An open system is a system

System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....

 which continuously interacts with its environment. The interaction can take the form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending on the discipline which defines the concept (see below). An open system should be contrasted with the concept of an isolated system

Isolated system

In the natural sciences an isolated system, as contrasted with an open system, is a physical system without any external exchange. If it has any surroundings, it does not interact with them. It obeys in particular the first of the conservation laws: its total energy - mass stays constant...

 which exchanges neither energy, matter,nor information with its environment.

The concept of an "open system" was formalized within a framework that enabled one to interrelate the theory of the organism

Organismic theory

Organismic theories in psychology are a family of holistic psychological theories which tend to stress the organization, unity, and integration of human beings expressed through each individual's inherent growth or developmental tendency...

, thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...

, and evolutionary theory. This concept was expanded upon with the advent of information theory

Information theory

Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...

 and subsequently systems theory

Systems theory

Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...

. Today the concept has its applications in the natural and social sciences.
In the natural sciences an open system is one whose border is permeable to both energy

Energy

In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

 and mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

. In physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 a closed system

Closed system

-In physics:In thermodynamics, a closed system can exchange energy , but not matter, with its surroundings.In contrast, an isolated system cannot exchange any of heat, work, or matter with the surroundings, while an open system can exchange all of heat, work and matter.For a simple system, with...

, by contrast, is permeable to energy but not to matter.

Open systems have a number of consequences. A closed system

Closed system

-In physics:In thermodynamics, a closed system can exchange energy , but not matter, with its surroundings.In contrast, an isolated system cannot exchange any of heat, work, or matter with the surroundings, while an open system can exchange all of heat, work and matter.For a simple system, with...

 contains limited energies. The definition of an open system assumes that there are supplies of energy that cannot be depleted; in practice, this energy is supplied from some source in the surrounding environment, which can be treated as infinite for the purposes of study. One type of open system is the so-called radiant energy

Radiant energy

Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. The quantity of radiant energy may be calculated by integrating radiant flux with respect to time and, like all forms of energy, its SI unit is the joule. The term is used particularly when radiation is emitted by a source into the...

system, which receives its energy from solar radiation – an energy source that can be regarded as inexhaustible for all practical purposes.

They are also known as OSM.

In the social sciences

In the social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

 an open system is a process that exchanges material, energy, people, capital and information with its environment. French/Greek philosopher Kostas Axelos argued that seeing the "world system" as inherently open (though unified) would solve many of the problems in the social sciences, including that of praxis

Praxis

Praxis is the putting of theory into practice. The term may refer to:* Christian theological praxis* Praxis , the practice of faith, especially worship* The Praxis School, a school of Marxist philosophy...

 (the relation of knowledge to practice), so that various social scientific disciplines would work together rather than create a monopoly whereby the world appears only sociological, political, historical, or psychological. Axelos argues that theorizing a closed system contributes to making it closed, and is thus a conservative approach. The Althusserian

Louis Althusser

Louis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....

 concept of overdetermination

Overdetermination

Overdetermination, the idea that a single observed effect is determined by multiple causes at once , was originally a key concept of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis....

 (drawing on Sigmund Freud) posits that there are always multiple causes in every event.
David Harvey

David Harvey

David Harvey is the name of:*David Harvey *David Harvey , geographer and social theorist*David Harvey , American luthier...

 uses this to argue that when systems such as capitalism enter a phase of crisis, it could happen through one of a number of elements, such as gender roles, the relation to nature/the environment, or crises in accumulation. Looking at the crisis in accumulation, Harvey argues that phenomena such as foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...

, privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of state-owned resources, and accumulation by dispossession

Accumulation by dispossession

Accumulation by dispossession is a concept presented by the Marxist geographer David Harvey, which defines the neoliberal capitalist policies in many western nations, from the 1970s and to the present day, as resulting in a centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few by dispossessing...

 act as necessary outlets when capital has overaccumulated too much in private hands and cannot circulate effectively in the marketplace. He cites the forcible displacement of Mexican and Indian peasants since the 1970's and the Asian and South-East Asian financial crisis of 1997-8, involving "hedge fund raising" of national currencies, as examples of this.

See also

• Business process
  Business process
  A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...
  
  
• Complex system
  Complex system
  A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties not obvious from the properties of the individual parts....
  
  
• Dynamical system
  Dynamical system
  A dynamical system is a concept in mathematics where a fixed rule describes the time dependence of a point in a geometrical space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, and the number of fish each springtime in a...
  
  
• Glossary of systems theory
  Glossary of systems theory
  -A:* Adaptive capacity: An important part of the resilience of systems in the face of a perturbation, helping to minimise loss of function in individual human, and collective social and biological systems....
  
  
• Isolated system
  Isolated system
  In the natural sciences an isolated system, as contrasted with an open system, is a physical system without any external exchange. If it has any surroundings, it does not interact with them. It obeys in particular the first of the conservation laws: its total energy - mass stays constant...
  
  
• Maximum power principle
  Maximum power principle
  The maximum power principle has been proposed as the fourth principle of energetics in open system thermodynamics, where an example of an open system is a biological cell. According to Howard T...
  
  
• Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
  Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
  Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium. Most systems found in nature are not in thermodynamic equilibrium; for they are changing or can be triggered to change over time, and are continuously and discontinuously...
  
  
• Open system (computing)
  Open system (computing)
  Open systems are computer systems that provide some combination of interoperability, portability, and open software standards. The term was popularized in the early 1980s, mainly to describe systems based on Unix,...
  
  
• Open System Environment Reference Model
  Open System Environment Reference Model
  Open-system environment reference model or OSE reference model is one of the first reference models for enterprise architecture. It provides a framework for describing open system concepts and defining a lexicon of terms, that can be agreed upon generally by all interested parties...
  
  
• Openness
  Openness
  Openness is the quality of being open. It sometimes refers to a very general philosophical position from which some individuals and organizations operate, often highlighted by a decision-making process recognizing communal management by distributed stakeholders rather than a centralized authority...
  
  
• Open and Closed Systems in Social Science
  Open and closed systems in social science
  Ludwig Bertalanffy describes two types of systems: open systems and closed systems. The open systems are systems that allow interactions between its internal elements and the environment...
  
  
• Phantom loop
• System theory
• Thermodynamic system
  Thermodynamic system
  A thermodynamic system is a precisely defined macroscopic region of the universe, often called a physical system, that is studied using the principles of thermodynamics....
  
  

Further reading

• Khalil, E.L. (1995). Nonlinear thermodynamics and social science modeling: fad cycles, cultural development and identificational slips. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 54, Issue 4, pp. 423–438.
• Weber, B.H. (1989). Ethical Implications Of The Interface Of Natural And Artificial Systems. Delicate Balance: Technics, Culture and Consequences: Conference Proceedings for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

External links

• OPEN SYSTEM, Pricipea Cybernetica Web, 2007.