STABILITY (Struggle for)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3163 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences |
By its own nature, any system tends to remain within a defined stability boundary, which ensures its homeostasis and permanence, as long as no basic change in its environment throws it forcefully out of its domain of attraction.
However, as noted by C. HOLLING, human systems (which are increasingly destabilizing natural ones) must also increasingly: “… learn to live with disturbance, live with variability and live with uncertainties” (1976, p.91). This is the price to pay for survival.
We must accept that we are moving away from homeostatic stability and that the more we move away from it, the more potentially dangerous the situation of our systems, and the more difficult to turn back toward “classical” stability.
The struggle for stability implies for our dissipative and emergent systems, the search for a higher level stability, maintaining resilience by creating the possibility to switch, when needed, from one domain of attraction to another, within a blown up global stability domain.
A typical case where such ideas should be applied is the necessity to design alternative strategies in our fight against agricultural or pathological pests.