Knowledge that Transforms

This book is the author's English version of his "Das Biologische Weltbild," published in 1949. The author is mainly concerned with the relationship between systems at the biological level of complexity and those at the physical level of complexity and discusses the concept (he terms it the "organismic concept") that biological processes represent more than the mere sum of component single processes. There is a useful discussion of the mechanistic and vitalistic approaches to biological phenomena and of the generally accepted synthesis of these opposing views. Although the author recognizes the unitary character of individual organisms, he fails to apply the unitary approach to organic evolution, where both the organism and its environment form the relevant unit, and, by overemphasizing the genetic and developmental characteristics of the individual organism, is led into a more or less orthogenetic view of organic evolution. The author believes that the properties of organized systems, including biological systems, can be defined in mathematical language, and proposes to develop this "General System Theory" in a subsequent volume.

Determined to figure out whether there is any hope for service-sector workers caught in the downward spiral of deskilling, declining wages, deunionization, outsourcing, and job insecurity, Virginia Doellgast examines a workplace that exemplifies these trends, the call center. Her intensive study of matched pairs of call centers in Germany and the U.S., based on observation, archival documents, and some 300 interviews, shows that the situation is bleak, but not quite as bleak as the title, Disintegrating Democracy at Work, might suggest. She concludes by sketching a way forward, toward a utopian world in which call-center workers are self-managed, highly skilled members of strong unions who enjoy job security and high wages. That system can be self-reinforcing, for it saves training and turnover costs, and by ensuring high-quality service, offers firms competitive advantages. The system can still be found in some German and U.S. telecom call centers.