Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Sociology 107
g le~els.~9 Others develop global principles of classification; a higher level is
always able to do ‘intentionally’ what the lower level performs more or less by
primitive and more reactive devices.70 On closer scrutiny all these levels boil
down to essentially three groups: those systems which consist only of mechanisms
like clocks or springs attached to a frame; organismic systems which are
able to maintain an equilibrium; and systems which show evolution either by
learning within their own lifetime or by selective change between ‘generations’.7I
The functionalist-sociologist always has in mind the second type of system. It
obtains information from the outside world and can adjust its own performance
to reduce the difference between the observed state and the one for which it is
programmed. This is the famous negative feedback of cybernetics guaranteeing
homeostasis.
The main hope of the writers in the third group is that the third type of
systems wil become the model for more advanced social science analysis.
Probably the most vivid description of this trend is given by an author who
speaks of the ‘second cybernetics revolution’ introducing systems which have
positive in addition to negative feedbacks. The negative feedback tries to counteract
deviations in order to maintain an equilibrium. The positive feedback
‘amplifies an insignificant or accidental initial kick and builds up deviation and
divergence from the initial conditi~n’.’~ It is morphogenic because in its own
system it develops new forms and new goals. The author gives as an example a
farmer who builds his house at random in a plain; other farmers join him, build
joint services and finally a town develops. The first step cannot be explained but
the rest are positive (mixed with negative) feedbacks.
It is important to understand why general systems theorists feel that they are
not repeating superficial statements like Spencer’s law of increasing differentiation.
It is actually possible to construct systems which have built-in evolutionary
elements. ‘By continuing to make things which fulfill the functions of
communications and organization we cannot help in the long run but gain
significant opportunities for a clear understanding of these functions themselves’.73
The ideas of general systems analysis might make two kinds of contributions
to sociological thinking. For one, they can ease the logical tensions which
persons feel who wish to study human affairs by methods which can be shared
and checked by other investigators. Notions such as goals and purposes force
themselves upon every observer, but often seem at variance with a ‘scientific’
tradition, however broadly interpreted. This gap is likely to be reduced, according
to this new trend. Every new technological term or biological discovery
broadens the range of respectable sociological notions.74
The second and more important question is whether all this wil direct attention
to new concrete observations and studies. As I mentioned before, the
main contribution which functionalism has made, has been to highlight the
idea of latent functions. By taking the new imagery from evolutionary or morphogenic
systems, it is probable that problems of social change, communications
and influence wil receive greater emphasis. Whether this wil lead to a basically
new insight cannot be foretold.