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A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Sociology



A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Sociology

Theory of Complex Self-organizing Systems

Traditional European philosophy has favored theories in which causality is the dominant explanatory principle: things happen because someone? or by extension something? makes them happen. It is clear that this reflects a fantasy? probably particularly masculinist? of power over life? the world? and especially other humans (desirable females? dangerous males in the dominant view). But causality has rarely provided adequate accounts of most systems because they consist of many interacting parts and the behavior of the system as a whole? and often of the individual parts? is an complex aggregation of the interactions of all the parts -- and no part controls the whole? or can even control another part outside the influence of the rest of the system. Such systems are said to be 'self-organizing' and the behavior of aggregates of components is said to be 'emergent' (Goldman? 2004? 84-103). In these systems? which certainly include living organisms? ecosystems? and social or ecosocial systems? there are no isolated controlling agencies. There is no all-powerful father? boss? or king. There are no control hierarchies among components: no generals? captains? and soldiers. Self-organizing systems are inherently democratic? and eurocultural philosophies basically are not.

The modern theory of self-organization phenomena has several roots: cybernetics? which did look for control hierarchies? but quickly saw more complex behavior; organismic biology? especially the early traditions of "holism" that opposed the "reductionism" of physics; ecosystem theory; the autopoesis theory of Varela and Maturana; auto-catalytic and cross-catalytic reaction theory in chemistry; mathematical ecology; cellular automata theory; thermodynamics and statistical physics of irreversible processes; and the mathematics and physics of non-linear equations (Goldman? 2004? 84-103).

For an overview in relation to social dynamics? see: Lemke? Textual Politics? chapter 6; Lemke? Cultural Dynamics article; and Lemke? Downward Causation article. References in these works cite the major sources of the theory. Key names and associations are:

Stuart Kauffman -- cellular automata? evolutionary and developmental biology

Stanley Salthe -- developmental and evolutionary biology? origins of life? hierarchical levels in complex system

Ilya Prigogine -- thermodynamics and statistical physics of irreversible process; origins of complexity

Gregory Bateson -- cybernetic models of ecosocial interactions? meta-learning

Francisco Varela and Umberto Maturana -- autopoetic systems theory

Howard Odum -- systems ecology

H. Ross Ashby -- cybernetics

Also: Norbert Wiener? J. Doyne Farmer? H. Poincare? L. van Bertalanffy? R. Thom? N. Luhmann

General Social Theory

All events in an ecosocial system take place in a sociological and cultural context as well as an ecological context. A general theory of social relations is a necessary part of an ecosocial-semiotic theory (Goldman? 2006? 1047-58). No adequate theory exists? primarily because it is not possible to construct such a theory from inside the system: all social theorists are enmeshed in the social relations they describe; we cannot escape being part of a gender system? a class system? a specific cultural-historical epoch? etc. But some theories are more useful than others (see ...