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W. Hofkirchner:
"'Mechanisms' at work in information society";
Vortrag: Social Generative Mechanisms: From Competition to Opportunity?, oxford (eingeladen); 06.01.2014 - 09.01.2014; in: "Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order", M. Archer (Hrg.); springer, switzerland (2015).

This chapter deals with "mechanisms" from the perspective of critical systems thinking. "Mechanisms" are rooted in self-organisation. Far from being mechanical, they are contingent dynamisms. They are the cause of the advent of Information Society; they are the cause for the reproduction of Information Society; and they are the cause for a transformation of Information Society.

After explicating critical systems thinking by referring to aims, scope and tools of social science, a critical review of positivist, interpretivist, postmodern and critical theories of the build-up of information society is given. All of them but the last ones focus on one side of a purported dynamism only instead of attempting to integrate several sides for which there is empirical evidence. An example of a dynamism is presented that is crucial for the advent of a Global Sustainable Information Society that would deserve the label "Morphogenic Society". The description of this dynamism makes creative use of the terms "antagonism", "agonism" and "synergism" and explains what the author calls the Logic of the Third.

Critical systems thinking; Information and Communication Technologies and Society; Technodeterminism; Social Constructivism; Mutual-Shaping Approach; Conflict Transformation; Antagonism - Agonism - Synergism; Logic of the Third

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13773-5_5