In “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves,” W. Brian Arthur, a noted complexity economist who works at Santa Fe, has put forward a new theory of the relationship between science, economy and technology. McKinsey Principle Eric Beinhocker has described it as “The most important book on technology and the economy since [...]
Archive for November, 2009
Technology and development: a symbiotic relationship?
Posted in Economics, Knowledge and learning, Reports and Studies, Technology on November 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Urbanisation, complexity and poverty – or why aid agencies should be reading Jane Jacobs
Posted in Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy, Urbanisation on November 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Jane Jacobs, renowned urban scholar and grass-roots activist, has recently topped the Planetizen list of the 100 leading Urban Thinkers by an ’impossibly wide lead’. Jacobs is something of a heroine for many communities around the world, real and virtual, not least the complexity science community. She approached cities as ecosystems and suggested that over time, buildings, [...]
Chaos, Complexity and Public Policy – An Interview with Irene Sanders
Posted in Public Policy, Strategy on November 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Woodrow Wilson Centre runs the Dialogue programme – weekly, half-hour raido and TV conversations with renowned public figures, scholars, journalists, and authors. Early November saw a stimulating Dialogue interview with Irene Sanders, Director of the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy and author of “Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos, [...]
Latest Asian Development Bank ‘Knowledge Solution’ focuses on Complexity and Development
Posted in Evaluation, Knowledge and learning, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Strategy on November 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Olivier Serrat, Head of Knowledge Management at the Asian Development Bank, has just published a short paper on complexity and development, as part of their Knowledge Solutions series. Brief excerpt and link below. Development is a complex, adaptive process but—with exceptions—development work has not been conducted as such… development assistance often follows a linear approach to [...]
Network analysis and the challenge of emergence
Posted in Knowledge and learning, Networks on November 19, 2009 | 2 Comments »
“…One of the great mysteries of large distributed systems – from communities and organisations to brains and ecosystems – is how globally coherent activity can emerge in the absence of centralized authority or control… in many systems, usually those that have developed or evolved naturally, the source of control is far from clear. Nevertheless, the [...]
From Architects to Gardeners
Posted in Organisations, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Resilience, Strategy on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Henry Kissinger held a party recently for his protege, Joshua Ramo Cooper. Speaking about Ramo Cooper’s new book to a New Yorker reporter, he said, “[it] has one basic theme that is a little difficult for me, which is that my generation is sort of a bunch of dodos.” The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the [...]
Complexity & Conversation: reflections 1 & 2
Posted in Facilitation, Meetings, tagged complexity, conversation, emergence, Facilitation on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Report of Complexity and Conversation meeting from October 2009, with reflections by Sean Lowrie and Vicky Cosstick.
How to Organise a Childrens’s Party – Based on the Nature of Systems
Posted in Facilitation, Knowledge and learning, Organisations on November 14, 2009 | 3 Comments »
This short clip sees Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge use the metaphor of a childrens party to present three different kinds of systems, and the organisational approaches relevant to each. His delivery is typically insightful and acerbic. FYI Dave ran a meeting in 2008 for the aid & complexity community, and will also be keynote speaker at the forthcoming Innovation Dialogue in [...]
Is diversity the key to resilience in complex social-ecological systems?
Posted in Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Resilience, Strategy on November 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I am just reading Complexity Theory for a Sustainable Future, a 2008 book edited by Jon Norberg and Graeme S. Cumming. The chapter I have just finished ’Diversity and Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems’ is co-authored by Elinor Ostrom, who shared this years Nobel Prize in Economics. So far, it makes for fascinating reading. The authors provide an account of how complex [...]
New agent-based modelling shows how incompetence spreads around hierarchical organisations
Posted in Meetings, Organisations, Reports and Studies on November 5, 2009 | 3 Comments »
There’s a paradox at the heart of most modern organisations. The “Peter Principle”, named after the Canadian psychologist Laurence Peter who first observed this phenomena in 1969, states that ”in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent [...]
