Sociocybernetics: tensions between complex systems, social systems and complexity sciences

Abstract

This paper present a short introductory review of “sociocybernetics” —the exploration of social problems and phenomena as social systems— as a field where different tensions between traditions and programs (both within and from outside of sociology) coexist. This essay consists of 3 parts: first the background and origins of sociocybernetics are introduced; the second part presents two particular sociocybernetic programs: Rolando Garcia’s Theory of Complex Systems (TSC for its Spanish acronyms) and Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Social Systems (TSS); in the third part some convergences and divergences are discussed between what “complexity” means for this approach and these programs, and the so-call "complexity sciences".