| 1. | 
| The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (1993-06-10)
Written/Edited by: Stuart A. Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.
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| 2. | 
| Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (Helix Books) (1996-09-03)
Written/Edited by: John Holland
Publisher: Basic Books
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Explains how scientists who study complexity are convinced that certain constant processes are at work in all kinds of unrelated complex systems.
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| 3. | 
| At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity (1996-11-21)
Written/Edited by: Stuart Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos.
We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe.
Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life.
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| 4. | 
| Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives of Organisations: The Application of Complexity Theory to Organisations (2003-09-30)
Written/Edited by: Eve Mitleton-Kelly
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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In January 1995, the first Complexity Seminar was held at the London School of Economics, in the UK. This was quite a momentous occasion as it proved to be the turning point for the series of seminars, which had started in December 1992. That seminar and those that followed it, had a profound effect on the research interests of Eve Mitleton-Kelly, the initiator and organiser of the series and editor of this volume, and thus laid the foundation for what became the LSE Complexity Research Programme, which proceeded to win several research awards for collaborative projects with companies. But the series also provided the material for this book. Earlier versions of the papers selected for this volume were first given at the LSE Complexity Seminar series. The seminar series, focussed primarily on the application of the theories of complexity to organisations - an area of study which was quite new to UK businesses and academics; it slowly helped to disseminate these ideas and today, there is a proliferation of networks and seminar series throughout the UK on complexity; a strong and active academic community studying complexity in different disciplines and a growing number of organisations, experimenting with these revolutionary ideas and putting them into practice. The 14 international authors in this volume reflect this interest in 10 chapters that range from the very practical application of the theory to more philosophical reflections on its nature and applicability. They do not all agree with each other, but since diversity and variety is at the heart of complexity they each provide a strand of an intertwined whole, which will enrich and deepen our understanding. In an environment of increasing uncertainty and ambiguity it is necessary to learn how to hold, in tension, disparate or even contradictory views, without undue stress. The world is not a simple dyadic black or white entity, but a rich multi-coloured and many-hued ensemble, each strand or perspective contributing to an intricate and inter-related n-dimensional whole.
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| 5. | 
| The Interaction of Complexity and Management: (2002-08-30)
Written/Edited by: Michael Lissack
Publisher: Praeger
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What is complexity science? What is management? And how are the two linked? The potential of complexity science in the fields of management and organization studies has been explored before, yet there is little agreement on what complexity science truly is. Lissack and Rivkin, along with a panel of distinguished academics and executives, identify critical topics in the study of complexity science. They reveal complexity science to be a process, one seeking and understanding of the systems we inhabit, and ways of applying that understanding to the management of organizations. Complexity science is not a management fad, and the authors do not treat it as such. Instead, they offer useful and fascinating viewpoints on how work is managed in an age of business uncertainty, and how it can be more successfully managed with the aid of this rapidly evolving new field of science. Their multidisciplinary book combines systems theory, statistical modeling, and individual and organizational learning in an innovative new context. The volume takes a pragmatic approach: if it works, it's right. And complexity science, say the authors, work extremely well. This book is an important resource for upper level executives, specialists in organizational behavior, and their colleagues in the academic community.
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| 6. | 
| Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems (1998-03-11)
Written/Edited by: Paul Cilliers
Publisher: Routledge
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In Complexity and Postmodernism, Paul Cilliers explores the idea of complexity in the light of contemporary perspectives from philosophy and science. Cilliers offers us a unique approach to understanding complexity and computational theory by integrating postmodern theory (like that of Derrida and Lyotard) into his discussion. Complexity and Postmodernism is an exciting and an original book that should be read by anyone interested in gaining a fresh understanding of complexity, postmodernism and connectionism.
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| 7. | 
| The End of Certainty (1997-08-17)
Written/Edited by: Ilya Prigogine
Publisher: Free Press
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Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century. All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. Nevertheless, Einstein said that time is an illusion. Nature's laws, as he and Newton defined them, describe a timeless, deterministic universe within which we can make predictions with complete certainty. In effect, these great physicists contended that time is reversible and thus meaningless.
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| 8. | 
| Complexity and Creativity in Organizations (1996-01-15)
Written/Edited by: Ralph Stacey
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
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This text seeks to demonstrate what leadership means in an environment where complete control is not possible. Explaining what self-organization means in human systems, it provides a model of the learning organization that takes into account the real-life anxieties that are involved.
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| 9. | 
| Complexity and Policy Analysis: Tools and Concepts for Designing Robust Policies in a Complex World (Exploring Organizational Complxity) (2008-05-09)
Written/Edited by: Linda F Dennard
Publisher: ISCE Publishing
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It is well known and acknowledged that public policies are inherently complex. But the implications of complexity theory (or complex adaptive systems theory) for policy analysis have not been explored fully. The authors of this volume offer perspectives and methodological tools to fill this gap. Among the questions explored in the volume are, does complexity theory offer a 'new science', an alternative way of thinking to the pervasive rationalism of the mainstream policy analysis, or is it merely a novel analytical tool kit? Does the theory suggest a new way of knowing-and consequently solving-complex public policy problems, for example? How does the theory conceptualize complexity, and is this different from common understandings of the term? What should be the involvement of policy analysts in the process of change from the perspective of complexity theory? Does the theory support or suggest a complexity ethics? The authors of the book also illustrate how agent-based models, the most commonly applied tool of complexity theorists, can be used in policy analysis, as well as creatively applying other methods such as Q-methodology and qualitative case study in understanding complex social problems.
