Self-organization

Self-assembly is in systems theory mainly a form of system development referred to in the run out of the forming, shaping and constraining influences of the elements of the to -organizing system itself. In processes of self-organization higher structural orders are reached, are present without apparent external controlling elements.

In the political use of self-organization refers to the design of the living conditions for flexible, self-determined agreements and similar to the concept of autonomy.

Specifically, the term is used in self-organizing maps.

Properties

Self-organizing systems have usually four properties:

History

The concept of self-organization was coined in the 50s by WA Clark and BG Farley:

" They recognized that operators which are in a closed relationship, somehow stabilize and observed - to know even without a theory of recursive functions or the intrinsic value - the phenomenon that certain closed systems develop stable forms of behavior after a certain time "

In social systems can be observed, such as order - regardless of the actions of an organizer - emerges from the system yourself. This phenomenon is referred to as self-organization. The self-organization is not only popular in the systems theory concept. He comes to importance both in social as well as natural, physical, biological, chemical or economic systems. The concept of soviet democracy and its socio- political approaches of it goes from that required for self-organization maneuver against existing forms of heteronomy must be fought for. According to this approach, people can only take their lives into their own hands if they also control the means of production and non-hierarchical organizations are subject.

The pre-or early history of self-organization covers the period from Greco-Roman antiquity to about the middle of the twentieth century. Even in ancient Greece philosophers speculated about chaos and turbulence as the cause of order. In the philosophy of Aristotle could be called self-organization as an entelechy. The platonic nature -oriented philosophy of Isaac Newton ( Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687 ) assumes in the First Law of Motion, that the matter is completely passive. It is therefore also capable of any self-movement and self-organization. Active causes of material changes are here immaterial " forces of nature ". In the natural sciences of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, however, dominated by materialistic- mechanistic ways of thinking that are reflected, inter alia, in Darwin's theory of evolution. The actual history of the self-organization does not begin until the second half of the 20th century. The relatively late date has several causes, initially prevented the prevailing mechanistic paradigm the necessary thinking, as well as related phenomena have been self- organization ignored. Currently can not yet speak of a theory of self-organizing social systems or empirically tested hypotheses.

The universal applicability of the concept of self- organization owes its wide resonance.

Self-organization in systems theory

Self- organization is the spontaneous appearance of new, more stable, efficient -appearing structures and behavior ( pattern formation ) in open systems. These are systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium, ie exchange energy, matter or information with the outside world. A self-organizing system changes its basic structure as a function of its experience and its environment. The interacting participants ( system components, agents ) act according to simple rules and thereby create order out of chaos, without having to have a vision of the entire development must.

A simple case of (physical ) self-organization is, for example, the onset of convection when heating liquids ( Bénard experiment).

The concept of self-organization can be found in various scientific fields such as chemistry, biology ( Looking folding and assembly of proteins, helix formation of DNA, ...), sociology, etc.

Criteria

To speak of self-organization, the following criteria must be met (not independent ):