Developmental Systems Theory and Systemic Approach: A Weak Relationship

Abstract

Developmental Systems Theory (DST) has the merit of revitalizing the concept of system and applying it in a phenomenal
field that can only be explained with precision by means of this paradigm. However, DST is a systems theory without systems,
since it does not use the concept of system beyond the simple mention of the conceptual framework (that is, GST) to which it
is ascribed and through the use of the principle of unity of system and environment. One of the most glaring contradictions of
DST is that it does not use the powerful conceptual baggage of the systems approach that it claims, or, when it does, it makes
the same mistakes as structuralism. On the contrary, conceptions are born within it that, pretending to introduce new things,
what they actually do is draw attention to the obvious as if it were something new (for example, to the ostensible fact that
“there are processes”).