Restructuring of a Complex Person-in-Environment System : The relocation of a University(Report of the 38th MERA Research Meeting)

Abstract

The Holistic, developmental, systems-oriented perspective is applied to the analysis of relocating a major university with nine faculties. This transactional approach utilizes the person-in-environment system as the unit of analysis, including the person's physical/biological, psychological, and sociocultural features, and the environment's physical, interpersonal (e.g., faculty), and sociocultural (e.g., educational regulations) features. This category system, the holistic (one part influences others), developmental (e.g., regressive and progressive shifts from a dedifferentiated to a differentiated and hierarchically integrated state), and other assumptions are used to pose questions about the transition that takes place in: (1) the original locale (e.g., What impact did the loss of the university have on the city's present status?), and, most important, (2) the new locale of the university (e.g., What impact does the new university location have on the city and surrounding environment?), and (3) in the university (e.g., What reorganization is required of its 11 faculties?). It is concluded, that answer of the various questions with constructive action, will make great progress in understanding this transition, and in developing a highly successful status of the university, of the community in which it is embedded, and the relations between them.