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system dynamics

approach to museums

history and culture of museums

• (Scientific) Holism

Jan Smuts (1870-1950)

Holism and Evolution (1926)

• General System Theory

Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972)

Zu einer allgemeinen Systemlehre (1945)

Holism is the tendency in nature to form

wholes that are greater than the sum of the

parts through creative evolution (Smuts)

A system is an entity

that maintains its existence

through the mutual interaction of its parts

• System Dynamics

Jay Forrester (1918- )

Industrial Dynamics (1961)

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An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

• Structural functionalist sociology

Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)

Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998)

• Peter Senge (1947)

The fifth discipline. The art and practice of

the learning organization (1990)

Systems approach

• Input

• Throughput

• Output

• Feedback loops

museum heritage

functions

institution

society

constraints

internal external

institutional

historical social

professional

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research

input output

Museum as System

• “zone of reduced complexity” (Luhmann)

disciplinary control

• homeostasis (equilibrium)

• autopoietical

• Autopoietic systems (institutions):

autonomous, self-creating from their

internal interactions, self-organising and

self-defining of their own boundaries

(cf Niklas Luhmann: filtering and

processing information from the

environment through a programme)

Museum as System

• closed

• lineair

researchMuseum as Complex System

• closed

• non-lineair

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research

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Museum as Complex System

• open

• non-lineair

• allopoietic

research

• internal market vs. external market

• intermediate output vs. final output

Museum as Complex System

Feedback

• Efficiency

• Effectiveness

Output vs. outcome

Performance measurement

III IV

I II

Profit CentreCost Centre

break-evenloss

negative

positive

neutral

contribution to revenues

after Kersti Krug 1992

profit

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III IV

I II

Profit CentreCost Centre

break-evenloss

negative

positive

neutral

contribution to revenues

after Kersti Krug 1992

profit

III IV

I II

Profit CentreCost Centre

break-evenloss

negative

positive

neutral

contribution to revenues

profit

most

preferred

to be

avoided

ethical

dilemmas

vulnerable

research

Museum as Complex System

• dynamic

• pattern stability

• hysteresis

• Hysteresis

a property of systems (usually physical

systems) that do not instantly follow the

forces applied to them, but react slowly, or

do not return completely to their original

state.