Kybernetes: Volume 44 Issue 6/7

A cybernetic view on learning curves and energy policy

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that cybernetic theory explains learning curves and sets the curves as legitimate and efficient tools for a pro-active energy…

Requisite variety, autopoiesis, and self-organization

Autopoiesis is a concept originally used to define living systems. However, no measure for autopoiesis has been proposed so far. Moreover, how can we build systems with a higher…

Good social cybernetics is a must in policy processes

Illustrate supported by Beer’s Viable System Model and four vignettes the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes…

Navigating through an “ecological desert and a sociological hell”: A cyber-systemic governance approach for the Anthropocene

The governance of the relationship between humans and the biophysical world has been based on a paradigm characterized by dualistic thinking and scientism. This has led to the…

Community-based research: enabling civil society’s self-organisation

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contribution of community-based research to the self-organisation of Civil Society and in particular to community engagement, policy…

Towards a non-trivializing education

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of education that is non-reproductive; that is, productive of non-trivial machines. The reason for this is the postulate that…

Stafford Beer and the legacy of Cybersyn: seeing around corners

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the legacy of Stafford Beer and the continuing implications of his work on Cybersyn and the models and tools he used and explored during…

Organizing for sustainability: a cybernetic concept for sustainable renewal

The purpose of this paper is to propose a holistic structural framework for a sustainable renewal that embraces all relevant contexts – individual, organizational, local-regional…

Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice

While there is some agreement on the usefulness of systems and complexity approaches to tackle the sustainability challenges facing the organisations and governments in the…

Organizing for Lean: autonomy, recursion and cohesion

The purpose of this paper is to address the organizational implications of transformative Lean Deployment initiatives, leveraging the Viable System Model to understand what is…

Integrated sustainability management for organizations

The purpose of this paper is to propose the Viable System Model (VSM) as an effective model to base the analysis of organizational sustainability (long-term viability). It is…

Rethinking algorithmic regulation

The history of cybernetics holds important lessons for how we approach present-day problems in such areas as algorithmic regulation and big data. The purpose of this paper is to…

Performance for viability: complexity and variety management

It is natural for interacting organisational actors and environmental agents to experience complexity asymmetries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the balancing of these…

Sharing business partner behavior

The new concept of business partner behavior sharing practice is addressed from three perspectives: technical/technological, legal and ethical/moral with the aim to elaborate its…

Proposing a basic methodology for developing balanced scorecard by system dynamics approach

Successful future has inspired organizations to measure long-term and non-financial measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs). Kaplan and Norton proposed balanced…

The influence of moral sensitivity on organizational cooperation

The purpose of this paper is to present how to model moral sensitivity and emotions in organizational setting by using the SocLab formal framework. SocLab is a platform for the…

Decentralization and heterogeneity in complex adaptive systems

Following a bacterial-based modeling approach, the authors want to model and analyze the impact of both decentralization and heterogeneity on group behavior and collective…

Testing one developed model by the parametric control theory methods

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an effectiveness of applying a number of the new methods, proposed in the parametric control theory for testing macroeconomic models…

Utility-based models and decision making problems for selected network processes

The concept of utility was the first time applied in Economics. The purpose of this paper is to report its usefulness for the decision making in complex technological systems, in…

Collective intelligence: analysis and modelling

– The purpose of this paper is to focus on the underpinning dynamics that explain collective intelligence.

Towards a simple dynamical model of citizens’ perception

The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimal dynamic two-dimensional map for the relation between citizens’ perception of quality of life (y) and their perception of the city…

The application of organizational cybernetics and ICT to collective discussion of complex issues

The purpose of this paper is to expose how organizational cybernetics (OC)-related concepts could be used in combination with information and communication technologies (ICT) to…

The cybernetics of self-organisation