Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The connectedness of a space is a topological property which indicates that one cannot find two parts of the space which are disconnected and which, when reunited, reconstitute the space in its entirety; or, to put it another way, two points of a connected space may always be joined by a path of that space. A coherent definition of a system presupposes that the parts comprising it are connected to one another by linked paths, whether material or conceptual. The pathology of systems is often attributable to a loss of pertinent connections between their functional subunits. For Thom (1972: 2nd edn, 1977, p. 81), a system is the content of a domain of space-time . A domain of space-time is nothing other than a connected open set. This approach may at first sight seem too vast. In fact, it formalizes the notion of linkages between the elements of a system and exchange with the outside. In effect the property of a space of being connected implies that, in one way or another, the elements of that space are linked and that it would not be possible to extract parts from it without affecting the others. It expresses the non-summability of the parts in relation to the whole. Connectedness characterizes the space constituted by the relational fabric in a natural group such as the family, the couple or institutions. This connectedness is not merely material and physical (since two living beings ... log in or subscribe to read full text