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| 10. | 
| General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (Revised Edition) (1969-03-17)
Written/Edited by: Ludwig Von Bertalanffy
Publisher: George Braziller Inc.
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Gathered here are Ludwig von Bertalanffy's writings on general systems theory, selected and edited to show the evolution of systems theory and to present it applications to problem solving. An attempt to formulate common laws that apply to virtually every scientific field, this conceptual approach has had a profound impact on such widely diverse disciplines as biology, economics, psychology, and demography.
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| 11. | 
| Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations) (2001-03-29)
Written/Edited by: Ralph Stacey
Publisher: Routledge
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The past decade has seen increasing focus on the importance of information and knowledge in economic and social processes, the so-called 'knowledge economy'. This is reflected in the popularity amongst practicing managers and organizational theorists of notions of learning, sense-making, knowledge creation, knowledge management and intellectual capital in organizations and more recently, of emotional intelligence as an important management skill. This insightful book: - argues that the information processing view of knowledge creation held by systems thinkers is no longer tenable
- develops the alternative perspective of Complex Responsive Processes of relating, drawing on the complexity sciences as a source for analogies with human action
- places self-organizing interaction at the centre of the knowledge creating process in organizations.
Learning and knowledge creation are seen as qualitative processes of power relating that are emotional as well as intellectual, creative as well as destructive, enabling as well as constraining, and the result is a radical questioning of the belief that organizational knowledge is essentially codified and centralized. Instead, organizational knowledge is understood to be in the relationships between people in an organization and has to do with the qualities of those relationships.
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| 12. | 
| Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems (1998-03-10)
Written/Edited by: Paul Cilliers
Publisher: Routledge
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In Complexity and Postmodernism, Paul Cilliers explores the idea of complexity in the light of contemporary perspectives from philosophy and science. Cilliers offers us a unique approach to understanding complexity and computational theory by integrating postmodern theory (like that of Derrida and Lyotard) into his discussion. Complexity and Postmodernism is an exciting and an original book that should be read by anyone interested in gaining a fresh understanding of complexity, postmodernism and connectionism.
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| 13. | 
| Explorations in Complexity Thinking (2007-01-15)
Written/Edited by: Paul Cilliers
Publisher: ISCE Publishing
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This pre-proceedings contains the all the papers submitted for the two-day Complexity and Philosophy workshop held 22nd-23rd February 2007, in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The event was co-hosted by Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), ISCE Events, and the Cathedra for the Study of Complexity (Instituto de Filosofia de La Habana). As with previous meetings, the aim of this workshop was to explore the philosophical implications of the science and thinking of complex systems. Attendees were encouraged to submit papers on the following topics: - Status, limits and legitimacy of knowledge regarding complex systems; - Relationship between linear and nonlinear philosophies; - Complexity-based ethics; - Frameworks for the analysis of complex systems; - Complex limits to theories of everything; - Complexity and the social sciences; - Complexity and globalization; - Complexity and human subjectivity. CONTENTS Editorial - Kurt A. Richardson & Paul Cilliers WORKSHOP PAPERS 1. Foucault, complexity, and myth: Toward a complexity-based approach to social evolution (a.k.a. history) Ken Baskin 2. Complexity-based ethics: Martin Buber and dynamic self-organization Deborah P. Bloch & Terrence Nordstrom 3. Gaia, complexity, and American Indian Tribes: Common ground for compatible theories Nicholas C. Peroff 4. What is there in a word?: Heterarchy, homoarchy, and the difference in understanding complexity in the social sciences and complexity studies Dmitri M. Bondarenko 5. Wittgenstein s Ladder in Prigogine s Universe Tapio Muhonen 6. To catch a falling star: Opening the middle path s hands of humility to science Graham Schliebs 7. Rhythmic entrainment, symmetry and power John Collier 8. The complexity of design as a wavefunction Johann van der Merwe 9. A-causality: A quantum ontology for complex systems Walter Baets 10. Modeling rationality and emergence in dynamic networks Remo Pareschi 11. Homeostasis, complexity, and the problem of biological desig
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| 14. | 
| Complex Systems Leadership Theory: New Perspectives from Complexity Science on Social and Organizational Effectiveness (Exploring Organizational Complexity) (2007-09-26)
Written/Edited by: James K. Hazy
Publisher: ISCE Publishing
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This book, written by leading experts in the field, is intended for thoughtful leaders, advisors, and academics who want to better understand cutting edge thinking and the latest research on leadership in the complex, highly interconnected organization of today. Unlike most books on the subject, it does not purport to provide simple answers to difficult questions. Rather, it seeks to provide new insights and tools that have only recently become apparent through advances in complexity science-like, for example, the intricate dynamics of emergent leadership as simulated through agent-based modeling (ABM). Complex Systems Leadership Theory is a powerful beginning to what promises to be a deeper, more thoughtful investigation of how and why organizations succeed and what leaders can do to make a difference.
