Search Results (3)

This multidisciplinary paper contributes to political economy, social cybernetics, and philosophy by examining distinctions in market capitalist ideologies through a metacybernetic approach. It explores reflexive processes, akin to Adam Smith’s invisible and visible hands, and their impact on market ideologies. The study highlights the evolutifon of these ideologies in balancing egoism and altruism, revealing insights into sociocultural shifts. Some ideologies are more prone to pathologies like market hegemony, which disrupts market viability and social welfare. Diagnosing these ideologies is essential to address issues of market hegemony like platform capitalism, technofeudalism, and surveillance capitalism. After a comparative analysis of capitalist ideologies, the paper focuses on neoliberal and stakeholder capitalism, due to their dominance, contrasting philosophies, policy influence, and roles in global challenges. A metacybernetic perspective is adopted, modelling the market as a complex adaptive system with agency, using Mindset Agency Theory (MAT). MAT distinguishes agency into subagencies of affect and cognition. Recognising the role of spirit, a spirit subagency is configured into MAT to enable explicit consideration of attributes like ethics and the greater good within the market, relationally improving transparency and promoting sustainable and inclusive economic practices. MAT is applied to the evolution of capitalist ideologies, examining their viability and sustainability under changing conditions. With its now triadic interactive subagency structure, MAT identifies eight distinct types of mindset, each characterised by 21 parameters that combine to deliver unique variations, in neoliberal and stakeholder capitalism, of the market ideologies. Full article

In this paper, the second part of a two-part series, we explore the cultural stability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The analytical framework adopted, formulated on a background of social cybernetics, uses Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) within a metacybernetic framework. Our exploration involves a thorough investigation of signs pointing to cultural instability, identification of potential pathologies, and the provision of insights into the underlying dynamics within ASEAN. Expanding on the theoretical foundation established in the first part, we explore the notion that regional organisations (ROs) like ASEAN can be viewed as complex adaptive systems with agency. Heterogeneity of RO membership can be both beneficial and detrimental, especially when this delivers cultural diversity. If detrimental, pathologies can arise that affect both ROs’ institutional dynamics and their affiliated regional organisations, a significant interest of this paper. In response to certain cybernetic aspects introduced in part 1 of the research, MAT is shown to be a specialised framework imbued with systemic and reflexive elements. Through this, the analysis sheds light on how an agency’s mindset connects with its behaviour and performance. ROs exhibit coherence in their operations when they successfully achieve adaptive goals. ROs, as agencies defined through a population of state agents, have mutual relationships and are encouraged to pursue shared regional objectives, such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. However, in highly diverse cultural environments, this poses unique challenges to achieving and maintaining cultural stability. The analysis scrutinises ASEAN’s behaviour, relating it to manifestations of cultural instability, and deduces conditions that encompass an inability to undertake collective action, covert narcissism, and a lack of authority. Employing MAT as a diagnostic tool to comprehend ASEAN’s intricate nature, the paper concludes with practical recommendations aimed at enhancing ASEAN’s cultural health and sustainability. The ultimate vision is to foster a more integrated and proactive regional entity. Full article

Complex organisations require coherence to achieve adaptive goals through agency. This paper introduces Mindset Agency Theory (MAT), a metatheoretical framework designed for modelling and diagnosing agency within culturally diverse populations. MAT, a cybernetic multi-ontology framework, delineates five formative traits defining agency character. Its cognitive style trait (with bipolar values of Patterning–Dramatising) elucidates how agencies acquire information. Examining diverse agencies requires an appreciation of the social relationships that exist there, but MAT is currently devoid of this capability. Using the configuration approach to enable the integration of Tönnies’ social organisation theory into MAT, social relationships can be suitably explored, thus enhancing its capacity to investigate agency coherence. Tönnies’ theory of social organisation (with bipolar values of Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft) that frames inter-agent interactions is configured within MAT. This integration births a new formative trait, pairing cognitive style with social organisation, and is thus capable of indicating the likelihood of operative coherence. Configuration is applied by relating propositional attributes of a holding metatheory framework such as MAT, with an entry theory such as Tönnies’ social organisation theory as determined from the literature. The elaborated MAT serves as a diagnostic tool, linking trait instabilities with agency pathologies that deliver dysfunction. A subsequent paper will apply this framework to ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organisation addressing cultural diversity issues. The study aims to evaluate ASEAN’s mindset and diagnose its pathologies, such as narcissism and paradoxical behaviour. Full article