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Open system (systems theory)
open-in-new
<h2 id="social-sciences">Social sciences</h2> <p>In the <a href="/facts/Social_sciences/hAbm1xtD">social sciences</a> an open system is a process that exchanges material, energy, people, capital and information with its environment. French/Greek philosopher <a href="/facts/Kostas_Axelos/6mHpcXam">Kostas Axelos</a> argued that seeing the <a href="/facts/World-systems_theory/b0BKN2E9"> "world system"</a> as inherently open (though unified) would solve many of the problems in the social sciences, including that of <a href="/facts/Praxis_intervention/JKKszLzw">praxis</a> (the relation of knowledge to practice), so that various social scientific disciplines would work together rather than create monopolies whereby the world appears only sociological, political, historical, or psychological. Axelos argues that theorizing a closed system contributes to <i>making</i> it closed, and is thus a conservative approach.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>[<i>need quotation to verify</i>] The <a href="/facts/Louis_Althusser/U0KTh59v">Althusserian</a> concept of <a href="/facts/Overdetermination/qlbQbYGB">overdetermination</a> (drawing on Sigmund Freud) posits that there are always multiple causes in every event.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p><a href="/facts/David_Harvey_(geographer)/nIvSSkIV">David Harvey</a> uses this to argue that when systems such as <a href="/facts/Capitalism/FbPc6TTw">capitalism</a> enter a phase of crisis, it can happen through one of a number of elements, such as gender roles, the relation to nature/the environment, or crises in accumulation.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Looking at the crisis in accumulation, Harvey argues that phenomena such as <a href="/facts/Foreign_direct_investment/6FC93H4n">foreign direct investment</a>, <a href="/facts/Privatization/TAtreKqK">privatization</a> of state-owned resources, and <a href="/facts/Accumulation_by_dispossession/J1f0bBgM">accumulation by dispossession</a> act as necessary outlets when capital has overaccumulated too much in private hands and cannot circulate effectively in the marketplace. He cites the forcible displacement of Mexican and Indian peasants since the 1970s and the Asian and South-East Asian financial crisis of 1997–8, involving "hedge fund raising" of national currencies, as examples of this.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p><a href="/facts/Structural_functionalism/4GGGknC3">Structural functionalists</a> such as <a href="/facts/Talcott_Parsons/C8w443Cg">Talcott Parsons</a> and neofunctionalists such as <a href="/facts/Niklas_Luhmann/4rqPYrPH">Niklas Luhmann</a> have incorporated system theory to describe society and its components. </p><p>The <a href="/facts/Sociology_of_religion/SsH38KbW">sociology of religion</a> finds both open and closed systems within the field of <a href="/facts/Religion/cxntrD0R">religion</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="thermodynamics">Thermodynamics</h2> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/Thermodynamic_system/VUr0kpWu">Thermodynamic system § Open system</a>, and <a href="/facts/Thermodynamics/q4hIx3yP">Thermodynamics § System models</a></p> <h2 id="systems-engineering">Systems engineering</h2> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/Systems_engineering/gFwRmkDp">Systems engineering</a>, <a href="/facts/Signal_processing/Npaja6zb">Signal processing</a>, <a href="/facts/Control_theory/aIuERpn6">Control theory</a>, and <a href="/facts/Black_box/hJeAGnIz">Black box</a></p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Business_process/fYH2eREc">Business process</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Complex_system/eGG3B1nn">Complex system</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Dynamical_system/782gREl5">Dynamical system</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Glossary_of_systems_theory/Bw4bep23">Glossary of systems theory</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Ludwig_von_Bertalanffy/3R2540Vt">Ludwig von Bertalanffy</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Maximum_power_principle/sgbyDSys">Maximum power principle</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Non-equilibrium_thermodynamics/SvcDqcqm">Non-equilibrium thermodynamics</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Open_system_(computing)/tVwr9W6r">Open system (computing)</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Open_System_Environment_Reference_Model/a9fIS5ez">Open System Environment Reference Model</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Openness/wSsUForr">Openness</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Phantom_loop/MI3KPDcf">Phantom loop</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Thermodynamic_system/VUr0kpWu">Thermodynamic system</a></li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Khalil, E.L. (1995). Nonlinear thermodynamics and social science modeling: fad cycles, cultural development and identificational slips. <i>The American Journal of Economics and Sociology</i>, Vol. 54, Issue 4, pp. 423–438.</li> <li>Weber, B.H. (1989). Ethical Implications Of The Interface Of Natural And Artificial Systems. <i>Delicate Balance: Technics, Culture and Consequences</i>: Conference Proceedings for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Asc/OPEN_SYSTE.html">OPEN SYSTEM</a>, <a href="/facts/Principia_Cybernetica/L8orQA1g">Principia Cybernetica</a> Web, 2007.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Luhmann, Niklas. Social Systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995; pp. 6-7 <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Glossary Archived 2007-08-17 at the Wayback Machine Maxwell Demon, 1998. <a href="http://www.maxwellian.demon.co.uk/faq/glossary.html" target="_blank">http://www.maxwellian.demon.co.uk/faq/glossary.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Axelos, K. ([2006] 1984). "The World: Being Becoming Totality," from Systematique ouverte (Trans. Gerald Moore, Les Editions de Minuit: Paris). Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 24, 643-651. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Althusser, L. ([2005] 1969). For Marx. London: Verso Books, Ch. 3: "Contradiction and Overdetermination," [1]. <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm" target="_blank">https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>RSA Animate - David Harvey, The Crises of Capitalism: [2]. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26o22Y33h9s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26o22Y33h9s</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Harvey, D. (2005). The New Imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press USA, Ch. 3: "Accumulation by Dispossession," 137-182. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Henderson, Ian H.; Oegema, Gerbern S.; Parks Ricker, Sara, eds. (2006). The Changing Face of Judaism, Christianity, and Other Greco-Roman Religions in Antiquity. Volume 2 of Studien zu den Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus. p. 21. ISBN 9783579053615. Retrieved 11 June 2021. The example of setting up new cults demonstrates how widely spread religious competence is in this open system [...]. <a href="9783579053615" target="_blank">9783579053615</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Rich, John Martin (1971). Humanistic Foundations of Education. C. A. Jones Publishing Company. p. 31. Retrieved 11 June 2021. No matter how definitive the evidence produced to the contrary, religionists deny that it in any way falsifies their knowledge-claims. Religion is not an open system. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hP4DAAAAMAAJ" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=hP4DAAAAMAAJ</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>