System: Household
Name: Household
Based on: Human Activity System (HAS)
Definitions: Household, Family, Well-being, Health,
Household A household is a group of persons who share the same living accommodation, who pool some, or all, of their income and wealth and who consume certain types of goods and services collectively, mainly housing and food. SNA2008
A household may consist of one or more families: A family is a married, civil partnered or cohabiting couple with or without children, or a lone parent, with at least one child, who live at the same address. Children may be dependent or non-dependent. From the UK Office for National Statistics for 2018: 29% Single Person Household; 66.8% Single Family Household; $% Multi family Household; 1.1% unrelated people in Household.
The extended family may be defined as a network of households at various levels. Models of extended families or communities will use the household as a building block. These will be created based upon the need to explore a specific extended family or community system.
Overall: Create an environment where individuals in a household can achieve their highest potential: The health and well-being of all members of the household are able to maintain a dynamic balance as a response to changes / disturbances in the environment.
As a people maker (Virginia Satir):
- form a unit to raise a family (creates a person)
- One or more family unit as a social system
- Development of people in the household
As a citizen / member of Society:
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Take an active role in society: Vote, State needs, and take a stand if values and beliefs not met.
- Citizenship (participate / take a role in government)
-
Support other citizens or community members
-
maintain current understanding of the operation of the state (informed participation)
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Maintain own possessions and participate in actions to maintain the ecosystems and biodiversity
As an economic unit:
- Provide for revenue stream for the family (various sources)
- provides people in the work force,
- Product and Service Consumption
- the family, buys and sells assets
- uses the infrastructure services (health, energy, transportation, etc).
System Quantity Properties
- Total income (aggregate of all family members as time series)
- Total expenditure (aggregate of all family members as time series)
- Food
- Energy
- Water (cost / quantity)
- Maintenance
- Assets
- Taxes
- Health
- Education
- Number of household members (time series)
- Total Financial Assets
- Total physical assets (and values as time series)
- Total Household Energy production (solar, heat, etc)
- Total waste (water, solid, plastic, bio)
Systemic Measurable Variables
- Health and happiness
- Household Culture
- shared values and beliefs
- Objects of family identity
- Language, rituals, symbols, etc.
Systemic Capabilities or Functions
- People Making
- People development (education)
- Asset management (home, other technology, etc)
- Manage pets
- contribute to communities of practice (religion, civil society, professional groups, etc)
System States
The various defined states that the system-of-interestcan be in.
- Initial concept
- Planned
- Started
- Operating
- Transition
- Dissolve
- Parents .. form a household and family
- Extended Family - support the parents (children) involved in the household
- External providers - provide products and services to the household
- Community, friends, neighbours - interact with and support the household
- government agencies: registration offices (births, deaths, health, etc). - need for information about the family members.
- government agencies taxes: - information about various types of taxes related to the household and individuals within the household.
- Natural Systems.
- Rivers, mountains, oceans, weather, etc
- Designed Systems (physical and abstract)
- Houses, transportation, energy, water, etc
- Fit and interaction in the Economy
Household Conceptual Model
Social Network
- Family members taking on a role (parents, children)
- Other members living within the household: (carers, tutors, aupairs, etc)
- Pets
Social Structure
- Roles to take on: Father, Mother, Partner, Child, Husband, Wife,
- Written or unwritten rules
- Documents for household assets (bank accounts, loans, physical assets, etc)
Technology.
- Place to live (shelter)
- Information technology (computers, tv, radio, camera, phone, etc)
- transportation (bicycles, cars, etc)
- Musical instruments
- Solar Panels or other renewable energy technology.
Inputs
- Income from work or sales of assets
- use of Human Activity Infrastructure Services
- energy
- Water
- food
- Health / medicine
- Information and Communication
- assets
Outputs
- Purchases of assets or consumables from an Enterprise
- Contribution to society
- Savings to Financial Institution (e.g. Bank)
- Taxes to State (Government)
Waste
- Water waste
- Solid Waste
- Food Waste
Configuration / Scenario:
Describes any configuration / scenario attributes for a specific system-of-interest. This may not be appropriate for all system descriptions (e.g. patterns or abstract systems).
Cyclical (Repeating / Regular) Processes
Financial Cyclical Flows
The flows above show the sources of income (regular cycles) and expenses (regular cycles). The balances of this flow are held in financial accounts: Cash (typically current account); Loans; Savings; Assets. When the flows are not balanced, stresses on the family can arise.
The following regular cyclical processes are identified for the household:
Food
- Trigger: Need: Process Food shopping
- Trigger: Time: Process: Cooking meals
Accommodation
- Trigger: Time or Need; Process: cleaning
- Trigger: Time or Need: Process: Waste packaging and disposal
Finance
- Trigger: Deposit, Withdrawal, Status Process: Bank account management
- Trigger: Pay bills; Process pay bills
- Trigger: Time; Process: Contribute to retirement fund
- Trigger: Time; Process: Establish flows from retirement fund
Assets
- Trigger: broken Process: Repair
- Trigger: Time; Process Regular Maintenance
Health
- Trigger: Illness Process: identification and recovery from illness
Security
- Trigger
Development Life Cycle Processes
The following development activities are identified for the household
Move from / to accommodation
- Trigger: Time or Need; Process: Pack and move
Investment management (assets, home, things, etc)
- Trigger: Time or Need; Purchase / sell / Recycle / Dispose
Household membership (add or remove members) (relates to birth, death, marriage, or other arrangements)
- Trigger: Birth; Process: Record birth
- Trigger Death: Process Record Death, probate
- Trigger Marriage; Process: Record Marriage
- Trigger Divorce; Process Record Divorce
The following references support this type of system-of-interest.
Book References
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