The Structure of Concern can be described (e.g. in PAEI terms) but it has not been rigorously defined or explained. My working hypothesis is that every control system which has to manage a hierarchical event structure must manage all four concerns. Below are lists some ideas relevant to potential hypotheses for explaining this phenomenon.
Events Exhibiting Concern Structure (the emic view of concern structure)
Population Ecology
Adaptive Cycles
Normal Accident Theory
Hierarchical Event Structure (the etic view of concern structure)
Hierarchical Constraint
Hierarchical Causation
Hierarchy theory may not be the only idiom worth exploring. There are aspects of search and optimization theory which also seem to hold some promise for explaining the structure of concern. George Polya's heuristics for solving mathematical problems are suggestive in this direction. There are also some other general systems concepts that might apply, for example, see: Chorely & Kennedy - Systems Approach to Physical Geography.
I am quite obviously floundering around a bit here. The definitive description of the structure of concern is yet to be articulated…
