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Parent Node(s):
MORPHOSTASIS
the process in complex system-environment
exchanges that tends to serve or maintain a system's given form,
organization, or state. Examples are homeostatic processes in
organisms, and ritual in socio-cultural systems.
The process of retaining a structure, organization or form. Morphostasis may be actively pursued as in the goal of perfect adaptation or simply characterize a state of structural stability. E.g., in sociology, "efforts to retain the status quo" refers to morphostatic forces which admit only those changes that do not threaten existing structures. Similarly, in the regulation of room temperature, the wiring of a thermostat with the furnace remains unaltered while interaction achieves a correlation of heating efforts and external temperature fluctuations (see morphogenesis, homeostasis). (Krippendorff)
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