EMANCIPATORY SYSTEMS APPROACH

Charles François (2004). EMANCIPATORY SYSTEMS APPROACH, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 1054.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 1054 ▶
Object type	General information, Human sciences, Methodology or model

M. JACKSON writes: “The concept of emancipation is a much contested one in systems thinking , as it is in social theory more generally. There are arguments about whether we should be seeking human emancipation, or individual emancipation or, indeed, whether non-human elements such as other species or the environment should be considered as well…”(2000, p. 291)

After describing a number of versions of the emancipatory concept , Jackson adds: “All emancipatory systems approach are suspicious of the current social order and seek to radically reform it. They see society as presently constituted, as benefiting some groups at the expense of other groups, which are suffering domination or discrimination”.

And “Usually the process of emancipating the oppressed can also be seen to have benefits for the oppressors in the new social order”(Ibid)

This is of course a trend universally verified in the whole history of humanity.

Jackson proceeds thereafter, presenting various proposals, among them:

- Habermas' critical systems approach

- Interpretive systemology

- Freire's critical psychology

- MacIntyre and the moral community

- Capra's ecological sustainability

Most of these proposals, save possibly Capra's are quite weak in their deeper (i.e.not merely ideological , descriptive or mechanistic) description of the domination process in whatever culture or society of the past or the present.

Jackson's conclusion- at least provisional- is that “Emancipatory thinkers may be inviting the oppressed simply to enter into new relations of domination”(Ibid, p. 309)

Having stated what “should” be done- namely to “emancipate”- it would be necessary first to make clearer what is meant exactly by “emancipation”and secondly, what should be efficient and practical ways to reach such a desirable state.

See also