SYSTEM THEORY IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Andy Tamas
Whitehorse, Yukon and Almonte, Ontario
January, l987 and January, 2000

Introduction

Community Development is a very complex activity - there are so many elements involved that it
seems almost impossible to describe development in a clear and organized manner. Although it is
indeed a very complex field, there is a method which can be used to identify many of the
components and processes involved in this work. This way of organizing information has been
called System Theory.

General System Theory, which was developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy1 and others, provides
an analytical framework which can be used to describe some of the many factors involved in
community development. Some of the key concerns in community development, such as
assessing power and influence, understanding the dynamics of inter-group relationships, and
considering the changes involved in planning development activities, can be understood and
described using System Theory. Terms such as systems and sub-systems, closed and open
systems, system boundaries, the transfer of energy or influence across boundaries, feedback and
system balance (or homeostasis) can be used to clarify what sometimes seems to be a bewildering
array of information involved in community development work.

Other System Theory concepts, such as the description of various environments related to a
system, and the very important notion of entropy, can also be used in community development.
This paper will describe these basic System Theory concepts in a way which will relate them
directly to community development.

System Theory Concepts

Some of the basic terms which are used in system theory are defined as follows:

System
A system is defined by von Bertalanffy as "a set of elements standing in interaction" -- in other
words, a group of things which have something in common. This includes any grouping with any
sort of relationship - a collection of people, a forest, the planets, rabbits on a hill-side, a pile of
rocks, or anything else -- if it is possible to identify a group of things, this cluster can be seen as a
"system."

There can be smaller systems (sub-systems) within other, larger systems - a clear example of this
would be a single household in a village (see illustration below). The activities inside that house
would be seen as taking place within a system (the family group involved in that household),
which in turn exists within the larger system of the village itself. The village can also be seen as a

1
von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. General System Theory. New York: George Brazilier. 1968.
System Theory in Community Development 2

sub-system, one of a number of communities which together comprise an even greater system, the
region or territory in which they all are located.

Boundaries
Household

VILLAGE

Figure 1
System, Sub-Systems and Boundaries

System Boundary
Each system is defined by some sort of boundary - a boundary can be thought of as an imaginary
line which determines what is inside and what is outside of a system.

In the example given above there is a boundary around the small system of the single household,
and there could be another boundary which includes the households in that part of the village.
There could also be a boundary around the whole community or area in which these people live.

System boundaries can be "drawn" wherever any observer wishes, and for any purpose. In a
village, for example, it may be convenient to see the community as a cluster of different
households or family groups. In this case boundaries would be imagined which marked out these
families. At other times, it may be convenient to show the different age groups in a community --
in this case another set of imaginary lines would be drawn which crossed those of the earlier
"family-system" example, as all people within a particular age group would now be within one
"age-system", regardless of the families to which they belonged.

Open and Closed Systems

The boundary around any system can be said to be either "open" or "closed." A closed system is
one which is completely sealed off from its environment by its boundary, such as a candle burning
System Theory in Community Development 3

in an air-tight jar. The activity within such a closed system will continue until all the needed
elements are consumed, at which point the activity will cease (i.e. the candle flame will consume all
the oxygen in the jar and then it will go out).

There are relatively few completely closed systems in our world. All "organic" systems, a term
which includes human beings and their communities, are open systems: that is, each has a
boundary which is open to some extent and which makes it possible for energy or influence (in
various forms, such as information or goods) to pass into and out of its system.

In the community example given above, one of the factors determining the "openness" of the
system boundary between the community and the outer world would be the ease of
communication. If there were roads, or television and telephone links which permitted free
exchange of goods and information across the boundary between the village and the rest of the
world, that system boundary could be said to be very open. If, on the other hand, there were less
ease of communication, if there were no roads, or the phone system did not work, the boundary
could be said to be relatively closed.

The same openness would apply if the people were co-operative and worked together in harmony:
they would share things across their respective boundaries. If there were tensions in the
community, however, and people did not communicate and share things easily with each other,
boundaries would be relatively closed. A lack of trust in a community, for example, would
contribute to making boundaries seem "closed".

Energy In System Theory

The various things which pass across the boundaries of systems can be called energy or influence.
There are different forms of this influence. A human being requires physical energy in the form of
food in order to survive. We also use other forms of influence which can be termed social power
or psychological energy. This "energy," which is often in the form of information, is usually the
main product of human relationships, and is a necessary element in the functioning of social
systems. There are usually various kinds of social energy, and different people in a community
hold varying amounts of these types of power. Some energy is able to help communities progress,
while other forms can be unhelpful. Understanding how to help communities gain access to and
control beneficial types of energy is one of the main aims of community work.

