Emergence: A Systems Theory’s Challenge to Ethics

The paper reconstructs Niklas Luhmann’s diagnosis of the dysfunctional character of moral communication in the modern society by emphasizing the emergent character of today’s moral problems. In the systems-theoretic literature, emergence means the irreducibility of the properties of the whole to the characteristics of its parts. Two arguments have been advanced. First, the dysfunctional character of moral communication has been traced back to the emergent character of many moral problems. Moral communication has thus been shown to be not inherently dysfunctional, but rather needful of semantic forms that take account of the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems. Second, these properties highlight the moral aspect of the precariousness of system–environment relations as seen by Luhmann. As a moral problem, this precariousness can be resolved through greater sensitivity of social systems to their environment, social and natural alike. Accordingly, the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems can be captured by recasting the concept of responsibility as the individual-level or organizational-level projection of the environmental sensitivity of these systems.     

The Commercialization of the Nonprofit Sector: A General Systems Theory Perspective

A prominent theme in the modern multidisciplinary nonprofit studies is that commercial activities of nonprofit organizations impair the ability of these organizations to deliver their missions. The present research note argues that this criticism of nonprofit commercialization is based on what von Bertalanffy designated as the ??mechanistic?? view of the nonprofit sector. The research note utilizes von Bertalanffy??s general systems theory to argue that nonprofit organizations are open systems maintaining themselves in an environment in which the supply of critical resources is insecure. Accordingly, commercial activities must be seen as the self-regulatory mechanism that enables, rather than hinders, nonprofit organizations to deliver their missions in hostile environments, as they often are today.     

Toward a Critical Systems Perspective on the Nonprofit Sector

Economists traditionally explain the nonprofit sector in terms of its market failure-correcting role. This explanation is generally recognized as being too narrow and unable to take due account of the nonprofit sector??s diversity. To fill this gap, this paper outlines a critical systems perspective on the role of the nonprofit sector. Building on the heterodox institutionalist theory, the paper argues that for-profit firms have an inherent tendency to marginalize a number of societally relevant activities. The role of the nonprofit sector is to internalize these activities and thus span the boundary between the for-profit sector and the broader society. Concurrently, the nonprofit sector may exhibit its own marginalization problems arising from its growing managerialism, professionalization and other by-products of neoliberalism. These problems constrain the ability of the nonprofit sector to internalize societally relevant activities but are potentially detectable by the sector??s internal boundary critique.     

Specific structural features of LnZrOx (Ln: La, Sm) mixed oxides prepared by different methods

LnZrOx(Ln: La, Sm) mixed oxides of Ln: Zr = 1 were prepared by different methods(complex polymerized method, sorption of cations on starch from aqueous salt solution and conventional co-precipitation with additional redispersion of precipitate by ultra sound) and calcined at 700–1300 °C. Their specific structural features and changes were studied and discussed. Various characterization methods were used such as X-ray diffraction,Electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis spectroscopy, X-Ray absorption fine structure and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.The formation of pyrochlore structure occurred at 1100–1300 °C from fluorite-like pseudocubic phase ZrO_2 regardless the method of preparation. This phase had a block-like structure consisting of ZrO_2 nanocrystals stabilized by Ln cations and residual anions such as hydroxyls and carbonates. The desorption of such anions with heating already started at 900 °C and lead to local changes of Zr cations coordination to octahedral and to the formation of pyrochlore nanodomains inclusions within fluorite-like phase. The increased cation mobility and further elimination of anions caused by further heating was accompanied by the formation of bulk pyrochlore phase at 1100–1300 °C. Even after calcination at 1300 °C the local microheterogeneity as well as defects were identified at domains boundaries or sintered microstructure. These specific features of the formed pyrochlores depend on the method of preparation.     

The Nonprofit Response to the Migration Crisis: Systems-Theoretic Reflections on the Austrian and Slovak Experiences

The present paper discusses the response of the Austrian and Slovak nonprofits to the recent migration crisis. In both countries, nonprofits delivered crucial problem-solving contributions but faced serious challenges related to scaling up, capacity building, and improving coordination. Drawing on the Luhmannian systems-theoretic approach, the paper argues that these challenges gave a boost to the systemic identity of nonprofits. Triggered by the substantial inflows of public money, the systemic identity explains why nonprofits can successfully operate in the polarized societal environment and develop unique expertise which is valuable to the public sector. At the same time, the systemic identity lowers the responsiveness of nonprofits to the societal environment. The major policy implication is that this responsiveness has to be continually improved through rational discourses and stakeholder dialogues.     

