BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

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UNDERCROWDING 2)4)

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The situation where an insufficient density of population undermines social stability and even possibly survival

A minimum number of individuals in a given environment seems to be necessary for triggering social behavior. In a recent paper A. BARNET notes for example that "flamingos or penguins won't breed unless they are surrounded by other copulating pairs"(2001, p. 38) Undercrowding seems to induce the following negative effects on societies:

- possible loss of genetic and behavioral variety (In societies, also loss of cultural and semantic variety)

- loss of herd protection effects

- lessening of transgenerational learning

- lack of communication and loss of information

- danger of destructive episodes due to reduced adaptability (the Fuegians extinguished by a succession of negative factors as epidemics, alcoholism, etc)

A comparison with the situation of overcrowding shows that any population must remain in a defined dynamic stability relation with its probably variable environment. Such stability corresponds to also defined levels of maximum and minimum density, within a sustainable range of fluctuations

Undercrowding effects were first studied by W. ALLEE in the U.S.(1951) and are now known as "Allee effects"

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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