Autopoiesis of the techno-social systems as a factor of social risks proliferation

Abstract

The article describes the problem of the unpredictable proliferation and complication of techno-social systems (such as Internet and financial markets). The authors try to explicate the social risks generated by these systems with the theoretical resources of the system theory of communication (N. Luhmann), which is based on the concepts of ‘recursion’, ‘process’ (‘operation’), ‘operationally closed system’, ‘autopoiesis’, etc. The authors believe that the autopoietic system response to external stimuli cannot be predicted by classical means of sociology and cybernetics. Turbulence and continuous complication of techno-social objects let the authors suggest that the dynamics of the systems under consideration contains some features of autopoiesis. Thus, the analysis of the financial market as a complex techno-social object based on the ideas of G. Akerlof (theory of irrational economic behavior) and K. Knorr Cetina (object-centric sociology) allows to better understand the phenomenon of unpredictable market dynamics (the risk of proliferation of market expectations, inability to capture the control level by any of the participants, etc). The authors believe that such a conceptualization helps to bring together sociological practices of the techno-social objects research and perspective methods of applied mathematics (fractal geometry, theory of reflexive relations, ‘soft’ models, etc.), as well as contributes to the search of effective tools for modeling complex techno-social objects, and, thus, social risks accompanying them.

Keywords

• социальная сложность
• рекурсия
• аутопойезис
• коммуникация
• рефлексивные процессы
• моделирование
• социальные риски