What is Sustainable Theory? A Luhmannian Perspective on the Science of Conceptual Systems

Sustainability is an important topic for understanding and developing our society (including business, government, and NGOs). For scholars who want their academic contributions to have an impact, sustainability is important for our conceptual systems (including theories, models, and policies). Because our conceptual systems share similarities with our social systems, we may investigate their characteristics to gain insight into how both may be achieved or at least understood. Theories of the humanities as well as the social/behavioral sciences are changing very rapidly. They are fragile and few seem to have any longevity. At the same time, the theoretical base does not seem to be “advancing.” They are not supporting highly effective results in the real world, so we continue to have seemingly insolvable problems such as crime, war, and poverty. This may be because academia has become inward-focused or, in Luhmann’s terminology, autonomous from the outside world. In seeking to understand how to develop more sustainable theories we found that the concept of sustainability is contested. And, in the process of comparing the sustainability of social systems to the sustainability of theories, we came to realize that neither perspective is viable. Drawing on Luhmann’s insights on the interdependence of theories and society, we came to realize that the two exist in a coevolutionary relationship. Importantly, we present an approach for measuring that evolution and suggest directions for accelerating the coevolutionary advance of society and science.     

The Corporate Social Responsibility of Ukrainian Agroholdings: the Stakeholder Approach Revisited

The agricultural sector in Ukraine and other transitional and developing countries is distinguished by the prominence of agroholdings, i.e., large-scale industrialized corporations, that offer extensive support to their stakeholders through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The stakeholder approach as a part of business ethics scholarship explains stakeholder salience in terms of the turbulence of the business environment. Drawing on the Luhmannian theory of complex social systems, the present paper shows this turbulence to be a relative concept that makes sense primarily in relation to the limited ability of dominant formal institutions, such as the function systems, to process the complexity of the societal environment. In line with this argument, the Ukrainian agroholdings are shown to direct their CSR efforts to stakeholders whose salience arises out of the transition-specific institutional shortcomings, such as the imperfections of land and labor markets. Paradoxically, the Ukrainian institutional environment has been conducive not only to the rise of agroholdings but also to the emergence of societal expectations which the agroholdings must face. The broader business ethics implication of the argument is the functional equivalence of the discretionary CSR activities and the quality of the dominant formal institutions, such as the function systems.     

NMDA-receptor-mediated, cell-specific integration of new neurons in adult dentate gyrus

New neurons are continuously integrated into existing neural circuits in adult dentate gyrus of the mammalian brain. Accumulating evidence indicates that these new neurons are involved in learning and memory. A substantial fraction of newly born neurons die before they mature and the survival of new neurons is regulated in an experience-dependent manner, raising the possibility that the selective survival or death of new neurons has a direct role in a process of learning and memory--such as information storage--through the information-specific construction of new circuits. However, a critical assumption of this hypothesis is that the survival or death decision of new neurons is information-specific. Because neurons receive their information primarily through their input synaptic activity, we investigated whether the survival of new neurons is regulated by input activity in a cell-specific manner. Here we developed a retrovirus-mediated, single-cell gene knockout technique in mice and showed that the survival of new neurons is competitively regulated by their own NMDA-type glutamate receptor during a short, critical period soon after neuronal birth. This finding indicates that the survival of new neurons and the resulting formation of new circuits are regulated in an input-dependent, cell-specific manner. Therefore, the circuits formed by new neurons may represent information associated with input activity within a short time window in the critical period. This information-specific addition of new circuits through selective survival or death of new neurons may be a unique attribute of new neurons that enables them to play a critical role in learning and memory.     

System–Environment Relations in the Theories of Open and Autopoietic Systems: Implications for Critical Systems Thinking

This short paper revisits Bertalanffy??s open systems theory and Luhmann??s theory of autopoietic social systems in order to highlight the linkage between systemic complexity and the carrying capacity of the environment. Being paradigmatically focused on biological complexity, Bertalanffy??s work shows this linkage to be relatively unproblematic. In contrast, Luhmann argued that autopoietic social systems are likely to develop excessive complexity which overstrains the environment??s carrying capacity. The paper synthesizes these conceptions into a framework of discretionary social decision-making aimed at preventing systemic complexity from becoming excessive. Rooted in the idea of balancing the system and the environment, this framework determines the optimal level of systemic complexity as that level which systems can maximally attain without incurring the risk of self-destruction. The system?Cenvironment balance is shown to be the general systems theory core of Ulrich??s critical systems heuristics and critical systems thinking more generally.