergency had immediate repercussions first on the social system and then on the economic one. The social repression measures taken to limit the infection have generated a drastic change in daily life, detaching ourselves from the other emotionally and physically. The already difficult situation that Italy was experiencing from an economic and social point of view is immediately exposed by the health emergency, and then worsened and extended to all sectors. In this context, it is important to study different types of phenomena: the suspension of commercial activities and the consequent repercussions on the work sector, smart-working and infrastructural and cultural digital divide, the new forms of interaction and relationship that transform the emotions and, finally, the enormous fluctuation of world markets. To face such a far-reaching crisis, the measures taken not only at national level, but also supranational and international will be decisive.

Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives

Abstract: This study concentrates on exploring the ‘logic’ of modern universities in China-a working concept that promotes a more in-depth discourse on the implicit illustrations of the ‘logic’ of universiti...

Open Science and Its Enemies: Challenges for a Sustainable Science–Society Social Contract

Abstract: Science as a social institution has evolved as the most powerful, highly influential, and sought out institution after the conflicts between science and religion following Galileo. Knowledge as a public good, scientific peer review of science, the prominence of open publications, and the emphasis on professional recognition and scientific autonomy have been the hallmark of science in the past three centuries. According to this scientific spirit, the scientific social system and society formed a unique social contract. This social contract drew considerable institutional and state legitimacy for the openness and public good of science in the service of state and society, all through the post-war period. Openness and public good of science are recognized and legitimized by the scientific community and science agencies at the global level. This paradigm of open science, in varying forms and manifestations, contributed to the progress of systematic knowledge at the service of humankind over the last three centuries. Entering the third decade of the 21st century, the social contract between science and society is undergoing major changes. In fact, the whole paradigm of open science and its social contract is being challenged by various “enemies” or adversaries such as (a) market-based privatized commercial science, (b) industry 4.0 advanced technologies, and (c) a “new iron curtain” on the free flow of science data and information. What is at stake? Are there major changes? Is the very social institution of science transforming? What impact will this have on our contemporary and future sustainable society? These are some important issues that will be addressed in this article.

A framework for conceptualizing dimensions of social organization in mammals

Abstract: Mammalian societies represent many different types of social systems. While some aspects of social systems have been extensively studied, there is little consensus on how to conceptualize social organization across species. Here, we present a framework describing eight dimensions of social organization to capture its diversity across mammalian societies. The framework uses simple information that is clearly separated from the three other aspects of social systems: social structure, care system, and mating system. By applying our framework across 208 species of all mammalian taxa, we find a rich multidimensional landscape of social organization. Correlation analysis reveals that the dimensions have relatively high independence, suggesting that social systems are able to evolve different aspects of social behavior without being tied to particular traits. Applying a clustering algorithm allows us to identify the relative importance of key dimensions on patterns of social organization. Finally, mapping mating system onto these clusters shows that social organization represents a distinct aspect of social systems. In the future, this framework will aid reporting on important aspects of natural history in species and facilitate comparative analyses, which ultimately will provide the ability to generate new insights into the primary drivers of social patterns and evolution of sociality.

Systematic framework to assess social impacts of sharing platforms: Synthesising literature and stakeholder perspectives to arrive at a framework and practice-oriented tool.

Abstract: (1) background Research and user experience suggests both positive and negative social impacts resulting from practices in the sharing economy: social cohesion vs. gentrification; inclusiveness vs. discrimination; flexible employment vs. exploitation. However, as yet, there is no framework for understanding or assessing these social impacts holistically. (2) objective We aim to improve understanding of the social impacts of sharing platforms and develop a systematic framework to assess these impacts. (3) methods We conduct a narrative literature review and stakeholder workshop, integrating insights to produce a systematic social impact assessment framework and a practice-oriented tool. (4) results We identify four social aspects-trust, empowerment, social justice, and inclusivity-and eighteen indicators that make up the framework. We describe each indicator and its relevance to the sharing economy as well as suggest measurable variables in the form of a practice-oriented tool. (5) conclusions The framework and tool are the first holistic method for assessing social impact in the sharing economy, which may inform researchers, sharing platforms, regulators, investors, and citizens to mitigate adverse social impacts while enhancing the overall net social value of the sharing economy.

