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 in practice

Abstract: Theories of social practice point to a wide domain of largely tacit social accommodations as the source from which the dynamic structures of social practices are sedimented. The strategy-as-practice initiative seeks to use these insights to widen our appreciation of the origins and evolution of strategy in organizations. This ar ticle suggests that this domain, and its components, can be substantively and literally represented as a complex adaptive system. Complexity gives access to a considerable body of theor y on the emergent orders that may arise from social practice, and on the evolution of social order over time. These carry impor tant implications for the scope of practitioners' agency in leading strategic change, for the locus of strategy in organizations, and for the design of research strategies to investigate these complex phenomena.

Researching a Local Heroin Market as a Complex Adaptive System

Abstract: This project applies agent-based modeling (ABM) techniques to better understand the operation, organization, and structure of a local heroin market. The simulation detailed was developed using data from an 18-month ethnographic case study. The original research, collected in Denver, CO during the 1990s, represents the historic account of users and dealers who operated in the Larimer area heroin market. Working together, the authors studied the behaviors of customers, private dealers, street-sellers, brokers, and the police, reflecting the core elements pertaining to how the market operated. After evaluating the logical consistency between the data and agent behaviors, simulations scaled-up interactions to observe their aggregated outcomes. While the concept and findings from this study remain experimental, these methods represent a novel way in which to understand illicit drug markets and the dynamic adaptations and outcomes they generate. Extensions of this research perspective, as well as its strengths and limitations, are discussed.

Applications of Complex Adaptive Systems

Abstract: The universe is a massive system of systems -- for example, ecological systems, social systems, commodity and stock markets These systems are complex, constantly adapting to their environment, and many are essential to the very existence of human beings To fully understand these systems, complex adaptive systems research uses systemic inquiry to build multi-level and multidisciplinary representations of reality to study these systems Applications of Complex Adaptive Systems provides a global view of the most up-to-date research on the strategies, applications, practice, and implications of complex adaptive systems, to better understand the various critical systems that surround human life Researchers working in the field of complex adaptive systems and related fields such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, and data mining, as well as professionals in related applications such as defense, bioinformatics, and sociology will find this book an indispensable, state-of-the-art reference

Thinking of Environmental Law as a Complex Adaptive System: How to Clean Up the Environment by Making a Mess of Environmental Law

Abstract: This article is the fourth in my series of articles exploring the application of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory to legal systems. It applies the model built in the three prior installments (in the Duke, Vanderbilt, and UC-Davis law reviews) to the specific context of environmental law. The work describes the subject matter of environmental law as a CAS and explains why environmental law thus must "think like a complex adaptive system" in order to accomplish its objectives.