Entropy In System Theory

The term "entropy" has been used to describe a force or tendency which is present in all systems.
All systems tend to "run down," and to progress to a stage of reduced coherence and eventually
completely random order. They tend to consume all the energy which they have available and
eventually stop functioning or "fall apart."

In closed systems this is illustrated by the extinguishing of the candle flame when all the oxygen in
the sealed jar is consumed. At this point the energy and the relationship of elements required to
maintain the order of a burning flame no longer exists. The same thing occurs in organic systems
which receive insufficient food: they die and their bodies eventually decompose. A lack of
affection has a similar effect on a child's psychological development.
System Theory in Community Development 4

Families can be considered as systems, with the husband/wife bond as its central unifying force.
If there is an insufficient amount of social energy of the appropriate kind (some call this energy
love) exchanged between a husband and wife, there is likely to be some sort of breakdown in their
ordered relationship, and the bond between them could weaken. A unified family system could
deteriorate into a less harmonious condition in which there could be two residences in which the
partners carry on their separate lives. If things break down further, they may become homeless.

The tendency toward entropy in organic or social systems needs to be constantly countered through
the generation or exchange of energy or influence across boundaries from one system to another.
This reverse tendency, which has been called "negative entropy" (and other terms), maintains or
increases the order or harmony within these systems.

Examples of energy or influence which can act as negative entropy are food, affection, education,
medicine, or anything else which helps sustain or improve the circumstances and unity of the
members of a community. Forms of energy which can be destructive to the well-being and
harmony of social systems, and as such tend toward disunity and disorder, are oppression,
injustice, violence, back-biting, malnutrition, poverty, and any other forces which prevent people
from working together in harmony to achieve mutually-acceptable goals for their collective
betterment.

In large social systems such as communities, where there can sometimes be an abundance of
entropy-related forces such as disunity, poverty or injustice, it is often difficult to maintain the
highly-ordered forms of co-operation and social cohesiveness which are needed to foster harmony
or well-being among the people. Without constant effort, such communities can become
unpleasant places to live -- one of the tasks of community development is to help communities find
ways of reducing or countering the tendency toward entropy which exists in all systems.

"Homeostasis", or Dynamic Balance (and Change) in System Theory

"Homeostasis" is a term which is used to describe a condition inside a system. It is a "steady
state" or a "dynamic balance" which occurs within a system when its internal and external
conditions stay essentially the same from one day to the next. The concept of homeostasis thus
includes reference to the passage of time: a system will progress through time in a state of balance
if it can continue to gain access to the resources it needs to keep itself in that condition.

If there is a desire to make a change in a system there is a need to alter its "steady state" by
modifying some of the conditions in that system. Anything which alters the energy flow within or
between parts of a system will bring about changes. For example, a community which has high
levels of disunity and backbiting among sub-groups can be changed by giving influential members
of each sub-group an important task to do which requires them to collaborate with their
counterparts in other sub-groups. Working on this common task might change attitudes and the
type of communication between groups and foster a system-wide shift from conflict to
cooperation.

This process of analysis of conditions and introduction of beneficial change is the core of
Community Development work.
System Theory in Community Development 5

A clear example of this balance can be seen in a one industry mining town, where the output of the
system (such as concentrated ore produced by the mine) is balanced by energy imported into the
system (in the form of money earned from the sale of ore) to keep the mine and its community
going. As soon as there is a change in either flow of energy or resources across that community's
boundary (if either the ore runs out and shipments stop, or the mine's markets dry up and metal
prices fall, causing the money in-flow to change greatly) there is likely to be a dramatic change in
the internal balance of that community.

The following figure illustrates some elements of the concept of homeostasis.

State if
Conditions Improve

The community
Community at Path to
at some time
Present the Future
in the future

State if
Conditions Worsen

Figure 2
Steady State, or Dynamic Balance
and changes in a community as it goes through time

Boundary Management
As noted above, the condition within an open system is often in a dynamic balance, or steady-state.
The condition of that steady state within a system is influenced by the energy or influence that
crosses that system's boundary. If there is a need to achieve (or maintain) a desirable condition
within a system, it is necessary to control or manage the flow of energy across its boundary.

