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7.1.1 Social Systems Engineering and Architecture
Author(s) -
Maier Mark W.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1995.tb01855.x
Subject(s) - social engineering (security) , architecture , politics , social system , system of systems engineering , computer science , systems science , data science , engineering ethics , management science , engineering , systems design , artificial intelligence , political science , software engineering , computer security , history , law , archaeology
Although the methods of systems engineering were developed to build complex technological systems, many practitioners feel they can be equally well applied to social and political processes and problems. This desire to rationalize social systems, and to do so through the application of the principles of science and engineering, is not new. It clearly dates back at least 200 years to the French Revolution. Unfortunately, the history of these attempts is mixed. This paper surveys the engineering approach to human systems and examines general criticisms of such an approach. We propose a classification of problem types and suggest variants of the system approach that may be better suited to particular classes of social system problem. Many of these issues, and the resulting classifications, can be seen in the long history of civil architecture and its attempts to deal with the interaction of engineering and society.