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.

Complexity as the telos of postmodern planning and design: Designing better cities from the bottom-up

Abstract: This article explores the relationship between complexity theory and the analysis, planning and designing of cities, specifically their suburban and neighbourhood subsystems. It argues that while c...

Complex adaptive system

Abstract: Understanding the international system as an emergent complex adaptive system ( cas ) and then pursuing an approach based on cooperation theory and a meliorist-centric orientation will improve, perhaps even accelerate, international development (ID). Cooperation theory, properly defined and fully developed, could play a more constructive role in foreign policy, especially as it relates to ID. To justify this argument, the article: 1) describes current international relations theories that guide current ID approaches; 2) frames the ID context; 3) describes cas attributes and how they provide a useful platform for understanding the role of ID in an international system; 4) discusses implications of modeling and simulation for identifying tipping points and levers for ID investment; and 5) closes with conclusions and recommendations for future research.

The Emergence of Complexity in Language: An Evolutionary Perspective

Abstract: Like an increasing number of linguists and other scholars especially interested in the evolution and/or the ontogenetic development of language, the author claims that languages are complex adaptive systems (CAS). These have been characterized as reflecting complex dynamics of interactive agents, experiencing constant instability, and in search for equilibrium in response to changes in the ecologies of their usage. Putatively, thanks to self-organization, transitional moments of apparent stability obtain during which patterns and systems emerge, and evolutions obtain from the alternations of periods of instability and stability in seemingly unpredictable ways. The author addresses the issues of the many interpretations of ‘complexity’ applying to language(s), of the description of the interactive agents that produce the above characteristics, of the emergence of complexity in language(s) from the point of view of language evolution, of the kind(s) of evidence that support(s) the various interpretations of ‘complexity’ that are conceivable, of the way in which complexity in language compares with complexity in other non-linguistic phenomena, and of the causes of the “chaos” which prompts languages to reorganize themselves into new systems.

Capitalism as a complex adaptive system and its growth

Abstract: Complex adaptive systems consist of a multitude of agents from whose individual adaptation efforts the adaptive behavior of the system as a whole emerges. In this paper it will be argued that capitalism is a complex adaptive system. Except for its particular mode of production many of its features are typical for such a system. A case in point is the way in which economic growth emerges as a collective outcome of individual adaptation strategies. The complex adaptive systems perspective offers a particular explanation for why the successive extension of the bounds of existing production possibilities is unsteady and rather wasteful in capitalism. Moreover, the strategies by which the agents try to adapt to crises – many of which imply some form of innovations – do not necessarily contribute to a re-emergence of new growth impulses. It is shown that the empirical record of economic growth in the most developed economies indeed reveals a trend of declining growth rates. This seems to suggest that successfully creating new economic growth through innovative strategies is the more difficult, the more prosperous an economy becomes. The paper discusses what can be conjectured to be the cause of this development and what to do about it.