What is the contribution of General System Theory to the macro-level understanding of economic, social and technological changes in our epoch from a multidimensional perspective? What is the contribution of Social Action Theory on a micro-scale? Can complex scenario analyses, although based upon uncertainty and unpredictability, offer a viable toolkit for managing these transformations? This book contains twelve chapters, dealing with these questions from various points of view. It brings together essays in sociology, economics, law and humanities to provide as complete a representation as possible of the current global situation. The theoretical framework adopted here is that the systemic approach provides the most effective tool both for understanding social phenomena and elaborating policy-modelling strategies for decision makers that are supposed to tackle social criticalities.

The systemic approach to sociology is widely considered to be one of the most important conceptions in sociology at the end of the 20th century. In this book Šubrt provides a comprehensive overview, and critical appraisal of the theory of social systems.

This textbook considers understanding social processes to be the main task of sociology. From this perspective its authors demonstrate and explain problems which they consider to be crucial for contemporary social science. These are topics of a theoretical and epistemological nature, which are nevertheless closely connected with social development and issues arising from it. The book moves from the more general theoretical questions and dilemmas raised by key social thinkers, such as those connected with the concepts of actor, agency, institutions, structures and systems. It then leads to theoretical reflections on long-term developmental processes associated with the phenomena of power and life in current societies, including globalization, identities, migration, etc. It provides a comprehensive approach to the essential questions of sociology. Lucidly written and including the latest sociological perspectives, this book will find wide appeal among social science students and researchers, and is also for the socially aware general reader.

"Systemic Action Research works with live social and organisational issues to uncover their complex dynamics, reveal opportunities for effective interventions, and generate action to support whole system change." "Filled with illustrative stories and pictures which bring the concepts to life, this book shows how to design and facilitate systematic action research programmes, extending the possibilities of action research beyond the 'individual' and the 'group' to whole organisations, multi agency governance arenas, and networks." "It will be of interest to experienced action researchers, social researchers, international development organisations, community development practitioners, change management facilitators and policy makers."--BOOK JACKET.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International TRIZ Future Conference on Automated Invention for Smart Industries, TFC 2020, held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in October 2020 and sponsored by IFIP WG 5.4. The conference was held virtually. The 34 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. They are organized in the following thematic sections: computing TRIZ; education and pedagogy; sustainable development; tools and techniques of TRIZ for enhancing design; TRIZ and system engineering; TRIZ and complexity; and cross-fertilization of TRIZ for innovation management.

Our socio-economic systems continue to grow and evolve. We need to acknowledge that, consequently, our decisions often fail – they are ineffective and create unexpected side effects. The speed of execution is increasing constantly and markets and systems respond almost immediately, making decision-making challenging. There is little or no room for failure.This important new book analyses real world strategy and policy challenges, addressing the interconnectedness of the markets/systems we live in. It provides a step-by-step approach using systems thinking to solve complex problems in socio-political as well as business environment. It proposes a technique with which to better understand the problems and the context in which they arise, and tools to directly inform each step of the decision-making process. The book explores the main innovation that systemic thinking introduces – the emphasis on defining the problem creating system, which is made up of interacting parts, rather than prioritizing events that need immediate fixing.The case studies, examples and the approach proposed can be used to better understand reality and its complexity, and to integrate stakeholders for a better solution. Practically, it can be used to identify problems, analyse their boundaries, design interventions, forecast and measure their expected impacts, implement them and monitor and evaluate their success/failure. The book touches upon global issues related to policy making and strategic management, as well as issues related to sustainable development for both the public and private sector.

There is no term that better describes the essential features of human society than complexity. On various levels, from the decision-making processes of individuals, through to the interactions between individuals leading to the spontaneous formation of groups and social hierarchies, up to the collective, herding processes that reshape whole societies, all these features share the property of irreducibility, i.e., they require a holistic, multi-level approach formed by researchers from different disciplines. This Special Issue aims to collect research studies that, by exploiting the latest advances in physics, economics, complex networks, and data science, make a step towards understanding these economic and social systems. The majority of submissions are devoted to financial market analysis and modeling, including the stock and cryptocurrency markets in the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic risk quantification and control, wealth condensation, the innovation-related performance of companies, and more. Looking more at societies, there are papers that deal with regional development, land speculation, and the-fake news-fighting strategies, the issues which are of central interest in contemporary society. On top of this, one of the contributions proposes a new, improved complexity measure.