Abstract
I read this book once then had to read it through it again. I am not sure whether this was because of my own intellectual limitations, the complex ideas and language presented by Professor Pauli Niemalӓ and perhaps the occasional glitch in the translation from Finnish. I will do my best to offer my understanding of the work.
Pauli Niemelӓ is Emeritus Professor in social policy and social work at the University of Eastern Finland, and this publication is the latest of a number of scientific monographs which focus on social theory, activity theory and social work ethics.
This is a compelling read which uses some concepts from social work theory (which should be familiar to the UK reader), biology, sociology and psychology to create a multidimensional model through which the author offers his ideas for the regenerative evolution of the human state. This model uses a structure of three subsystems each of which has three dimensions and three levels, which he describes as together forming a whole human system. These three subsystems are defined as the biophysical subsystem, the psycho-conscious subsystem and the sociolinguistic subsystem. The author further contends that this human system model has an underlying action subsystem which itself has nine different elements of action. This complex, dynamic system drives the ongoing evolution of human society and the state of being human. The author’s use of his specifically chosen term ‘human being’ is crucial to this work and is explained in the preface as a gender and age neutral verb for supporting the concept of being in the human state.
This itself is a helpful indication of the philosophical aspect to be found in his very detailed examination of the systems which create the whole state of human being and social evolution.
Niemelӓ’s overview of the dimensions of human action illustrates distinct distance between ‘owning/having’, ‘doing’ and ‘being/living’, and to me this seems to resonate strongly with our current global experience.
I found the section on the sociolinguistic subsystem particularly interesting with its examination of the functionality of language and communication in creating self-regulatory and self-maintaining social systems and its function in social evolution through communal life and communal action. The powerful influence of social media can be viewed from this perspective, as its form of social interaction creates meaning, creates and promotes information, shares beliefs and promotes global dialogue within and across cultures and communities.
For me there are echoes of social work’s psychosocial understanding of the relationship between the inner and outer spheres of human experience, as the author summarises the connection between the conscious self and psyche with the context of the biophysical and ecosystems. These are integrated by the social communication action system and are mutually interactive within the whole human system.
I think the reader would gain most if they have at least a basic grounding in the sociology of systems, psychology, philosophy and linguistics, as the book presents an intricately woven systemic pattern of ideas drawn from a huge range of writers and thinkers about the human condition. It is certainly a stimulating and challenging read for anyone seeking a refreshing perspective on the social world we currently occupy and about which we learn with astonishing speed. It is without doubt an intellectually challenging, structural approach to an immensely complex subject in a fairly short book which Professor Niemelӓ claims, in his conclusion, to be an outline of evolving ideas.
In conclusion, the author offers a detailed summary of the principles of the social evolutionary model which he has presented, especially the dynamic interactions between the structural, conscious-regulatory and sociolinguistic systems which, with the functional action system, give rise to continual emergence of social evolutionary development. This model can, perhaps, give us hope for the future and for being human?