... what mechanism, and under what conditions the bias is stronger or weaker. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on positive-negative asymmetry theory and a second-order, cybernetic reading of review platforms as trust-generating systems, the study analyses 17,349 French-language reviews from...

... rights only Second-order cybernetics Von Foerster Algorithmic PMO Non-trivial machine Observing system Ethical imperative AI governance Reflexive learning Eigenvalue Sociotechnical systems Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing project governance as it determines how...

...Mirjana Pejić Bach Purpose This paper translates Heinz von Foerster's second-order cybernetics into an explicit process framework for psychotherapeutic practice. It examines how therapists can account for their own participation in observation, identify recursive interactional loops and design...

..., and it reads the resulting risks through second-order cybernetics and von Foerster’s ethical imperative. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines theory adaptation and typology. It critically reconstructs the embodiment-based distinction between artificial intelligence (AI) and robot ethics, adapts...

... as stagnation. Lavanderos (2026) has put that difficulty in its sharpest form: second-order cybernetics can name symbolic closure – descriptions sealed on their own categories while interaction intensifies and information circulates – but cannot, from closure alone, tell productive closure from rigidity...

..., neglecting the recursive observations through which trust is actually produced and stabilized in organizational life. This paper develops a second-order cybernetics model that reframes trust as a self-referential, socially recursive phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach The study is a conceptual...

... 2026 20 08 2026 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2026 Emerald Publishing Limited Licensed re-use rights only Trust Digital financial inclusion Cybernetics Viable system model Luhmann Artificial communication Second-order cybernetics Approximately 1.3 billion adults remain...

... Accumulation and Reflexive Governance. It proposes a shift towards second-order cybernetics, where the administration actively reprograms its own rules, expanding citizen options in accordance with the Ethical Imperative. Originality/value This paper distinguishes Reflexive Governance from classical Street...

...Ahmed Abdallah Abaker Purpose This paper aims to analyze generative artificial intelligence ecosystems from the perspective of second-order cybernetics. It elucidates how AI-mediated environments transform human observation, cognition, and the construction of reality. By revisiting Heinz von...

..., storytelling and intellectual rigor. The submission integrates historical context – such as the Macy Conferences and the Asilomar gatherings – with thematic explorations of von Foerster's ideas, including his ethical imperative, second-order cybernetics and critiques of language and perception. Archival...

... This first bibliometric mapping of von Foerster's legacy offers a data-driven corrective to narrative accounts presenting second-order cybernetics as coherent. Revealing structural fragmentation, boundary object dynamics and epistemological-to-applied shifts opens new agendas for managing fragmentation...

...Francesca Romana Petroselli Purpose Second-order cybernetics shifted attention from observed systems to observing systems, highlighting the role of the observer in the construction of knowledge. However, less attention has been devoted to the processes through which observers are formed...

... system model Requisite variety Large language models Intelligence amplification Variety transducer Human-AI coupling Autonomous agents Second-order cybernetics “Cybernetics treats not things but ways of behaving. It does not ask ‘what is this thing?’ but ‘what does it do?’ … It is thus...

.../methodology/approach We introduce the Ontological Meta-Structure Engine (OMSE), a second-order cybernetic architecture designed to preserve systemic integrity. Drawing on meta-ontological analysis and systems theory, OMSE implements three operational feedback mechanisms that maintain categorical coherence...

... tool for examining systems methodologies, articulates previously underexplored connections between general complexity and second-order cybernetics, and grounds reflexive practice in explicit epistemological frameworks rather than pragmatic pluralism alone. Raul Ricardo Leal Ascencio can...

... family business and business family research for explicit and tacit uses of cybernetic concepts and reconstructs these uses as indications of an underdeveloped cybernetic sensibility in the field. Building on second-order cybernetics, it then outlines abductive cybernetic theorising as a way...

...Yiannis Laouris Purpose To formalize Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson’s pragmatics of human communication as a level-separated, testable axiom system suitable for second-order cybernetics, so that paradox, reflexivity and context-dependence are treated as phenomena to be modeled rather than...

.... Design/methodology/approach An adapted conceptual systematic review was conducted using top-cited articles and systematic literature reviews on the definition of active learning. A nine-dimensional coding frame was developed from first- and second-order cybernetics, including agentive, adaptive...

... 1970s allowed certain ideas developed for specific domains to be successfully utilized in other contexts. It underlines the power of the epistemological approaches, a significant example of which is developed within second-order cybernetics, in developing fruitful exchanges between disciplines...

... as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory. Philosophy Self-organization Second-order cybernetics Complexity Epistemology Arantzazu Saratxaga Arregi can be contacted at: arantzazu.saratxaga@frias.uni-freiburg.de 20 10 2023 07 03 2024 26 04 2024 06 05 2024 06...