The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Feedback Thought in Social Science and Systems Theory.
Abstract
This is a study of a method of thinking in the social sciences known as the loop concept. This concept underlies the notions of feedback and circular causality. After tracing its historical roots, the author argues that modern usage of feedback thinking in the social sciences divides into two main lines of development. He makes extensive use of the analysis of citations and texts from many branches of the social sciences to document this split and to trace its development and implications. The presumption underlying this work is that feedback thinking is one of the most penetrating patterns of thought in all social science. Part of the purpose of the text is to illuminate the significance of feedback thinking in social science and social policy - current as well as classical.
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Citations
Cited by
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Austin, J. T., & Vancouver, J. B. (1996) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.120.3.338 · Cited by 2,319
The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision
Capra, F., & Luisi, P. L. (2014) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511895555 · Cited by 1,347
Learning in and about complex systems
Sterman, J. D. (1994) · System Dynamics Review · doi:10.1002/sdr.4260100214 · Cited by 1,279
System dynamics, systems thinking, and soft OR
Forrester, J. W. (1994) · System Dynamics Review · doi:10.1002/sdr.4260100211 · Cited by 1,112
The Mangle of Practice: Agency and Emergence in the Sociology of Science
Pickering, A. (1993) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/230316 · Cited by 759
Metadata
- Authors
- Bailey, K. D., & Richardson, G. P.
- Venue
- Contemporary Sociology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1992-07
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 546
- ISSN
- 0094-3061 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2071605668
- Cited by
- 487
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 14.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Feedback Thought in Social Science and Systems Theory. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/2075923
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- Bailey, K. D., & Richardson, G. P. (1992). Feedback Thought in Social Science and Systems Theory. Contemporary Sociology. https://doi.org/10.2307/2075923
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
