The challenges for sociocybernetics.

This contribution is a concise overview, within the limited space available, of what is sociocybernetics. It addresses the general sociological reader without special knowledge in the fields of systems, cybernetics and sociocybernetics. It describes the main challenges for the further development of this field, thus providing a background for the articles in this monograph. In many places the term 'systems' is used instead of 'systems and cybernetics', because cybernetics can be considered the branch of systems science dealing with the dynamic aspects of steering, control and communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]