Aims and scope

Kybernetes is an international journal established in 1972 and supported by several international learned societies and academic institutions devoted to the study and advancement of systems thinking. These include the American Society for Cybernetics, the Next Society Institute, the Cybernetics Society (UK), the International Association for Knowledge Management, the UK Systems Society, the Luhmann Conference Community, and the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics.

Rooted in second-order cybernetics, Kybernetes investigates how social, psychic, organic, and technological systems observe, decide, and interrelate. Embracing Heinz von Foerster’s ethical imperative “to increase the total number of choices”, the journal promotes systemic inquiry into the manifold forms of organised complexity and the challenges of engaging, understanding, and managing them.

The journal places particular emphasis on conceptual rigour, systematic self-implication, and theoretical relevance. Within the broader traditions of cybernetics and systems thinking, Kybernetes particularly welcomes theoretical and conceptual manuscripts. The journal leans towards abductive and inductive inference and values original and innovative research designs - including “theory-as-method” approaches - especially as applied across the following research fields and disciplines:

• Management Science
• Management Studies
• Organisation Science
• Organisation Studies
• Social Sciences
• Social Theory
• Systems Theory
• Design Theory
• Decision Science
• Information Systems
• Information Management
• Digital Humanities
• Philosophy of Science
• Communication Studies
• Economics
• Management and Strategy
• Management Information Systems

Rather than publishing streamlined treatments of mainstream topics such as climate change, digitalisation, or global governance, Kybernetes seeks contributions that offer counter-intuitive perspectives on these themes or explore emerging and alternative mainstreams. It encourages boundary-crossing work that reflects the evolving landscape of systemic challenges and opportunities.

While encompassing this wide-ranging scope, Kybernetes is committed to publishing high-quality theoretical, conceptual, and methodologically innovative research with significant implications for politics, the economy, education, law, religion, the mass media, and other domains of society. Alongside scholarly articles, the journal welcomes provocative discussion papers, counter-intuitive perspectives, and Theory Transfer and Impact Articles that demonstrate the power of cybernetics and systems theories in diverse contexts of application.

To ensure academic integrity, rigour, and relevance, all submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment. If deemed suitable, they are subject to double-blind peer review by anonymous expert referees.

Special Issue on Trust in Complex Systems – Approaches from the Social Sciences, Philosophy, Engineering and Management
截稿日期: 2026-05-31

Introduction

The aim of this Special Issue is to review the role of trust in society on the background of current developments in economy, politics, engineering, healthcare, education, etc. and the grand challenges related to them. In line with the focus of the journal, these developments are associated with growing complexity of systems operations, which make trust relevant in new ways and to larger degrees. A particular focus will be set on trust and digital technology, including trust in artificial intelligence (AI), which currently attracts a lot of attention in academia, industry, and policy making.

Trust plays a key role for social interaction on many different levels and in many different ways (Sztompka, 1999; Nooteboom, 2002). According to Erikson (1963), trust-building is the first challenge in the psychosocial development of every individual. It affects the self-confidence of the individual in later years, the interest in exploring the environment and the willingness to establish relationships with others. Luhmann (1979) further elaborates that the individual "would be prey to a vague sense of dread, to paralysing fears” (p.4). Trust can be studied on the level of interpersonal relations between a particular trustor and a trustee, e.g. as part of a communication process (Blöhbaum, 2021), or a game (Bohnet and Zeckhauser, 2004). In addition to trust in relationships between human beings, research has recently drawn increasing attention to the role of trust in interactions with robots and other forms of artificial intelligence (Coeckelbergh, 2012; Bedué and Fritzsche, 2022).

Furthermore, a technical notion of trust has evolved as well, concerning the interaction between information systems, with blockchain as a key mechanism (Shin, 2019). Whether this mechanism and others actually establish trust or eliminate trust is often debatable. In any case, however, relations between humans and technology also show that trust is relevant for society on a more general level (Schilke et al., 2021), where it rather concerns social conventions or formalized patterns of interaction (Giddens, 1990; Simmel, 2004; Kiran and Verbeek, 2010). Here, trust can also be described as a mechanism to reduce complexity (Luhmann, 1979), independently from the respective trustees in daily interactions (Rotter, 1971; also Morgner, 2018).

Contemporary societies rely strongly on network structures, which often extend across the whole globe (van Dijk, 2006; Castells, 2009) and open up new perspectives on trust (Bachmann, 2001; Bachmann and Inkpen, 2011). As flows of information, capital, and people across national boundaries increase and international trade continues to grow (Altman and 
Bastian, 2025), additional complexity is added to systems structures. Non-linear dynamics become more significant, attracting further attention in research (Lansing, 2003; Baumann, 
2015). Transparency, explainability and predictability of systems operations are reduced – an effect that receives particular attention in application of information technology, such as big data and artificial intelligence (Chen et al., 2014; Harper, 2017; Angelov et al., 2021). For trust, these developments raise additional questions and create new challenges in systems design, management, and regulation, regarding generalized trust in society as well as particularized trust in interactions with humans or technology. They are reflected in multifunctional views of organizations across different social systems (Roth et al., 2025; Roth and Sales, 2025), as well as different layers of design, resilience, or identity formation (Maurer and Fritzsche, 20; Davies et al., 2023).

