Conceptualizing large complex engineering systems as socio-technical systems

1. Conceptualizing large complex engineering systems as socio-technical systems Presentation Stockholm Maarten Ottens Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management

2. Introduction • Approach • Results • Problems

3. I Why the interest in systems • Engineers design increasingly complex systems. Increasing in amount of elements and in sorts of elements and operation possible between these elements, etcetera. • Already complex systems are coupled, leading to large-scale complex systems, like energy systems, telecommunication, transport systems. • These systems fail due to non-technical causes, organizational failure, legal failure.

4. I Socio-technical? • We argue that these systems can better be understood using the concept of socio-technical systems: • A system where next to technical elements, social elements are essential for the functioning of the system as it is.

5. II The research • understanding What are socio-technical systems? • modelling How can socio-technical systems be modelled? • designing (How) can socio-technical systems be designed?

6. II 1. understanding • Existing concepts/theories + • Case studies -> • Conceptual analysis <- • Feedback

7. II Existing concepts/theories • Social sciences : Actor-Network Theory, descriptive, Callon, Latour • All elements are taken as intentional beings. • Physics : Complex Systems Theory, predictive • Nonlinear dynamics, modelling systems by modelling the elements with simple rules and interacting • Engineering sciences : Systems Engineering, prescriptive • All elements as rational, logic, within laws of physics and logic

8. III start: Systems Engineering • Conceptual mess, ambiguous, unclear but, • Prescriptive, and actually used by engineers when designing products • Engineers are our audience, we do ‘engineering’ philosophy

9. III Research focus • Terminology: what is Systems Engineering, kinds of complexity • Constituents: technical, social, products, processes, agents (human/software), relations operations • Boundaries: what to include, what to exclude

10. III Terminology • Systems engineering • Systems engineering • Synchronic system view, complexity in amount of elements, sorts of elements and relations • Diachronic system view, complexity in phases in design approach, e.g. life-cycle design

11. III Constituents agent agent technical element social element technical element social element

12. IV agent agent technical element social element technical element social element physical abstract

13. IV agent agent Designers, users intentional Designed, used no intentions technical element social element technical element social element

14. IV Conceptual problems with modeland constituents • Are organizations (legal) agents or social elements • Can legal, economical, organizational, conventional elements be modeled as one element or are they conceptually too different, compare mechanical, electrical, pneumatic elements. • 3 kinds of elements -> 6 possible relations -> 4 kinds of relations

15. IV Constituents: relations Kinds of relations

16. IV Boundaries • Where does it begin, and where does it end, conceptually and physically speaking? • Modal constraints • Functional, physical, legal, .. log nom leg

17. Engineering ‹—› Philosophy • Philosophical clarification of engineering concepts • Methodological problems/questions in engineering (e.g., complexity, systems) • Engineers work with philosophically problematic notions (e.g., what is the ontological status of infrastructural objects?)