The European Union, Viewed Through the Spectacle of Bogdanov’s Organisation Theory

The concept of meta-organisation, introduced by Ahrne and Brunsson, allows to interpret the intercommunion of the EU and (member-)states not as ‘actors’, but as organisations of differing format. Meta-organisations’ idea reminds us of biocommunities (such as swarms or ants’ colonies), in other words – of organisms, coexisting and intergrading in complex mixture of a bigger organisation. Such an outlook is rather close to the ontology of Tectologia (1913-1922) by Alexander Bogdanov, which posited general principles of system organisation, whether mechanical, biological or social. The mechanisms Bogdanov was interested in were the mechanisms of shaping and moderating complex systems (conjugation, ingression and disingression among other such mechanisms). In the plurality of organisational forms, he selected at least two universal (ideal) types: centralist and skeletal, of which the EU can be seen as a hybrid. Within an organisation of a skeletal type in particular, periphery of the system is ‘stronger’ than its centre, and it takes the mode of a rigid jacket (a ‘shuck’), fixing the system as a whole. Bogdanov’s ideas of effective combinations of centralization and decentralisation, specialisation and reintegration were much ahead of his time. They were articulated under the influence of profound transformation in physics, which exposed the epistemic limits of more ‘traditional’ science. In later times, according to Varela-Maturana-Uribe model of autopoiesis, the study of self-producing and organisationally closed systems, as well as of their dynamic autonomy, it has been confirmed that traditional emphasis on internal qualities of organic system’s components was misplaced, as it is the organisation of components that provides conditions for its own ‘life’, however fuzzily defined. Dynamic equilibrium of a system, which is interacting with its environment and is coupled with it, was understood by Bogdanov as its ‘resilience’ (ability to absorb changes and still exist). Empiriomonism (phenomenological Marxism) he developed meant an introduction of a (Weberianist) conception of socially organised (contrasted with individual psychic) experience, focused on interactive practices that culturally united groups of people would be involved in – on holist ‘we-pragmatism’ (in contrast to classical American ‘I-pragmatism’, with its methodological individualism), which seems rather well consonant with ‘entanglement’ as described by Alexander Wendt in “Quantum mind and social science”. Thus, on the one hand, in Bogdanov’s works we find search for the socially recognised and organised objectivity and for the socially agreed upon experience (collective practice). On the other hand, his formal definition of the subjective element is based on perception, which presupposes the individual experience (practice) and viewpoint as well, theorised by Mach and, later, by Bogadanov himself. Tectologia presents an original epistemological methodology of current interest for studying systems at different levels of organisation, applicable for examining the metamorphoses (including Brexit and the EU’s continuing extention), experienced today by the EU. Such a study demands that researchers pay particular attention to the exact combination of structure and culture within complexes like the EU – in order to better understand, in what direction the European governance is (or may be) actually evolving.