List of topic areas

Our special issue aims to give an overview of this phenomenon from different perspectives. It 
invites contributions by social scientists, philosophers, engineers, and management scholars 
who study trust in complex systems conceptually or empirically. Potential research topics
include, but are not limited to:

• Trust in digital technology, including artificial technology, robots, and big data
• The role of institutions as mediators of trust
• The effects of social media on basic trust and feelings of trustworthiness 
• System trust and leadership in organisations
• Trustworthy education for trust
• Trust and autopoiesis in social systems
• Trust, indeterminacy, and the “unknown” in engineering design and innovation

All contributions are expected to meet the highest standards of rigour and relevance in scientific research. We strongly encourage scholars from dynamic societies that are underrepresented in academia to submit their work to this special issue, adding a fresh new perspective to the ongoing discourse.

To increase the quality of submissions to this special issue, a paper development workshop will be held at IEDC in Bled Slovenia on 11th-12th November 2025. Authors interested in participating in this workshop are expected to send their application to research@iedc.si until 30th September 2025, together with a 500-word extended abstract of their paper. For all further questions, please contact the editors of the special issue directly.

Key dates

Deadline for Expressions of Interest to attend the paper development workshop: 30th September 2025
Paper development workshop in Bled, Slovenia: 11th-12th November 2025
Submission to Kybernetes Journal opens: 1st December 2025
Deadline for paper submission: 31st May 2026
Expected publication date of the special issue: 31st March 2027

Submission Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/kyb
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/k#jlp_author_guidelines
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to". Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Guest Editors

Albrecht Fritzsche, IEDC Bled School of Management, Slovenia 
Senija Causevic, Rabat Business School
Reinhard Bachmann, University of London, United Kingdom

Special Issue on Beyond Doomsday – Heinz von Foerster’s legacy in systems theory and cybernetics
截稿日期: 2026-06-30

Introduction

Friday, the 13th of November 2026, is Doomsday. According to von Foerster et al. (1960), it is the day when population growth will reach infinity, thus ending the possibilities of humanity to survive. Interestingly enough, it is also the day of Heinz von Foerster’s 115th birthday anniversary, which gives us a good reason to review his contribution to systems research. Heinz von Foerster has been a pioneer in this field, working closely with other leading figures such as John von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Norbert Wiener, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Gregory Bateson, or Niklas Luhmann (Umpleby, 2008). Originally trained as a physicist, he addressed numerous different topics across many disciplines. Von Foerster has shaped our understanding of second-order cybernetics and contributed significantly to the development of radical constructivism (Scott, 2004). To him, we owe the notion of the trivial machine (von Foerster, 1984), the ethical imperative (von Foerster, 2003), and many other thought-provoking concepts and expressions.

The Doomsday Calculation, of course, is also a provocation. While it concerns a serious issue, is also raises questions about the use of simple mathematics to make predictions of future social development. Setting the date on Friday, the 13th associates it with superstition. Setting it on von Foerster’s birthday adds a sense of humour. Nevertheless, this article is not just a tongue-in-cheek comment on the limitations of formal modelling. Knowing that he was a leading figure of second-order cybernetics, von Foerster et al.’s (1960) article can also be read as a reflection on the possibilities to approach grand challenges in society objectively, and the dangers of ideology and self-referentiality. In this sense, Doomsday is significant for today’s scientific discourse on many levels, showing the topicality of von Foerster’s work in different ways.

The aim of this special issue is to collect articles that discuss Heinz von Foerster’s work from different angles. It invites contributions from former students and collaborators who give first-hand evidence of von Foerster’s teaching and research activities, as well as conceptual and empirical works that make use of his concepts and models to study today’s world and society. Furthermore, we warmly welcome articles that look beyond the mere application of formal constructs to observe the observers in contemporary science. What can we learn from second-order cybernetics for tackling grand challenges today? How do we find a balance between enforcing the necessary steps to cope with climate changes, over-population, pollution, etc., while at the same time leaving systemic structures intact? How do we use science and engineering to create new opportunities for development and expand abilities to choose instead of limiting them? And how can we add a little bit of humour help us to fight desperation in view of all the problems haunting us?
 
During submission, please make sure that you pick the right special issue and the right article category. 

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/kyb
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/kyb#jlp_author_guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to".

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1 January 2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30 June 2026