Stuff:Broad-based system guidance

Broad-based system guidance is the regulation of the system under the advice of the lifeworld. It is facilitated through a combination of media and formal practices termed a "guideway". Figure LGS summarizes the overall relation among lifeworld, guideway and system.

					Fig. LGS
Lifeworld	λ	Guideway	σ	System

The formalizations of the guideway tend to place it conceptually within the system. Nevertheless it is here depicted separately in order to emphasize its mediatory function. It stands between the subjects of guidance in the lifeworld (guides) and the objects of their guidance in the system. Typically it bridges much of the gulf between the two in a single span, as it were, leaving two smaller gaps that cannot be bridged by its own internal forms: a lifeworld gap (λ) on one side; and a system gap (σ) on the other. How these remaining gaps are overcome is an important design problem for broad-based system guidance, with the solutions varying from design to design. The principle types of broad-based system guidance may be defined by their system targets:

• Market economy   The lifeworld guidance of the economic system
• Broad-based decision guidance - The lifeworld guidance of administrative decision systems
• Overguidance - The lifeworld guidance of guideways

The market economy employs within its guideway the steering medium of money. Most other designs for lifeworld guidance are expected to employ some form of steering medium too, with votes being perhaps the most common form. In all cases, the steering medium is considered to be part of the guideway, and not identical with it; the guideway being more than just a steering medium.

See also

• /LGS - Figure template

Notes

© 2013 Michael Allan, please do not copy