W. Ross Ashby, psychiatrist and engineer, seems to be the first to use the
term "self-organizing" in 1947. It was taken up by scholars in cybernetics
where it is a fundamental concept. These included Heinz von Foerster,
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There are some major indicative signs that a human society or institution
possesses self-organising properties. These signs consist of statistical
properties shared with self-organizing physical systems (for example Zipf's
law, power law, and the Pareto principle), herd behaviour and groupthink.
Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) introduced self organisation into sociology where
it is renamed “self-referentiality.” Luhman based
his analysis on
communication. Elements of a social system consist of self-producing
communications. In other words, one communication produces a further
communication in response. Human beings are sensors of their environment
and the communicate to other what they observe, enabling society to respond
appropriately. On this basis, a social system possesses the capacity to
reproduce itself as long as there is dynamic communication.
Social communication can be simple transmissoin of information. It can also
take place as a dialectic between social structures and social practices.
Essentially dialectical thinking inovlves postulating conflicting propositions,
labelled a thesis and an antithesis. Throught the dialogue, the conflict is
resolved, resulting in a synthesis of the two coflicting propositions. This is
obviously a more highly cognitive process than mere transmission, so that the
capacity to self organise and adapt is enhanced. Ideas of this nature were put
forward by sociologists such as Christian Fuchs, Anthony Giddens
and
Pierre Bourdieu. In their theories, social structures both enable and constrain
social actions. As a result of the dialectical exchange, social structures are
produced and reproduced by social actions. This is how society constructs
and maintains a dynamic self-organization process. In this way the social
system becomes endlessly creative and re-creative, as it permanently produces
then reproduces actions and structures.
The capacity of a self organising system is able to adapt and survive is
referred to as homeostasis. This
is the property of system to so regulate its
internal environment that it maintains stability and its capacity to engage in
furher self organisation. Walter Bradford Cannon coined the term in 1932. It is
derived from the Greek words homoios (same, like, resembling) and stasis (to
stand, to posture).
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(1961) Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the
Animal and the Machine 2nd ed, MIT Press
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