Social Dynamics in a Systems Perspective

This volume aims to provide a clearer evidence of systems thinking multiplicity and of its wide applicative heterogeneity. The contributions come from different conceptual matrices, ranging from the study of social dynamics, through the concepts of sustainability and value co-creation, to the design of complexity and from the analysis of crucial managerial dynamics (innovation is an example) to the definition of decision-making processes as indispensable lever of each managerial logic, until the possibility to imagine the occurrence of extremely rare and high-impact events (black swans). Given these premises, it does not appear appropriate to promote research aimed to quantify the amount of information, but it becomes fundamental to understand the role played by each individual in selecting his relevant context and the individuality of knowledge itself, according to the principles of creativity and variety. Although it is not possible to extend the specificity of each field of research in each area of knowledge, it is certainly possible (and even desirable) to understand that any process of acquisition and generation of knowledge is linked to general laws that, through a common and coordinated action, have inspired the creation of each science. Certainly, the detection of baseline cultural areas, such as complexity and constructivism, system dynamics and innovation, sustainability and value co-creation, does not qualify as conceptual watershed but allows us to justify similar paradigmatic affinities and thus the adoption of unique, specific code of language: although centered on diverse themes, the contributions briefly described below are all related to the contribution that the systemic epistemology, mobile and constructivist, provides to the reading of social phenomena.