Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- 1 Diversity and Continuity in Social Theory
- 2 Culture: the Socialisation of Meaning
- 3 Nature: Conditions and Constraints
- 4 Systemic Processes: Regulation and Control
- 5 Space-Time: Forms and Practices
- 6 Social Structure: Institutions and Relations
- 7 Social Action: Interpersonal and Collective
- 8 Subjects: Socialised Minds
- 9 Social Development: Differentiation and Change
- 10 Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index
4 - Systemic Processes: Regulation and Control
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- 1 Diversity and Continuity in Social Theory
- 2 Culture: the Socialisation of Meaning
- 3 Nature: Conditions and Constraints
- 4 Systemic Processes: Regulation and Control
- 5 Space-Time: Forms and Practices
- 6 Social Structure: Institutions and Relations
- 7 Social Action: Interpersonal and Collective
- 8 Subjects: Socialised Minds
- 9 Social Development: Differentiation and Change
- 10 Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Many of the earliest attempts to conceptualise social phenomena invoked ideas of what would now be regarded as ‘system’ thinking. Theorists variously stressed the holistic, organic, or systemic properties of socially organised populations. These systemic ideas promised a dynamic rather than a static approach to social phenomena. Indeed, Comte (1851–4: vol. 2, 1 ff) made the distinction between ‘statics’ and ‘dynamics’ the central feature of his new science of sociology. Despite the claims of some social theorists, the holistic properties of societies, as I show in Chapters 6 and 7, are real and irreducible to the individual acts from which they result. In this chapter I will look at what is added to the sociological viewpoint by using the idea that social phenomena can be conceptualised as social systems.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Conceptualising the Social WorldPrinciples of Sociological Analysis, pp. 86 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011