Egon Becker & Broder Breckling III.5.3 Border zone between ecology and systems theory In any field of knowledge, the study of interactions leads logically to the concept of system organization. K.M. Khailov (1964) 1. Introduction For many years now, proponents of systems theory and advocates of ecology have been engaged in an intense exchange of ideas, principles, concepts, theories, models, and methods. 1 The dynamics of this exchange have given a boost to both fields. Individual pioneers (such as Eugene and Howard Odum) and innovative organisations (such as the Santa Fé Institute) have spurred on this reciprocal concept transfer. Ecology and systems theory thus form two research fields which are only partially separated and which display powerful internal dynamics and borders that are permeable from several sides. Both research areas are, however, riddled with controversy. Heterogeneous discourses have developed in both fields, each of these discourses possessing its own specific cognitive and social order, along with the corresponding theoretical concepts and scientific practices to match. While each discourse has its own history, the history of the relationship between the two remains unwritten. Since the 1930s, the exchange between systems theory discourse and ecological discourse has been shaped by the paradoxical idea of a “living system”. The idea is a paradox because – at least prima facie – “systems” are not living entities and “living beings” are not systems. Bertalanffy’s (1932) proposition generalises the understanding of organisms as open systems. As a general conceptual reference point, the idea of a “living system” enables the distinctive ideas and conceptual frameworks of each discourse to be represented without requiring any explicit consensus. The transfer process is closely linked with the critical question of whether the transformation of ecology based on the adoption of systemic concepts and methods is beneficial or harmful. The converse question, concerning the influence of ecological approaches on systems theory, is rarely asked. The rise of systems theory in ecology (Odum 1971, 1983) is the subject of considerable controversy. Some scientists welcomed the opportunity to change ecology from a traditional, descriptive discipline into a modern, explanatory science (Fränzle 1998). For others, however, the shift in ecology towards a systemic paradigm represents a move towards the mechanisation of living beings, linked to a technocratic turn in ecological research (Trepl 1987). Despite such criticism, recent decades have witnessed an expansion of systems thinking and formal, mathematical modelling – 1 This process will henceforth be referred to as “concept transfer”.