| Talcott Parsons was perhaps the best known American sociologist of the 20th Century. He postulated a general theory of the structure and function of social systems, one at all levels of analysis and all levels of abstraction. The center of his theory is action, which he defined in his own terms of situation, conditions, ends, and norms.; For those familiar with Parsons' work, the creation described here simulated using a digital computer a very small subset of Parsons' theory of action, including his framework of four functions or functional prerequisites, one of the four pairs of pattern variables, the cybernetic hierarchy, and interchange media. The simulation was meant to be a proof-of-concept, a toy demonstration of the feasibility of modeling such a complete and richly described social action theory.; Most simulations of social systems use a modeling technique called system dynamics, a way of characterizing flows and accumulations over time. Other researchers have tried to simulate the theory of action using system dynamics but have failed. One contribution of this research is the application of a different technique, discrete event simulation, to social systems. There are only two published applications of discrete event simulation applied to social systems. Accordingly, this work offers some insight into how to incorporate time ordering into reasoning about social systems.; Simulations were executed to demonstrate consistency with outcomes predicted by the theory. One finding was that Parsons neglected to take into account the disposition of (motivational) energy transiting through a system or organization when the energy is blocked by having to wait for the processing of predecessor energy. The effect of this oversight can be a very long wait for the availability of a prerequisite function and no guidance on whether, for example, the energy decays, dissipates, waits, interrupts, or is channeled elsewhere. |
