Conceptualising, Mapping, and Measuring Social Forces

A map of the socio-cybernetic forces controlling the operation of the “educational” system is first used to highlight some things that can be learned from the preparation of such a diagram and especially to ask how social forces like those represented can be harnessed to achieve the manifest goals of the system more effectively. It is then used to raise more fundamental questions, which it is hoped participants will help to answer, about how “social forces” are to be conceptualised and measured. The huge benefits that would accrue from being able to quantify social forces are illustrated in an Appendix. Ironically, that same appendix again implicitly highlights the fact that attempts to initiate social action on the basis of good information (such as that provided in that very appendix) will continue to have largely counterintuitive and counterproductive effects unless the network of social forces controlling the outcomes is understood and taken into account via a more appropriate socio-cybernetic system for the management of society.