A History of Humanity: The Evolution of the Human System

Abstract: Humanity today functions as a gigantic, world-encompassing system. Renowned world historian, Patrick Manning traces how this human system evolved from Homo Sapiens' beginnings over 200,000 years ago right up to the present day. He focuses on three great shifts in the scale of social organization - the rise of syntactical language, of agricultural society, and today's newly global social discourse - and links processes of social evolution to the dynamics of biological and cultural evolution. Throughout each of these shifts, migration and social diversity have been central, and social institutions have existed in a delicate balance, serving not just their own members but undergoing regulation from society. Integrating approaches from world history, environmental studies, biological and cultural evolution, social anthropology, sociology, and evolutionary linguistics, Patrick Manning offers an unprecedented account of the evolution of humans and our complex social system and explores the crises facing that human system today.

Comparing measures of social complexity: larger mountain gorilla groups do not have a greater diversity of relationships.

Abstract: Social complexity reflects the intricate patterns of social interactions in societies. Understanding social complexity is fundamental for studying the evolution of diverse social systems and the co...

Learning hidden influences in large-scale dynamical social networks: A data-driven sparsity-based approach.

Abstract: Interpersonal influence estimation from empirical data is a central challenge in the study of social structures and dynamics. Opinion dynamics theory is a young interdisciplinary science that studies opinion formation in social networks and has a huge potential in applications, such as marketing, advertisement and recommendations. The term social influence refers to the behavioral change of individuals due to the interactions with others in a social system, e.g. organization, community, or society in general. The advent of the Internet has made a huge volume of data easily available that can be used to measure social influence over large populations. Here, we aim at qualitatively and quantitatively infer social influence from data using a systems and control viewpoint. First, we introduce some definitions and models of opinions dynamics and review some structural constraints of online social networks, based on the notion of sparsity. Then, we review the main approaches to infer the network's structure from a set of observed data. Finally, we present some algorithms that exploit the introduced models and structural constraints, focusing on the sample complexity and computational requirements.

Social values and health systems in health policy and systems research: a mixed-method systematic review and evidence map.

Abstract: Because health systems are conceptualized as social systems, embedded in social contexts and shaped by human agency, values are a key factor in health system change. As such, health systems software-including values, norms, ideas and relationships-is considered a foundational focus of the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR). A substantive evidence-base exploring the influence of software factors on system functioning has developed but remains fragmented, with a lack of conceptual clarity and theoretical coherence. This is especially true for work on 'social values' within health systems-for which there is currently no substantive review available. This study reports on a systematic mixed-methods evidence mapping review on social values within HPSR. The study reaffirms the centrality of social values within HPSR and highlights significant evidence gaps. Research on social values in low- and middle-income country contexts is exceedingly rare (and mostly produced by authors in high-income countries), particularly within the limited body of empirical studies on the subject. In addition, few HPS researchers are drawing on available social science methodologies that would enable more in-depth empirical work on social values. This combination (over-representation of high-income country perspectives and little empirical work) suggests that the field of HPSR is at risk of developing theoretical foundations that are not supported by empirical evidence nor broadly generalizable. Strategies for future work on social values in HPSR are suggested, including: countering pervasive ideas about research hierarchies that prize positivist paradigms and systems hardware-focused studies as more rigorous and relevant to policy-makers; utilizing available social science theories and methodologies; conceptual development to build common framings of key concepts to guide future research, founded on quality empirical research from diverse contexts; and using empirical evidence to inform the development of operationalizable frameworks that will support rigorous future research on social values in health systems.

An Empirical Illustration of Social Legitimation through Hegemony: Narratives of Students from a Community College on Seeking a Transferal in Hong Kong

Abstract: It is argued that social legitimation is possible through hegemony whereby people of a given social system see the system as legitimate through the naturalness of a way of thinking about issues of ...

Social support for academic entrepreneurship: definition and conceptual framework

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to draw on literature underpinning social support to explore individual level considerations when designing social support systems for academic entrepreneurs.,The paper draws from literature in the fields of entrepreneurship, organisational support, stress and coping, and conservation of resources theory to conceptualise social support in an academic entrepreneurship setting.,Provides an expanded definition and a framework of social support. The definition signals the complex nature of delivering social support by considering mechanisms through which the concept is operationalised. These include the content of social support, relationships it occurs within, mode of delivery of support and finally outcomes of such support. A social support influencer pentagram is presented of elements that, together, or separately may affect how individuals seek, receive or perceive support in the academic entrepreneurship context. The framework may also have implications for organisations in other contexts.,Future research should explore the content, delivery mode and timing of support sought and/or received and perceived as helpful and the types of relationships within which these might occur. The impact of this on academic entrepreneurship and variation of these inputs and outputs with respect to the types of actors involved should be considered. It underscores the need, in empirical research, for in-depth understanding of the context of each incident of support regardless of organisational context.,This paper illustrates the challenges of designing a supportive culture and the conceptual contribution forewarns policy makers of the need to design multi-faceted, flexible and adaptive social support systems.,This paper seeks to establish the value and complex nature of social support as a medium to encourage academic entrepreneurship by providing a broader definition of social support and a framework of elements that may affect whether individuals seek, receive or perceive support within the academic entrepreneurship setting. To our knowledge, it is one of the first papers in an academic entrepreneurship setting which recognises the dual separate paths [based on stress and coping theory (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989)] from the perception of support and the objective support itself to entrepreneurial outcomes. The proposed framework also seeks to contribute to a greater understanding of the ways in which social systems might influence the success of an individual academic’s entrepreneurial endeavours and those of others with whom they interact. It also contributes to the wider social support literature by providing a better understanding of how individuals might break resource loss spirals (Hobfoll et al., 2018).

