HUMAN-NATURE, HUMANISTIC SOCIAL-SYSTEMS, AND DESIGN

Social systems are forces that influence the quality-of-life within hu man communities, and are especially relevant for advancing or constrai ning a people's economic, spiritual, social-cultural, and political de velopment. As the world moves toward reinventing and redesigning socia l systems to cope with increasing complexity and challenges of the app roaching twenty-first century, 'user designers' need to re-examine mor e closely how systems affect/effect stakeholders. This discussion link s humanistic and systemic views by exploring the notion that particula r system types can be incompatible with certain qualities of human nat ure. Four general qualities of human nature (developmental, socio-tele ological, value-seeking, and creative/innovative) are selected and dis cussed in the context of the design and operation of rigidly controlle d, deterministic, purposive, heuristic goal formulating, and purposefu l intermediate systems types. Design Inquiry and key concepts for soci al system design are introduced and discussed in context to social sys temic organizations designing for quality-of-life. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.