Conceptualizing large complex engineering systems as socio-technical systems

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Conceptualizing large complex engineering systems
as socio-technical systems
Presentation Stockholm
Maarten Ottens
Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Technology,
Policy and Management
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1. Introduction
2. Approach
3. Results
4. Problems

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Why the interest in systems
I

• Engineers design increasingly complex systems.
  Increasing in amount of elements and in sorts of
  elements and operation possible between these
  elements, etcetera.
• Already complex systems are coupled, leading to
  large-scale complex systems, like energy systems,
  telecommunication, transport systems.
• These systems fail due to non-technical causes,
  organizational failure, legal failure.

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Socio-technical?
I

• We argue that these systems can better be
  understood using the concept of socio-technical
  systems
• A system where next to technical elements, social
  elements are essential for the functioning of the
  system as it is.

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The research
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• understanding
• What are socio-technical systems?
• modelling
• How can socio-technical systems be modelled?
• designing
• (How) can socio-technical systems be designed?

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1. understanding
II

• Existing concepts/theories
• Case studies
• -gt
• Conceptual analysis
• lt-
• Feedback

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Existing concepts/theories
II

• Social sciences Actor-Network Theory,
  descriptive, Callon, Latour
• All elements are taken as intentional beings.
• Physics Complex Systems Theory, predictive
• Nonlinear dynamics, modelling systems by
  modelling the elements with simple rules and
  interacting
• Engineering sciences Systems Engineering,
  prescriptive
• All elements as rational, logic, within laws of
  physics and logic

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start Systems Engineering
III

• Conceptual mess, ambiguous, unclear
• but,
• Prescriptive, and actually used by engineers when
  designing products
• Engineers are our audience, we do engineering
  philosophy

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Research focus
III

• Terminology what is Systems Engineering, kinds
  of complexity
• Constituents technical, social, products,
  processes, agents (human/software), relations
  operations
• Boundaries what to include, what to exclude

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Terminology
III

• Systems engineering
• Systems engineering
• Synchronic system view, complexity in amount of
  elements, sorts of elements and relations
• Diachronic system view, complexity in phases in
  design approach, e.g. life-cycle design

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Constituents
III
agent
agent
technical element
social element
technical element
social element
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IV
agent
agent
technical element
social element
technical element
social element
physical
abstract
13
IV
agent
agent
intentional
Designers, users
no intentions
Designed, used
technical element
social element
technical element
social element
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Conceptual problems with modeland constituents
IV

• Are organizations (legal) agents or social
  elements
• Can legal, economical, organizational,
  conventional elements be modeled as one element
  or are they conceptually too different, compare
  mechanical, electrical, pneumatic elements.
• 3 kinds of elements -gt 6 possible relations -gt 4
  kinds of relations

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Constituents relations
IV
technical-technical physical functional
technical-agent physical functional intentional
agent-agent physical functional intentional
agent-social functional intentional normative
social-social functional normative
social-technical functional normative
Kinds of relations
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Boundaries
IV

• Where does it begin, and where does it end,
  conceptually and physically speaking?
• Modal constraints
• Functional, physical, legal, ..

log
nom
leg
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Engineering Philosophy

• Philosophical clarification of engineering
  concepts
• Methodological problems/questions in engineering
  (e.g., complexity, systems)
• Engineers work with philosophically problematic
  notions (e.g., what is the ontological status of
  infrastructural objects?)