Synergetic Concepts in Sociology

In recent years some authors working e.g. on physico-chemical open multi-component systems have become aware of the applicability of the more general concepts of synergetics and of quantitative methods such as those discussed in Sect. 1.1 to the investigation of the structure of sociological systems and of the historical development of societies [1.35-47]. 

Evidently, the human society is a multi-component system composed of units , namely its individual members. This system is open because there exists not only an internal interaction of a material nature and through ideas between the members of a society but also an interaction with the external environment and the technological surroundings. 

Starting from this fact, the possibility of a transfer of synergetic concepts from physico-chemical systems to sociological systems is based on the following general line of arguement. 

Firstly a physico-chemical system is assumed as being composed of a large number of units, each of them existing in one of several different possible states. Then it is assumed that the dynamics of the system consists - on the microscopic level - of correlated transitions of the units between the possible states. After introducing appropriate collective-variables describing the global motion of the 

If a formal isomorphism between the natural and the sociological type of system can be established, such that 

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