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Systems thinking has been applied to studies of local areas. Margaret Stacey rejected the use of 'community' as an analytic term, and studied the 'local social system' instead. She applied systems theory with more rigour, avoiding a simple biological analogy. She avoided the term 'community' as a way to sidestep distracting problems of definition. Stacey referred to the local social system. She used the term 'social system' to mean 'a set of inter-related social institutions covering all aspects of social life, familial, religious, juridical etc., and the associated belief systems of each' (Stacey 1974: 158). This avoided the error of assuming that every collectivity of people is a social system. Stacey undertook field research in Banbury, an English town experiencing change with the introduction of large-scale industry. Though too large to be a 'community' in the traditional rural sense, Stacey described a local social system, a tight, close-knit social structure which persisted through a period of change from the 1930s through the 1950s. (see Stacey 1960)

Stacey advanced the use of the concept of social system and opened the way for further application of General Systems Theory to social systems. In general, an open system (no real social system is closed) is characterised by:

1. A set of entities,
2. Attributes of the entities,
3. Relationships between the entities and between their attributes,
4. Relationships with other systems.

The entities which are called community' may or may not have these characteristics. If they do, then they are a system.

This approach is more deductive in its logic than inductive in its method. It is an attempt to make reality fit into theoretical constraints, rather than recast the theory as we discover more about reality. Very many of the things commonly called 'communities' are not local social systems by Stacey's definition. Indeed, as it is an ideal type, Stacey's local social system may not exist at all in reality. Nevertheless, Stacey has made an attempt to give a theoretical account of social organisation in local areas. Some sociologists approached the local area as a part of a wider society, and pointed to the importance of economic factors in shaping local communities.

References

Stacey M (1960), Tradition and Change: A Study of Banbury, Oxford U.P., Oxford.

Stacey M (1974) "The Myth of Community Studies" in Bell C & Newby (eds) "The Sociology of Community", Frank Cass, London.