In an effort to shed light on recent developments in sociocybernetic research, this volume represents recent and advanced thinking in this rapidly developing field. The authors address the core problems in social science caused by increasing societal complexity and analyze the inadequacy of many of the methodological tools still used for grappling with nonlinear, self-organizing systems. Together, the 18 contributors propose elements of a new methodology based on sociocybernetic principles aimed at describing and explaining the growth of societal complexity, the contribution of autopoiesis...

Activists often participate in more than one social movement and organization. Bridging organizations are formed by activists who feel that the movements in which they are participating do not adequately address the various issues they are involved in. The author provides a case study of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), an organization which was founded in 1974.

Using the CLUW as a model, the author demonstrates how one organization can address the needs of diverse social movements, in this case the women's movement and the labor movement. By tracing the formation and...

Wilke has called upon sociologists, observers as well as victims of the caste system, to describe by use of case studies and to analyze the plight of non-tenured faculty and their efforts to survive in an increasingly hostile environment. These stories reveal the human factor, too often slighted or forgotten in discussions of the precarious place of the university in today's society.