Emergence, Self-Organization, and Social Interaction: Arousal-Dependent Structure in Social Systems

Smith, Thomas S.; Stevens, Gregory T.

doi:10.2307/201903

Cited by 37 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Like those children, the faculty members who are the subjects of this article merged both their biological, as Maturena and Varela (1980) describe in their thesis on autopoiesis, and social needs through the manifestation of self-organizing. As human interaction is a "foundation of social life," Smith and Stevens (1996) argue that self-organizing is a direct product of social activity that takes place within the life of an organization. Organizations typically respond to needs and desires of employees, or in this case of the faculty, but organizational responses tend to be guided by the values of the institution, or the corporate epistemology (Von Krogh, Roos, & Slocum, 1994), rather than by the organic impulses of the institutions' employees.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organizing: From Child’s Play to An Effective Wellness Program

2015

IJKSS

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This article examines the exercise practices of a group of faculty members at a regional university who for a decade have participated in their own racquetball league. These professors self-organized their exercise regimen and during the period of their participation have found significant benefits beyond the physical benefits, as a result. Through the production of reflective narratives focused on the impact of their racquetball participation, their self-reported data show two broad themes and numerous sub-themes that emerge from their exercise experience. They reveal significant health benefits, and they express more deeply the benefits of the positive social interaction that impacts many aspects of their personal and professional lives. The self-reported data from six players was requested and collected during a 6-week period. Faculty members were asked to write freely on the self-organizational aspects of their racquetball participation as well as their perceived benefits of this particular exercise. A qualitative textual analysis was applied to these narratives after they were coded for anonymity. Subsequent conclusions were drawn from the analyses of the content of each narrative.

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Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organizing: From Child’s Play to An Effective Wellness Program

2015

IJKSS

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“…Arthur 1999; Foley Duncan 2003; Rihani 2002; Simpson 2000), sociology (e.g. Smith and Stevens 1996), climatology (e.g. Rind 1999), neuroscience (e.g.…”

Section: Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…16 16 Smith and Stevens (1996) demonstrate the explanatory potential of just such an expansive multi‐scalar analysis. By integrating cognitive science, developmental psychology and sociology, this fascinating work explores the causal linkages between neuro‐chemical pathways, the formation of infant–parent bonds and community‐level processes of socialisation, without arbitrarily privileging one organisational scale over another. …”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

“…While some social theory has been informed by the concepts of complex systems theory (e.g. Foley 2003; Lansing 2003; Rihani 2002; Saperstein 1995; Simpson 2000; Smith and Stevens 1996), it appears that little explicit engagement with these ideas has been made by geographers, though Nathan Sayre’s superb (2005) essay offers a promising start.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scale, causality, complexity and emergence: rethinking scale’s ontological significance

Chapura

2009

Trans Inst British Geog

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Scale remains a pivotal yet highly contentious concept in geography. I survey the lively discussions engaged in recently by many critical/radical geographers regarding the theoretical status of scale. While these discussions have been intellectually fruitful, I argue that much more needs to be said. Drawing from complex systems theory, I argue that scale should be understood as an ontological category essential to understanding causality. Revalorising Aristotle’s four categories of cause – formal, final, material and efficient – from two centuries of positivist thinking facilitates this endeavour. Research on the relationship between university‐based poultry scientists and the poultry industry illustrates the explanatory potential of poly‐scalar analysis.

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“…However, sociologist Thomas Smith (1992Smith & Stevens, 1996) has taken up this challenge by using self-organization theory to integrate psychological and biological research into a sociological theory of the development of self and society, which acts as his foundation for uniting Weberian and Durkheimian social theory in what he refers to as "nonequilibrium functionalism" (1992, p. 243). Smith argues that the self evolves as a self-organizing system in a sociobiologically based tension between two reflexive somatic states, generated and maintained by the opiod and noradrenergic hormone systems.…”

Section: Powerlessness and The Prerational Affinity For Ecological Comentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration of the “Reflex” in Reflexive Modernity

Christopher

1999

Organization & Environment

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An increasingly larger portion of the environmental movement claims that environmental destruction can only be stopped when our concern about environmental destruction is coupled with an "ecological consciousness," that is, a wholistic understanding of the relationship between self, society, and nature. The author offers three interconnected theses to explain the increasing affinity for ecological consciousness: (a) Ecological consciousness, as opposed to traditional environmental consciousness, has prerational social causes that challenge modern rationality and, as such, is less reliant on knowledge and experience of environmental degradation for its spread; (b) the prerational dimension of social order links our affective responses and our most basic ontological presuppositions into a cognitive framework in which material and ideal interests are perceived as such; and (c) the experience of powerlessness can, under the right conditions, lead to a change in selfunderstanding such that individuals are left with an affinity for ecological consciousness.

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Emergence, Self-Organization, and Social Interaction: Arousal-Dependent Structure in Social Systems

Cited by 37 publications

References 36 publications

Self-Organizing: From Child’s Play to An Effective Wellness Program

Self-Organizing: From Child’s Play to An Effective Wellness Program

Scale, causality, complexity and emergence: rethinking scale’s ontological significance

An Exploration of the “Reflex” in Reflexive Modernity

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