Issue Articles
PHILOSOPHY
Approaching “complexity” in anthropology and complexity studies: The principles of socio-political organization and the prospects for bridging the interdisciplinary gap*
Complexity is understood differently in anthropology and the complexity studies. I discuss the two principles of socio-political organization, particularly, the phenomenon of homoarchy as a counterpart to that of heterarchy. Respectively to heterarch... Read More
with DMITRI BONDARENKO
PRACTITIONER
Assessing organizational capacity to adapt
Currently 65-70 percent of organizational change efforts fail. This paper suggests that the dominant, linear approaches to organizational change may be less functional than complexity analyses and approaches to organizational change. Focusing on self... Read More
with ELEANOR GLOR
EDITORIAL
Editorial (9.3):
Emergent PublicationsBio: Kurt is an Engineer, Physicist and Publisher. As an engineer he has built data-driven web-based applications and has designed microchips for many companies including DIRECTV, Panasonic, Thuraya, SES, Lockheed Martin, SLAC, ... Read More
PRACTITIONER
Complexity science conflict analysis of power and protest*
Complexity science, aside from adding considerable jargon, aids in understanding power, powerlessness and empowerment in conflict. Weaker agents, that would traditionally be viewed as powerless in a conflict, use protest and direct action to improve ... Read More
with DEBORAH SWORD
FORUM
Rolling complex rocks up social service hills: A personal commentary
In this always informal, sometimes tongue-in-cheek paper, the author reports on his work bringing introductory complexity concepts to purveyors of social services. With an ethnographic tone he talks about some of the core problems practitioners try t... Read More
ACADEMIC
The dark side of knowledge
This paper explores the concepts of organizational knowledge and intelligence from the perspective of new systems theory. It draws particularly on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, George Spencer-Brown’s calculus of distinctions,... Read More
ACADEMIC
Understanding change in organizations in a far-from-equilibrium world*
This paper addresses the issue of change in organizations in the new conditions of the contemporary world. We argue that linear theories and models still dominant in organizational sciences are inadequate to understand different modalities of change ... Read More
with BOB HODGE GABRIELA CORONADO