- See articles: sociology, sociological theory, social theory, and system theory
Differentiation is a term in
system theory (found in
sociology.) From the viewpoint of this
theory, the principal feature of modern
society is the increased process of
system differentiation as a way of dealing with the
complexity of its
environment. This is accomplished through the creation of
subsystems in an effort to copy within a system the difference between it and the environment. The differentiation process is a means of increasing the complexity of a system, since each subsystem can make different connections with other subsystems. It allows for more variation within the system in order to respond to variation in the environment. Increased variation facilitated by differentiation not only allows for better responses to the environment, but also allows for faster
evolution (or perhaps
sociocultural evolution), which is defined sociologically as a process of selection from
variation; the more differentiation (and thus variation) that is available, the better the selection. (Ritzer 2007:95-96)