This concept of boundary management can be illustrated using the example of the household in the
small community (discussed above). If there were a baby sleeping in the house, people doing
other things in the house would probably have to be relatively quiet to maintain that condition or
steady state. If there were a group of noisy children returning home from school, however, and
this extra energy were to suddenly enter the house (in the form of kids coming in through the front
door), there would likely be quite a marked change in the internal balance of the house -- there
would be a need to re-organize in order to accommodate this new energy in a healthy way. Either
the sleeping child would awaken and possibly join the action, or someone else would tell the
boisterous children to be less noisy (energetic).

If the response were to try to close down the boundary by telling the kids to play outside, this
might succeed in maintaining the internal condition in the house, as along as the noise made by
System Theory in Community Development 6

their happy play did not come through the walls or windows of the house to awaken the baby. If
their activities did eventually wake the baby (as a result of too much "noise-energy" coming across
the boundary and into the house), there would be a change in the internal condition of the
household.

Another example of the need to control the flow of influence across a boundary can be seen in
attempts to limit the influx of mineral exploration activity in northern areas. It is thought that the
delicate balance of nature, and with it the lifestyles of many of the native people of the north,
would be considerably disturbed if it were not possible to exercise some sort of control over the
boundary between mining companies the northern areas they wish to explore. System Theory is a
very useful conceptual tool to use to understand issues such as this.

System Environments
There are several environments related to any system. These can be described by referring to the
following figure:

Figure 3
System Environments

1. The system under consideration, and the internal environment of which it is aware
2. The deeper internal environment of which the system is not aware
3. The system's external environment of which it is aware
4. The system's distant external environment of which it is not aware

Environments form the context within which any system exists, and energy or influence might be
able to flow across the boundary from any environment to any other to alter the balance of any part
of the system.
System Theory in Community Development 7

These environments can be illustrated using the former example of the system consisting of a one-
industry mining town. If the system under consideration (#1) is the total population and
geographical area of the town, examples of the dynamics of these environments could be as
follows:

#2. The Deeper Internal Environment of which the System is Unaware - could be an internal
struggle among senior mine managers for control of the operation. Although the population of the
town may not know about the struggle, it is likely that any outcome of such a dispute will spill
over into the system and cause changes in the way the community operates.

#3. The External Environment - changes in this environment, such as a forest fire on the edge of
town, could make dramatic changes in the internal balance of the system.

#4. The Distant External Environment - changes in environments which the townspeople can't
see, such as a technological breakthrough in a remote laboratory which would greatly increase
demand for the mining town's product, would eventually create changes in the system.

Another powerful influence from the distant environment could be related to unfavorable decisions
made in far-away board rooms of banks to which the mine's parent company owes large sums of
money. It could be that due to troubles these banks have collecting interest payments from other
loans which they have made to developing countries, they decide there is a need to collect on loans
to mining companies. As a result they propose changes which will force the company to shut
down the mine or go bankrupt. In this case the residents of the town would be subjected to
influences and would experience changes which were brought about by forces originating in a
number of environments much removed from their awareness. Changes in the flow of energy, in
terms of money needed in a distant and unknown environment, could bring about major changes in
the system's internal condition.

Decisions of a political nature also often take place at a considerable distance from most
communities, and exert powerful influences in communities which often have very little
opportunity to exercise any control over these activities. Because of this lack of involvement,
communities can often exert relatively little management over the boundaries over which these
influences flow into their communities. Assisting communities to develop the will and capacity to
control the many influences from these distant environments is one of the major roles of
development work.

Conclusion

These basic concepts form the foundation of System Theory as applied to community
development. Most community development work usually involves the following steps:

1. Assessing the community;

2. Selecting development goals;
3. Planning a strategy to reach those goals;
4. Carrying out activities to achieve goals, and;
5. Evaluating progress and including the results of evaluation in subsequent activities.
System Theory in Community Development 8

The use of these System Theory concepts can help workers organize information and see the
patterns in complex community processes as they plan and carry out development activities with
their communities.

Note: There is a more complex form of System Theory called Chaos Theory which helps
describe conditions in systems that are experiencing rapid and unpredictable change. Although
chaos theory is a further development of the themes described here, an adequate description of
these turbulence-related concepts is beyond the scope of this brief paper. For more information on
chaos theory see works such as M. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science, San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler, 1992 and R. Stacey, Managing the Unknowable: Strategic Boundaries Between
Order and Chaos in Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.