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| 15. | 
| Managing Complex Governance Systems (Routledge Critical Studies in Public Management) (2009-06-08)
Written/Edited by: Geert Teisman
Publisher: Routledge
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Advances in public management sciences have long indicated the empirical finding that the normal state of public management systems is complex and that its dynamics are non-linear. Complex systems are subject to system pressures, system shocks, chance events, path-dependency and self-organisation. Arguing that complexity is an ever-present characteristic of our developed societies and governance systems that should be accepted, understood and adopted into management strategies, the original essays collected in this book aim to increase our understanding of complex governance processes and to propose new strategies for how public managers can deal with complexity in order to achieve high-quality research. The authors collected here use theoretical frameworks grounded in empirical research to analyze and explain how non-linear dynamics, self-organisation of many agents and the co-evolution of processes combine to generate the evolution of governance processes, especially for public urban and metropolitan investments. Managing Complex Governance Systems: Dynamics, Self-Organization and Coevolution in Public Investments offers readers an increased understanding of the main objective of public management in complexity--namely complex process system--and a strategy for accepting and dealing with complexity based on the idea of dual thinking and dual action strategies satisfying the desires of controlling processes and the need to adjust to changes simultaneously.
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| 16. | 
| Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, Fourth Edition (2003-01-09)
Written/Edited by: Ralph.D. Stacey
Publisher: Prentice Hall
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In the fourth edition of this successful text, Ralph Stacey continues to question the view that organisations operate and succeed in relatively stable environments. He argues that in order to succeed in uncertainty and continual change, organisations need to create new perspectives and learn from the chaos within which they operate. This edition continues to focus on this radically different approach to strategic management. The central tenets of this approach have to do with unpredictability and the limitations of control, and therefore it argues against the rational models of planning and control covered in other strategy textbooks. This is done by emphasising the importance of narrative, conversation and learning from one's own experience as the central means by which we can gain understanding and knowledge of strategy in organisations.
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| 17. | 
| Tree of Knowledge (1992-03-31)
Written/Edited by: Humberto R. Maturana
Publisher: Shambhala
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"Knowing how we know" is the subject of this book. Its authors present a new view of cognition that has important social and ethical implications, for, they assert, the only world we humans can have is the one we create together through the actions of our coexistence. Written for a general audience as well as for students, scholars, and scientists and abundantly illustrated with examples from biology, linguistics, and new social and cultural phenomena, this revised edition includes a new afterword by Dr. Varela, in which he discusses the effect the book has had in the years since its first publication.
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| 18. | 
| Systemic Intervention - Philosophy, Methodology and Practice (Contemporary Systems Thinking) (2000-11)
Written/Edited by: Gerald Midgley
Publisher: Springer
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This book aims to rethink systemic intervention to enhance its relevance for supporting social change in the 21st century. It offers a new systems philosophy and methodology, focusing upon the fundamental importance of exploring value and boundary judgements as part of the intervention process. It includes four detailed examples of the practice of systemic intervention.
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| 19. | 
| Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 42) (1980)
Written/Edited by: H.R. Maturana
Publisher: D. Reidel Publishing Company
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What makes a living system a living system? What kind of biological phenomenon is the phenomenon of cognition? These two questions have been frequently considered, but, in this volume, the authors consider them as concrete biological questions. Their analysis is bold and provocative, for the authors have constructed a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as objects of observation and description, nor even as interacting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to themselves. The consequence of their investigations and of their living systems as self-making, self-referring autonomous unities, is that they discovered that the two questions have a common answer: living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. The result of their investigations is a completely new perspective of biological (human) phenomena. During the investigations, it was found that a complete linguistic description pertaining to the ‘organization of the living’ was lacking and, in fact, was hampering the reporting of results. Hence, the authors have coined the word ‘autopoiesis’ to replace the expression ‘circular organization’. Autopoiesis conveys, by itself, the central feature of the organization of the living, which is autonomy.
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| 20. | 
| The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (1993-06-10)
Written/Edited by: Stuart A. Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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Stuart Kauffman has written a challenging book on the general problem of the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. Kauffman contends that the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution by natural selection must be extended to accommodate new information from molecular biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Kauffman's hallmark is a shift to nonlinear paradigms for living systems. Kauffman argues that biological order is largely self-organized and spontaneous, and proposes to extend evolutionary theory beyond Darwin. His thesis requires three components: an understanding of spontaneous sources of order and self-organization; integration with natural selection, which in Kauffman's scheme molds biological order; and a consideration of adaptation. Origins of Order will advance our understanding of evolution and provoke considerable discussion among evolutionary, molecular and developmental biologists.
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