Social system

About: Social system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2974 publications have been published within this topic receiving 92395 citations.

Impact of Social Changes on Teacher's Role and Responsibilities in the Educational System

Abstract: 1 IntroductionThe last twenty years has brought rapid social, political and economic changes which have transformed the structure of society in many countries around the world, and especially in our region. A brief overview of these changes is sufficient to explain and justify attempts in recent years to reform education in most European countries. After the society clearly and profoundly changed it became necessary to reform education systems to be flexible, compatible with contemporary issues, and able to successfully tackle these challenges and the new realities.Education plays the most important role in the development and progress of an individual. It affects their social status and is the most important factor in economic prosperity and social emancipation. From a sociological point of view, the improvement of education does not happen solely because of individual needs, but originates and develops to meet the needs of the society. The educational system of any society is important for the overall social system. In static societies, the key function of the educational system is the transmission of cultural heritage to future generations. However, in today's modern world, education must respond to a number of other challenges and needs that it faces on a daily basis.Regardless of the level of development of society, education should be one of the most important social activities. Quality education is the main driving force of social progress. Today however, it is recognized that the most developed countries invest much more in education and different types of research in comparison to developing countries or underdeveloped countries.2 Changes in Educational SystemsCompetition for economic, military, and other forms of domination led to continuous analysis and re-evaluation of educational systems and the adoption of specific strategies for improvement with the aim of survival in the race for dominance. One of the most striking examples that authors constantly refer to is the competition between the United States and Russia in space exploration, especially after the Russian launch of Sputnik.Education is a key factor in social development. Social changes come with the collective transformation of individuals. Education is a process that allows all individuals to effectively participate in social activities and to contribute to social progress. Education systems then, have incalculable importance. Bringing about social change has a number of challenges however: professional, technical, social, moral, etc. These challenges require new standards and new approaches to training teachers both during faculty training as well as during their continuous professional development, because they have to be continuously trained in order to successfully face all the new challenges.After analysing the existing educational system, experts suggest specific needs for the transformation and harmonization of education systems, to new demands caused by social changes. Underscoring these needs, Patil (2012) suggests the following very common deficiencies in the current educational systems:(1) The present education does not generate or fortify the type of knowledge that is relevant to our changed society.(2) The technology associated with a particular body of knowledge is inappropriate to our stage of development in terms of its employment potential or investment demands.(3) Education has failed to provide a value-framework which may prepare committed politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, and professionals, on whom our nation can depend for a sophisticated system of support services, which will take the country to the highest level.The European concept of the new society, and its gradual application of those needs for the users of new educational services along with modern understanding of the role of education prepare teachers to face new demands within the education system. …

The evolution of artificial social systems

Abstract: The basic idea of the artificial social systems approach of Shoham and Tennenholtz [1995; 1997] is to add a mechanism, called a social law, that will minimize the need for both centralized control and on-line resolution of conflicts. A social law is defined as a set of restrictions on the agents’ activities which allow them enough freedom on the one hand, but at the same time constrain them so that they will not interfere with each other. Several variants have been introduced to reason about the design and emergence of social laws. However, existing models of artificial social systems cannot be used for the evolution of such systems, because these models do not contain an explicit representation of the social laws in force. In this paper we use enforceable social laws [Boella and van der Torre, 2005] to address the question how artificial social systems can be extended to reason about the evolution of artificial social systems.

Loneliness among older people as a social problem: the perspectives of medicine, religion and economy

Abstract: This article offers a theoretical framework for studying loneliness among older people from a social problems perspective. The framework combines the constructionist approach to social problems (Spector and Kitsuse) and systems theory (Luhmann). Based on the first approach, we understand the social problem of loneliness among older people to be the result of claims-making activities by different key actors. These activities are guided by underlying moralities, causalities and solutions. With the second approach, we can explain how social problems are framed differently within different social systems. The proposed framework is primarily aimed at researchers studying social (in contrast to bio-medical or psychological) aspects of loneliness among older people. It helps not only to guide research designs in order to address conflicting perspectives, rationalities and interests but also to enable researchers to grasp fully how ‘loneliness among older people’ is attributed (potentially shifting) meanings through communicative acts by influential stakeholders in the ‘social problems industry‘. Combining constructionism and Luhmann's theory also helps to interpret and explain concrete claims-making concerning loneliness as a social problem. The argument in this article is illustrated via three different social systems: medicine, religion and economy. Loneliness among older people appears to be something different from each of these perspectives: as a matter of health and illness, of spirituality, and of incentives and commodities, respectively.

Designing for Aesthetic Disruption : Altering Mental Models in Social Systems through Designerly Practices

Abstract: Amid all the excitement about transforming social systems through design, there remains a lack of understanding about what design can uniquely offer to support this change. This conceptual paper co ...