Social Media and Social Awareness

Abstract: The human behaviors and interactions on social media have maintained themselves as highly dynamic real-time social systems representing individual social awareness at fine spatial, temporal, and digital resolutions. In this chapter, we introduce the opportunities and challenges that human dynamics-centered social media bring to Digital Earth. We review the information diffusion of social media, the multi-faced implications of social media, and some real-world cases. Social media, on one hand, has facilitated the prediction of human dynamics in a wide spectrum of aspects, including public health, emergency response, decision making, and social equity promotion, and will also bring unintended challenges for Digital Earth, such as rumors and location spoofing on the other. Considering the multifaceted implications, this chapter calls for GIScientists to raise their awareness of the complex impacts of social media, to model the geographies of social media, and to understand ourselves as a unique species living both on the Earth and in Digital Earth.

Ethics and Crime in Business Firms: Organizational Culture and the Impact of Anomie

Abstract: Business crime has captured America’s attention. Even in the business community itself, the tremendous social costs of corporate wrongdoing have finally begun to be recognized. By introducing theories of causation and deterrence, conceptual models of white-collar and organizational wrongdoing can provide the foundation for designing more effective measures of social control. This chapter introduces such a model, proposing a link between social values, management strategy, organizational culture, and criminal conduct in business firms. Employees in instrumental climates may be particularly prone to the type of psychological responses. The chapter analyzes culture at the organizational as well as the societal level. Merton emphasized that anomie theory, as a sociological formulation, focused on explaining varying rates of deviance between social systems with varying degrees of anomie. Merton’s anomie theory and its related formulations have inspired an extensive critical literature—one of the liveliest dialogues in the history of the social sciences.

The system as a socio-cultural phenomenon philosophy of management

Abstract: Introduction. The relevance of the article topic is due to the fact that we live in a systemic revolution of society, its political, economic and social subsystems. The deep nature of the phenomenon of the system is not fully understood, and traditional management methods are unable to cope with the growing complexity, dynamism and systems instability. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is a theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of the system in the context of the system paradigm of management philosophy as a meta science, which allows to significantly expand the horizons of the managers vision of public organizations in terms of increasing international interdependence. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical principle of cognition, systemic, historical, philosophical approaches to the study of organizational phenomena and processes in society. Results. The history of system ideas development has been investigated. The existing methodological approaches to defining the essence of the phenomenon “system” have been analyzed. The essence, role and significance of the system philosophy of management, its key aspects and worldview paradigms have been revealed. A conceptual approach to the typology of social systems has been proposed. The basic principles of construction and functioning of social systems in the context of the system philosophy of effective management aimed at preserving the integrity and viability of systems have been substantiated. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the research results is the deepening of theoretical positions on the system and system philosophy of management, the holistic view development of this complex organizational and philosophical problem and substantiation of approaches to solving its ontological, epistemological and value-semantic aspects. The practical significance of the obtained results is manifested in the possibility of their use in the management of social systems and in supplementing the general theory of systems and philosophy of management with new provisions on systemic as the basis of the modern concept in management

Organization, membership and the formalization of behavioural expectations

Abstract: This text is a translation of the first five chapters of Niklas Luhmann's book ‘Funktionen und Folgen formaler Organisation’ [Functions and consequences of formal organization], which originally appeared in German in 1964. In contrast to his later works, which rely crucially on the concept of communication, in this text, Luhmann applies an action‐based approach. He defines social systems as consisting of meaningfully interrelated actions that can be distinguished from their environment. Organizations are a specific type of social systems, that is, a social system that orders actions through the formalization of certain expectations. Formal expectations are those that are bound to the membership role and the acceptance of these is the condition for entry into and exit from the organization. Through the generalized member role, an organization is capable of defining highly generalized expectations. Thus, membership becomes the basis for imposing a broad range of specific yet constantly changeable expectations on members.

