A opened system is a system that has external interactions. Such interactions can take the
form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending
on the discipline which defines the concept. An open system is contrasted with the concept
of an isolated system which exchanges neither energy, matter, nor information with its environment.
Open system is also known as constant volume system and flow system
The concept of an open system was formalized within a framework that enabled one to interrelate
the theory of the organism, thermodynamics, and evolutionary theory. This concept was
expanded upon with the advent of information theory and subsequently systems theory. Today
the concept has its applications in the natural and social sciences.
In the natural sciences an open system is one whose border is permeable to both energy
and mass. In physics a closed system, by contrast, is permeable to energy but not to matter.
Open systems have a number of consequences. A closed system contains limited energies.
The definition of an open system assumes that there are supplies of energy that cannot be
depleted; in practice, this energy is supplied from some source in the surrounding environment,
which can be treated as infinite for the purposes of study. One type of open system is the so-called
radiant energy system, which receives its energy from solar radiation – an energy
source that can be regarded as inexhaustible for all practical purposes.
They are also known as OSM.
Social sciences In the social sciences an open system is a
process that exchanges material, energy, people, capital and information with its environment.
French/Greek philosopher Kostas Axelos argued that seeing the "world system" as inherently
open would solve many of the problems in the social sciences, including that of praxis,
so that various social scientific disciplines would work together rather than create a monopoly
whereby the world appears only sociological, political, historical, or psychological. Axelos
argues that theorizing a closed system contributes to making it closed, and is thus a conservative
approach. The Althusserian concept of overdetermination posits that there are always multiple causes
in every event. David Harvey uses this to argue that when systems such as capitalism
enter a phase of crisis, it could happen through one of a number of elements, such as gender
roles, the relation to nature/the environment, or crises in accumulation. Looking at the
crisis in accumulation, Harvey argues that phenomena such as foreign direct investment,
privatization of state-owned resources, and accumulation by dispossession act as necessary
outlets when capital has overaccumulated too much in private hands and cannot circulate
effectively in the marketplace. He cites the forcible displacement of Mexican and Indian
peasants since the 1970s and the Asian and South-East Asian financial crisis of 1997-8,
involving "hedge fund raising" of national currencies, as examples of this.
Structural functionalists such as Talcott Parsons and neofunctionalists such as Niklas
Luhmann have incorporated system theory to describe society and its components.
Thermodynamics
Systems engineering
See also Business process
Complex system Dynamical system
Glossary of systems theory Maximum power principle
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics Open system
Open System Environment Reference Model Openness
Open and Closed Systems in Social Science Phantom loop
Thermodynamic system References
^ Luhmann, Niklas. Social Systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995; pp. 6-7
^ Glossary Maxwell Demon, 1998. ^ Axelos, K.. "The World: Being Becoming Totality,"
from Systematique ouverte. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 24, 643-651.
^ Althusser, L.. For Marx. London: Verso Books, Ch. 3: "Contradiction and Overdetermination,"
[1]. ^ RSA Animate - David Harvey, The Crises of
Capitalism: [2]. ^ Harvey, D.. The New Imperialism. New York:
Oxford University Press USA, Ch. 3: "Accumulation by Dispossession," 137-182.
Further reading Khalil, E.L.. Nonlinear thermodynamics and
social science modeling: fad cycles, cultural development and identificational slips. The
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 54, Issue 4, pp. 423–438.
Weber, B.H.. Ethical Implications Of The Interface Of Natural And Artificial Systems. Delicate
Balance: Technics, Culture and Consequences: Conference Proceedings for the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers. External links
OPEN SYSTEM, Pricipea Cybernetica Web, 2007.