Thinking in systems: Problems of organization at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Society for General Systems Research, 1950–7
This article analyzes the approach to systems theory promoted by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Kenneth Boulding during their time at the Ford Foundation’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in 1954–5 and in the pages of the 1956 General Systems Yearbook . At the Ford Foundatio...
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| Published in | History of the human sciences |
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| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
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21.04.2025
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| Abstract | This article analyzes the approach to systems theory promoted by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Kenneth Boulding during their time at the Ford Foundation’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in 1954–5 and in the pages of the 1956 General Systems Yearbook . At the Ford Foundation’s Center, social scientists engaged in interdisciplinary research on ‘problems of organization’ that encouraged them to develop theoretical tools that scaled between organisms, institutions, and social organizations. Bertalanffy and Boulding were able to gain financial support from the Center for their ‘general system(s) theory’ that promised to solve these ‘problems of organization’ while unifying the social sciences in the service of the Foundation’s philanthropic mission. Systems thinkers at the Center founded the Society for General Systems Research, an important professional organization for systems theory in the coming decades. In the Society’s General Systems Yearbook , Bertalanffy and Boulding debated the meaning and underlying politics of thinking in systems in language shaped by their time at CASBS. By attending to this instantiation of systems thinking in its institutional and social context, this article attempts to tell a history of system without accepting the universalizing aspirations of its historical subject. |
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| AbstractList | This article analyzes the approach to systems theory promoted by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Kenneth Boulding during their time at the Ford Foundation’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in 1954–5 and in the pages of the 1956 General Systems Yearbook . At the Ford Foundation’s Center, social scientists engaged in interdisciplinary research on ‘problems of organization’ that encouraged them to develop theoretical tools that scaled between organisms, institutions, and social organizations. Bertalanffy and Boulding were able to gain financial support from the Center for their ‘general system(s) theory’ that promised to solve these ‘problems of organization’ while unifying the social sciences in the service of the Foundation’s philanthropic mission. Systems thinkers at the Center founded the Society for General Systems Research, an important professional organization for systems theory in the coming decades. In the Society’s General Systems Yearbook , Bertalanffy and Boulding debated the meaning and underlying politics of thinking in systems in language shaped by their time at CASBS. By attending to this instantiation of systems thinking in its institutional and social context, this article attempts to tell a history of system without accepting the universalizing aspirations of its historical subject. |
| Author | O’Neil, Libby |
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| Cites_doi | 10.1086/727706 10.4159/harvard.9780674065222 10.1353/book.40478 10.7551/mitpress/2260.001.0001 10.1093/bjps/I.2.134 10.1057/9781137034380 10.1126/science.141.3587.1294 10.1086/522810 10.1017/CBO9780511597701 10.1177/0952695105058468 10.1177/0952695119887098 10.1177/030631282012003001 10.2307/j.ctt5hjc78 10.2307/j.ctt1kc6hv4 10.1002/jhbs.21812 10.1017/S0269889710000050 10.1126/science.111.2872.23 10.1002/jhbs.21786 10.1086/675549 10.1179/0308018812Z.00000000018 10.1007/978-3-030-70246-5 10.1038/nrm702 10.1002/bs.3830250102 10.1177/0952695119874009 10.1353/book.40889 |
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Foundations, Development, Applications ident: e_1_3_3_19_1 – start-page: 37 volume-title: Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology year: 2004 ident: e_1_3_3_7_1 – ident: e_1_3_3_35_1 doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21812 – volume-title: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future year: 2020 ident: e_1_3_3_51_1 – ident: e_1_3_3_34_1 doi: 10.1017/S0269889710000050 – ident: e_1_3_3_14_1 doi: 10.1126/science.111.2872.23 – volume-title: The Organizational Revolution: A Study in the Ethics of Economic Organization year: 1953 ident: e_1_3_3_23_1 – volume-title: The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future year: 2011 ident: e_1_3_3_59_1 – volume-title: Nikolaus von Kues year: 1928 ident: e_1_3_3_10_1 – volume-title: General Systems: Yearbook of the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory year: 1956 ident: e_1_3_3_20_1 – volume: 2 start-page: 11 year: 1970 ident: e_1_3_3_61_1 article-title: Committee News publication-title: General Systems Bulletin – volume: 1 start-page: 18 year: 1956 ident: e_1_3_3_40_1 article-title: Definition of a System publication-title: General Systems: Yearbook of the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory – volume-title: Der Biologe year: 1941 ident: e_1_3_3_12_1 – ident: e_1_3_3_43_1 doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21786 – ident: e_1_3_3_45_1 doi: 10.1086/675549 – volume: 11 start-page: 75 issue: 4 year: 1955 ident: e_1_3_3_16_1 article-title: General System Theory publication-title: Main Currents in Modern Thought – volume-title: Unity Through Diversity: A Festschrift for Ludwig Von Bertalanffy year: 1973 ident: e_1_3_3_39_1 – ident: e_1_3_3_41_1 doi: 10.1179/0308018812Z.00000000018 – ident: e_1_3_3_66_1 doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-70246-5 – ident: e_1_3_3_3_1 doi: 10.1038/nrm702 – ident: e_1_3_3_55_1 doi: 10.1002/bs.3830250102 – ident: e_1_3_3_29_1 doi: 10.1177/0952695119874009 – volume-title: The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society ident: e_1_3_3_25_1 – ident: e_1_3_3_46_1 doi: 10.1353/book.40889 – ident: e_1_3_3_67_1 – start-page: 11 volume-title: General Systems: Yearbook of the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory year: 1956 ident: e_1_3_3_24_1 |
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