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Complex adaptive system

About: Complex adaptive system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3190 publications have been published within this topic receiving 111947 citations. The topic is also known as: Complex adaptive system, CAS.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine three key characteristics of successful, long-term governance: working across scale, communication and coordination both horizontally and vertically between diverse governance groups, and the importance of collaboration.
Abstract: In preview of the special issue on “Environmental Governance for Sustainability”, this manuscript examines three key themes on governance and sustainability. Governance for sustainability, by its nature, requires long-enduring institutional arrangements. Given the complex adaptive systems in which governance decision-making takes place, we explore three key characteristics of successful, long-term governance. The first of these is working across scale. This includes nested institutions as well as communication and coordination both horizontally and vertically between diverse governance groups. Second, we highlight the importance of collaboration. Building on the previous point, we draw on literature from collaborative governance and co-management to emphasize how collaboration can help to build more enduring governance structures. Third, we examine the importance of adaptation and evolution in the resolution of collective action dilemmas in complex systems filled with nonlinearities, unclear causal chains, and environments in which we have less than a full understanding of the ramifications of governance actions.

35 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how the principles of complex systems can illuminate recurring mechanisms of change in theories of international relations and propose a way to think about democratization as a global process of interstate competition and socialization driven by the pressures of anarchy.
Abstract: This article examines how the principles of complex systems can illuminate recurring mechanisms of change in theories of international relations. It applies the logic of complex systems to two specific puzzles in international politics – the problem of theorizing change in structural realism, and the dynamics of cross-border democratic diffusion. In the first case, by shifting the analysis of anarchy's consequences from state behavior to state attributes, complex systems can illustrate the sources of domestic and international transformations embedded in structural theories. This approach offers a way to think about democratization as a global process of interstate competition and socialization driven by the pressures of anarchy. In the second case, the principles of co-adaptation in complex systems can help reframe diffusion not as the unilinear spread of democracy but as the interplay of self-reinforcing and self-dampening dynamics, whose interaction shapes both actor expectations and democratic outcomes. In both cases, complex systems serve a limited but useful role; although not conducive to theory creation, the approach provides a useful analytical prism for examining patterns of change and continuity in global processes, and highlights concrete ways of improving models of transformations in international politics.

35 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
18 Jun 2007
TL;DR: A novel approach to building resilient critical supply networks of any kind, which endows the eNetworked infrastructure with self-awareness such that it is able to identify possible threats or emerging vulnerabilities and reconfigure itself to attain resilience to both accidental failures and malicious attacks.
Abstract: Any critical infrastructure is controlled and managed by networked information and communication technologies (ICT) systems. Tremendous progress in the emerging area of ubiquitous, pervasive and tangible computing enables hardware and software to be integrated to a degree that makes possible a technological revolution in which ICT systems merged with physical infrastructure will be transformed together into a vast intelligence network, called an 'eNetwork'. eNetworks are the 'nervous system' of interdependent critical infrastructures and as such are the 'the weakest link'. We introduce a novel approach to building resilient critical supply networks of any kind (electricity, water, gas, finances, materials and products, etc). The proposed approach endows the eNetworked infrastructure with self-awareness such that it is able to identify possible threats or emerging vulnerabilities and reconfigure itself to attain resilience to both accidental failures and malicious attacks. By using natural models of emergence, much in the same manner that DNA is controlled in genetic engineering, we will be able to control the emergence of a network configuration resilient to anticipated threats before they manifest. The novelty consists in the integration of context-aware modelling as a tool for controlling the clustering mechanism through which the eNetwork self-organizes its services to tune its resilience according to the dynamics of the occurring situation. A significant step forward in the area of complexity science this novel approach enables a major breakthrough in the way we interact with the surrounding environment and physical world. Resilient eNetworks open perspectives unthinkable before on how to approach major technological, economic, societal and ecological problems of international concern, such as blackout-free electricity generation and distribution, optimization of energy consumption, networked transportation and manufacturing, disaster response, efficient agriculture, environmental monitoring, financial risk and sustainability assessment.

35 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that policy-makers need to better understand the objectives, incentives and potential adaptive behaviors of the agents when they implement interventions to improve antibiotic use and reduce the risk of emergence of resistant organisms.
Abstract: The effectiveness of antibiotics in treating bacterial infections is decreasing in China because of the widespread development of resistant organisms. Although China has enacted a number of regulations to address this problem, but the impact is very limited. This paper investigates the implementation of these regulations through the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS). It presents the findings from reviews of relevant policy documents and published papers. The paper identifies different types of agent and explores their interaction with regard to the use of antibiotics and their responses to changes of the regulations. It focuses particularly on the impact of perverse financial incentives on overall patterns of use of antibiotics. Implications for the possibilities of nonlinear results, interactive relationships, and new pathways of policy implementation are discussed. The paper concludes that policy-makers need to better understand the objectives, incentives and potential adaptive behaviors of the agents when they implement interventions to improve antibiotic use and reduce the risk of emergence of resistant organisms.

35 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The study captures the multiple influencing levels of software development teams (SDTs) and their interplay with self-organization and emergence and provides empirical evidence for the emergence of team agility in agile SDTs.
Abstract: Agile software development helps software producing organizations to respond to manifold challenges. While prior research focused on agility as a project or process phenomenon, the authors suggest that agility is an emergent phenomenon on the team level. The paper aims to discuss this issue.,Using the theory of complex adaptive systems (CASs), the study captures the multiple influencing levels of software development teams (SDTs) and their interplay with self-organization and emergence. The authors investigate three agile SDTs in different contextual environments that participate with four or more different roles each.,The results suggest self-organization as a central process when understanding team agility. While contextual factors often provide restriction on self-organization, they can help the team to enhance its autonomy.,The theoretical contributions result from the development and test of theory grounded propositions and the investigation of mature agile development teams.,The findings help practitioners to improve the cost-effectiveness ratio of their team’s operations.,The study provides empirical evidence for the emergence of team agility in agile SDTs. Using the lens of CAS, the study suggests the importance of the team’s autonomy.

34 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202336
202269
2021120
2020132
2019152
2018191