Table of Contents

Introduction - Felix Geyer and Johannes van der Zouwen
PART ONE: EXPERIENCES WITH THE STEERING OF PARTICULAR SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Actors, Models, and Limits to Societal Self-Steering - Thomas Baumgartner
The Family - Lauren Langman
A ′Sociocybernetic′ Approach to Theory and Policy
Mental Health Service Delivery Systems in the United States - Ronald W Manderscheid
The Control of Interaction Processes in Survey Interviews - Johannes van der Zouwen, Wil Dijkstra and Joop van de Bovenkamp
Improvement of (self-)Steering Through Support Systems - Jan H G Klabbers
PART TWO: PLANNING, HIERARCHY AND COMPETENCE
The Planning Paradox - Michael Masuch
Notes on the Concept of Self-Steering - Arvid Aulin
Preprocessing - James R Beniger and Clifford I Nass
Neglected Component of Sociocybernetics
Social Change and the Design of Inquiry - Gerard De Zeeuw
PART THREE: THE WIDER CONTEXT: EVOLUTION, AUTOPOIESIS AND DIALOGUE
Systems and Societies - Ervin Laszlo
The Basic Cybernetics of Social Evolution
The Autopoiesis of Social Systems - Niklas Luhmann
The Third Position -- Beyond Artificial and Autopoietic Reduction - Stein Braten
Epilogue - Johannes van der Zouwen and Felix Geyer

Reviews

`Converts to this book′s ideas will find here a major contribution towards the dissolution of disabling `either--or′ stances and sceptics will gain the opportunity to criticize from an informed as opposed to a half--baked understanding of the issues involved.′ -- British Journal of Social Work, Vol.17, 1987. `This book will be helpful to anyone who wants to learn about the content and scope of the ′new cybernetics′... The book is useful for the way it displays both the strengths and weaknesses of an innovative approach to the analysis of social systems.′ -- Contemporary Sociology