Self-organizing system

From Geography

The concept of self-organization is originated from the General Systems Theory and cybernetics and was introduced by Ashby in 1947. Self-organizing systems were used by Niklas Luhmann in his theorizing about society. Besides geography, the concept is used in thermodynamics, neurophysiology and since Luhmann’s introduction more widely by scientists (Leydesdorff, 1993). Self-organizing systems have been discovered in nature in the living and non-living world, in man-made systems and the world of ideas (Banzhaf, n.d.).

Meaning of organization

Organization is a difficult concept to define, because of the multiplicity of its meanings. However the definition is hard to define, we could say that the theory of organization can be combined with the theory of functions when there is more than one variable: when the entities A and B and that their relation becomes conditional on the value of C, we can say that organization is present. So, organization is a form of conditionality (regularity in behaviour). Although systems exist of several parts (A, B and C), they are analysed as a whole. Whether an organization is good depends on how it is approached. For example, engineers will find bad organizations in electronic hardware and will search for good organization of it. On the other hand, biologists study how animal species have survived, so they see only necessarily good organizations. In general we could say that most organizations are bad ones. The good ones have to be sought for and the meaning of ‘good’ has to be clearly defined for each situation (Ashby, 1962).

Meaning of self-organizing systems

Self-organizing systems are capable of changing their internal structure and function. When they do so, this is a response to external circumstances. Their response can occur in a variety of ways. In this way their structure is stabilized. Self-organizing systems are open, dynamic, non-deterministic and possess a hierarchy of structural and functional levels. They do not have a certain purpose in their behaviour but their own existence.

A system that is self-organizing can be interpreted in two ways. The first meaning is that a system starts with separate parts, where every part behaves independent of other parts. Then the system changes, because the separate parts are forming connections. In other words, the parts are ‘joined’ and are called self-connecting. This kind of system changes from unorganized to organized. The second meaning of self-organizing systems is related to the first one in the sense that an organized system is not always a good system. So, self-organizing can also mean the changing from a bad organisation to a good one (Ashby, 1962).

Example of self-organizing systems

Human being can be seen as self-organizing systems. The systems determines what we can see, hear, eat and how we communicate. The communication system is both internal and external. Because of the system we see with our eyes and not, for example, with our ears. Every cell in our body has its own function and they all contain specific genetic information. Their function is self-organized.

References

Ashby, W.R. (1962). Principles of the self-organizing system [Electronic version]. Accessed on 25 October 2012.

Banzhaf, W. (n.d.). Self-organizing systems [Electronic version]. Accessed on 26 October 2012.

Leydesdorff, L. (1993). Is society a Self-Organizing system? [Electronic version]. Accessed on 25 October 2012.

Contributors

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