Franz Spengler
Biography
German-born social scientist living in Sweden, with an academic background in sociology and anthropology. For introducing me to cybernetics, I owe thanks to Dan Davies putting forward a view of organizations as substantively lifelike and intelligent that clicked for me. Coming up academically during covid has coloured my approach greatly, as I often think about systems with an eye to crisis and disaster. My current fields of interest are Scandinavian labour relations, reflexivity and feedback in recommender systems, and understanding ovelapping systems/ecosystems. I am here of my own volition, in that I am institutionally unaffiliated, and welcome all offers to change that. In the spirit of sufficient communications channels, you can find me on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/franzspengler/ .
Sessions
Algedonics in practice? Notes from Swedish collective bargaining
In the swedish collective bargaining system, delegations from union and employer organizations meet at the highest level to set forth rules for labor relations at large, which are then elaborated step wise at descending levels of organization and increasing levels of specificity. The purpose of my contribution is to 1) show that this system substantively conforms to the viable systems model, and 2) propose two readings of the circumstances required for this system to emerge. My method is a survey of historical and current accounts of two separate moments at which the system emerged, once during and after WW2, and more recently in the 90’s. My findings show that the system seems to have cohered under similar circumstance both times, managing essentially to unite labor and capital as the complementary halves of an algedonic system. Each time is a conjuncture of external strain and uncertainty and a relative balance of forces between the sides. Moreover, labor and capital were organized symmetrically, making it possible for the sides to complement each other and link up. My contribution is a valuable account of how a viable system arises when needed given certain conditions. To understand the process, I ask whether it is better understood as an existing layer of systems facing a new caliber of problem, and cohering to meet it, or as two adversarial systems joining and cohering from the top down. This is relevant to the themes Toward resilient and ethical viable systems, and A time whose ideas must come.