For those interested in organizational systems, complex systems and general systems theory, Buckley’s works are classics. He has synthesized and integrated ideas from systems theory, cybernetic feedback and control, information and communication theory, and Bertalanffy’s general systems theory and applied these ideas to social systems. He explores questions of open systems, complexity, emergence, self-organization, dynamism and equilibrium.
Society as a complex adaptive system (1968/2008) Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 10(3), 86-112.
Sociology and Modern Systems Thinking (1967) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
The book is out of print but should be available at university libraries or for purchase via online merchants. If you can’t find the book, you should be able to find the journal article online via web browser at no charge. It covers main concepts found in the book. The journal article was originally published in 1968 in Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist, Aldine Publishing, Chicago, Il. It was reprinted in 2008 in Emergence (a journal). Both the book and the journal article discuss sociological theory about social organization. The book is more generally readable while the article is academic in style.