Soft System Methodology in the Management of Agroecosystem Health and Sustainability Concerns of a Tropical Highlands Agroecosystem

Hard system methods (also known as first-order cybernetics) are concerned with problem situations in which there is correspondence between the holon and things or phenomena in the real world. Soft system methods (second-order cybernetics), on the other hand, deal with situations in which such correspondence may not exist, with the holons articulated solely for the purpose of understanding and as shorthand for the mental framework of an individual with a unique experiential or cognitive history on the relevant real-world situation (Ison et al., 1997).