The evolutionary dynamics of social systems via reflexive transformation of external reality.

Abstract: One of the main challenges of the social sciences is to explain metasystem transitions from biological to social systems in the process of evolution. These transitions correspond to the emergence of the structure of the subject in which the external world is internalized as a symbolic image. This structure has the potential of rationally reflecting the external world and encoding it in human language. The structure of the subject was defined by Freud and Lacan within the framework of psychoanalysis and modeled by Vladimir Lefebvre using the algebra of simple relations. In that context, the binary oppositions of the Western (W) and Eastern (E) types of cognitive reflection generate not only opposite types of societies but also form the spatiotemporal pattern within a society as a whole underlying its homeostasis and internal dynamics. This opposition between Western and Eastern types is not identical to, but mirrors the probably genetically determined opposition between individuals with primarily selfish or altruistic behavior. The structure of the reflexive subject represents the basis of a sociotype that can be considered as the third component of biosocial being in addition to genotype and phenotype; it is defined a social form of the individual bonded by the social environment and social interactions. The transition to a different type of social relations and structure is based on an anticipated reflexive choice by an individual that is accompanied by a coherent response from the society. This change is defined as a "social transaction" and can be modeled by the logic of the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics. In the history of human civilization, social transactions have resulted in the advancement and distribution of new knowledge and technologies, and in the formation, merging, splitting and decline and re-emergence of particular types of societies.

The Development of Moral and Social Judgments: Social Contexts and Processes of Coordination.

Abstract: The research presented in this essay is grounded in Social Domain Theory. Research provides substantial evidence that children’s social development is characterized by the formation of distinctly different systems of thought, including those in the moral, social-conventional, and personal domains. A main focus here is on morality, defined as involving understandings of welfare, justice, and rights, which are applied across societal contexts. Social conventions are uniformities within social systems, serving to provide uniform expectations. The domains constitute different configurations of thinking and developmental changes occur within each domain. However, decisions in social situational contexts often involve coordination, which is a process of weighing and balancing different and sometimes conflicting considerations. Such social contexts can include conflicts between different moral goals or between moral and societal goals. Processes of coordination are examined in social psychological experiments, as well as developmental studies of topics like honesty, rights, and social inclusion. Coordination is also considered in people’s perspectives on cultural practices of unfairness and inequality. Psychological research in patriarchal societies shows that females, who are subjected to inequalities evaluate those cultural practices as unfair. Anthropological research documents that females engage in acts of opposition and moral resistance regarding perceived unfair cultural practices.

Social influence and interaction bias can drive emergent behavioural specialization and modular social networks across systems.

Abstract: In social systems ranging from ant colonies to human society, behavioural specialization—consistent individual differences in behaviour—is commonplace: individuals can specialize in the tasks they ...

Health Inequality as a Large-Scale Outcome of Complex Social Systems: Lessons for Action on the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract: Action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs to become real and impactful, taking a "whole systems" perspective on levers for systems change. This article reviews what we have learned over the past century about the large-scale outcome of health inequality, and what we know about the behaviour of complex social systems. This combined knowledge provides lessons on the nature of inequality and what effective action on our big goals, like the SDGs, might look like. It argues that economic theories and positivist social theories which have dominated the last 150 years have largely excluded the nature of human connections to each other, and the environment. This exclusion of intimacy has legitimatised arguments that only value-free economic processes matter for macro human systems, and only abstract measurement constitutes valuable social science. Theories of complex systems provide an alternative perspective. One where health inequality is viewed as emergent, and causes are systemic and compounding. Action therefore needs to be intensely local, with power relationships key to transformation. This requires conscious and difficult intervention on the intolerable accumulation of resources; improved reciprocity between social groups; and reversal of system flows, which at present ebb away from the local and those already disadvantaged.

Groups, organizations, families and movements: The sociology of social systems between interaction and society

Abstract: In enhancing a proposal by Luhmann, this contribution shows that it is possible to locate different types of systems between ‘face‐to‐face‐interaction’ and ‘society’: groups, organizations, families and protest movements. The common ground of these is that they use membership to attribute persons to the system or not. However, they differ fundamentally in regard to how they understand membership. In contrast to Luhmann's differentiation between interaction, organization and society, it is not only possible to imagine different types of interlocking systems but also coequal combinations of and transitions between the different types of social systems.