Abstract

This paper explores the nature of dynamic context, particularly in regards to how it is used in dynamic modelling of interaction. The role of context is considered in two parts: how context constrains behaviour potential at each point of a social process; and how the context is changed as the result of behaviour. Various Systemic approaches to each of these questions are compared. The paper then turns towards the major problem of all of these approaches, that of prescriptivism, and points towards some solutions.