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Living systems theory and social entropy theory
Author(s) -
Bailey Kenneth D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
systems research and behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 1092-7026
DOI - 10.1002/sres.728
Subject(s) - miller , entropy (arrow of time) , social system , scholarship , systems theory , mathematical economics , computer science , social theory , set (abstract data type) , sociology , epistemology , mathematics , economics , artificial intelligence , social science , physics , ecology , philosophy , quantum mechanics , biology , programming language , economic growth
Although Living Systems Theory (LST) has been widely recognized for its major contributions to scholarship in general and systems theory in particular, the full extent of its contribution has never been explicitly presented. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to discuss LST, and then to relate it to Social Entropy Theory (SET). The paper first presents 20 major contributions of LST. This is not an exhaustive list, but is simply designed to present simultaneously the wide range of contributions made by Miller, some of which have not been sufficiently recognized nor appreciated. Miller's contributions focused upon the actions of concrete components in fulfilling the critical subsystems processes required by systems at each level. He placed less emphasis on the key systems variables such as population and technology. Fortunately, Social Entropy Theory has explicated a set of key variables. The second part of the paper discusses Social Entropy Theory, and shows how it complements and extends LST. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.