SOCIO-HISTORIC SYSTEM
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3098 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences |
Any organized (i.e. structured and functional) human group whose duration supersedes the individual life of its members.
The socio-historic system is largely autopoietic: it remains constantly able to replenish its membership and to maintain its internal organization.
This model applies to tribes, countries, nations, enterprises, political parties, clubs, civic organizations, etc… J.G. MILLER's descriptions of groups, organizations and societies are very helpful to understand structures and functions in the socio-historic system.
The following quotes may apply to socio-historial systems. A. RAPOPORT and W.J. HORVATH wrote: “Quasi-biological functions are demonstrable in organizations. They maintain themselves: they sometimes reproduce or metastasize: they respond to stresses; they age and they die. Organizations have discernible anatomies and those at least which transform material inputs (like industries) have physiologies” (quoted by L.von BERTALANFFY from 1959, in 1962, p.18).
In the same quite more than analogic sense, G. VICKERS wrote: “Institutions grow, repair themselves, reproduce themselves, decay, dissolve” (1957, p.4).
Another important aspect of socio-historic systems is their evolutive succession and the progressive emergence of more complex ones. This could be considered the basic frame of the whole of human history.