Abstract
Social science research is confronted with some serious basic problems resulting from specific characteristics of social systems. These characteristics are complexity, change, and reflexivity. The resulting problems culminate in the field of modelling large systems on a relatively low level of aggregation. The paper points out the above mentioned characteristics of social systems and discusses some perspectives of coming nearer to a solution of the resulting problems. Of high logical priority is the answer to the question whether social systems are desciribable at all. In answering this question, a description technology is developed labelled ‘real-structure modelling’.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Albertin, L., and N. Müller (1981)(Eds.). Umfassende Modellierung regionaler Systeme - Probleme, Ansätze, Praxisbezug - TÜV, Köln.
Boulding, E. (1979). Deep structures and sociological analysis: Some reflections. Amer. Sociologist 14, 70–74
Crenson, M.A. (1971). The Un-politics of Air Pollution. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore.
Dye, T.R. (1976). Who’s Running America? Institutional Leadership in the United States. N.J.: Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Klir, G. (1977). Pattern discovery in activity arrays. In E.W. Hartnett (Ed.), Systems, Approaches, Theories, Applications, Reidel, Dordrecht.
van Lawick-Goodall, J. (1971). In the Shadow of Man. Hougton-Mifflin, Boston.
Lenski, G. (1973). Macht und Privileg: Eine Theorie der sozialen Schichtung. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main.
Mesarović, M., and Y. Takahara (1975). General Systems Theory - mathematical foundations -. Academic Press, New York.
Müller, N. (1979). Empirische Herrschaftstheorie - Zur Beziehung zwischen Kontext-differenzierung, politischer Herrschaft und politischer Sozialisation Westdt. Verlag, Opladen.
Müller, N. (1979a). Hierarchic-sequential decomposition of a regional system model the approach. PAIS 2, 45–56.
Müller, N. (1981). Hierarchic-sequential decomposition - a comprehensive approach for real-structure modelling of social systems. In Cellier (Ed.), Progress in Modelling and Simulation, Academic Press, New York.
Müller, N., K.-P. Schön, and B. Thober (1982). Projekt “Hierarchisch-sequentielle Dekomposition eines regionalen Systemmodells für den Raum Melle” ( HSDMEL - Abschlußbericht ), Osnabrück.
Pichler, F. (1981). Dekomposition komplexer Systeme aus der Sicht der Allgemeinen Systemlehre. In Albertin/Müller (Eds.), Umfassende Modellierung regionaler Systeme - Probleme, Ansätze, Praxisbezug -, TÜV, Köln.
Rapoport, A. (1980)- The impact of network structure on diffusion processes. Paper delivered at the workshop “Ausbreitungsprozesse in sozialen Netzen”, 20.03.-22.03.1980, Bad Homburg.
Schön, K.-P. (1981). Real structure modelling of regional development. Proceedings of the international conference on policy analysis and information systems. Taipeh, Taiwan.
Service, E.R. (1977). Ursprünge des Staates und der Zivilisation - Der Prozess der kulturellen Evolution Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main.
Starbuck, W.H., and J.M. Dutton (1972). Computer simulation as a tool for descriptive behavioral science. International Inst, of Management, paper I/72 - 10, Berlin.
Sydow, A. (1981). Hierarchisierung und Dekomposition komplexer Modelle - Anwendung auf volkswirtschaftliche Planungssysteme. In Albertin/Müller (Eds.), Umfassende Modellierung regionaler Systeme - Probleme, Ansätze, Praxisbezug -, TÜV, Köln.
Thober, B. (1980). Real structure modelling in the social sciences - a special approach for regional systems -. Paper delivered at SIMU’80, June 1980. Interlaken.
Thober, B. (1981). Realstrukturmodellierung und Modulbankkonzept - Ergebnisse und Probleme In Albertin/Müller (Eds.), Umfassende Modellierung regionaler Systeme - Probleme, Ansätze, Praxisbezug -, TÜV, Köln.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1983 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Müller, N. (1983). Real Structure Modelling: Towards A Valid Approach for Social Systems Analysis. In: Wedde, H. (eds) Adequate Modeling of Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69208-6_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69208-6_45
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-12567-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69208-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive