Autonomy and Cohesion (series)
A series on a balance needed for viability and welfare of socio-technical systems
The Autonomy and Cohesion balance is an essential dynamic that determines the viability and welfare of all socio-technical systems, including organizations, biological systems, and networks.
Autonomy means self-governance. It is the capacity to make informed, uncoerced decisions.
Cohesion is the act or state of forming a whole or working as a whole.
There is a tension between autonomy and cohesion. Socio-technical systems work best when they can maintain both autonomy and cohesion at all scales.
Many situations can be better understood if looked at through the Autonomy-Cohesion lens, or – as I call it in the Essential Balances book – glasses. Glasses don’t have only lenses, but also frames. Frames remind us that every perspective has limitations, creates a bias, and leaves a blind spot. And glasses are made to fit, which is the second reminder: our cognition is embodied.
This series explores various aspects and forms of the Autonomy-Cohesion balance, along with the forces, practices, and technologies that either threaten or support it.
