Cybernetics for the Social Sciences

follow url Contents Cybernetics for the Social Sciences Abstract Keywords Prolegomena Part 1 About This Publication and a First Look at Cybernetics 1 The Aim 2 What Is Cybernetics? 3 How the Publication Is Structured Part 2 A Life in Cybernetics 1 Encountering Cybernetics 2 Becoming a Cybernetician 3 Growing Up 4 Concluding Comments Part 3 The Story of Cybernetics 1 Introduction – Beginnings 2 Later Years – Decline and Renewal 3 Cybernetic Explanation 4 Gordon Pask’s Conversation Theory Part 4 Some Key Concepts of Cybernetics Part 5 On Messages 1 Introduction 2 Communication as Coding 3 Communication as Conversation 4 Human–Machine Interaction 5 Some Current Developments 6 Concluding Comments Part 6 Cybernetics and the Integration of the Disciplines 1 Introduction 2 Cybernetic Epistemology 3 The First Order Study of Natural Systems 4 Approaches to the Study of Social Systems 5 Cybernetics and the Arts, Humanities, and Vocational Disciplines 6 Cybernetics and Philosophy Part 7 In Defence of Pure Cybernetics 1 The Problem 2 Explanatory Schemas in Cybernetics 3 Obscuring Cybernetics 4 Enriching Cybernetics 5 Cybernetics and the Communication Problem Part 8 Sociocybernetic Understandings of Consciousness 1 Introduction 2 Use of the Term ‘Consciousness’ 3 Reflexive Cosmogony and Process Metaphysics 4 Cybernetic Models of Learning in Conscious Systems 5 Generalising the Typist Model 6 Creating and Maintaining Healthy Communities Part 9 Reflections on the Sociocybernetics of Social Networks 1 Introduction 2 Network Science 3 What Is ‘Social’ about a Social Network? 4 The Forms That Social Networks May Take 5 What Is the Distinction between a ‘Social Network’ and a ‘Social System’? 6 A Brief Critique of ‘Connectivism’ and ‘Actor-Network Theory’ 7 Concluding Comments: The ‘Global Conversation’ Part 10 Some Sociocybernetic Understanding of Possible World Futures 1 Introduction 2 Being Holistic about Global Problems 3 First Order Problems 4 Second Order Problems 5 Looking for Solutions 6 Concluding Comments Part 11 Sociocybernetic Understandings of Culture 1 Introduction 2 Conceptions and Definitions of ‘Culture’ 3 Culture and Personality 4 Cultural Transmissions and Transformations 5 Opening up Inter-Cultural Conversations Part 12 Summing up and What Comes Next 1 Introduction 2 What Next? 3 Exhortations 4 Values, Attitudes, Ethics Acknowledgements References