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    Norberg & Cumming - 2008

    Uploaded by

    Andressa Araújo

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 7
    cometexrt w eo.0ne srstens COMPLEXITY THEORY Pee cere teen FORA a SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Robert Rosen Life lel A Comprebese Inquiry Ino the Nature, Origin, nd Fabrication of Life “Timothy FH, Ale nd Thomas W, Hock Toward Unified Ezlgy Robest E. Uanowie logy, he cede Penpcive John Hof and Michael Bees Edited by Jon Norberg and Graeme S. Cumming Spt Optinication for Managed Beoeteme Davi, Peteon and V. Thomas ake, edits Engi Sele: Teor ed Appiations bet Rosen Exay on ie elf Robert H, Gade, W, Mchael Kemp, Vitor S. Kenedy and John E. Petersen, ters Seating Relations n Experimental Elegy SR Kerrand LM. Dickie ‘The Biomat Spectrum: A Predator Pry Theory of Aquatic Production John Hof and Michael Bevers: Spatial Optimization in Ege Appeatons Spence Apallonio Hienhia Penpstive ox Marine Complete: Sachin for Sytem in the Clef Maine ‘TR. Aln, Joseph A. Tins, and Thomas W. Hoek Supph Side Sstanaily Covi R.Allen and Cran S Halling, etre Discontinue in Beoystoms and Other Complex Stes a PREFACE THIS BOOK HAS ITS ORIGINS in three influential lines of research: the Resilience Alliance program, initiated by C. S. ("Bizz") Holling and col laborators, Simon Levin's work on complex systems in ecology and resource ‘management, and the Santa Fe Institute's program an complexity Buzz Holling founded the resilience network, ster to become the Re- silience Alliance (RA, wwvtesalliance.org). The RA is a multidsciplinary research group that explores the dynamics of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Its mode of operation is to facilitate cooperation among top re searchers across disciplines using various arenas of communication. One ‘way of achieving continuous evaluation, assessment, and reanalysis of the concepts discussed during RA scientific meetings was for the organization to invite and promote a group of young scientists (which also included the ‘editors ofthis book). The goal was to create an opportunity for learning and continuity as well a to solicit constructive criticism from scientists who had not been exposed to the organization’ history of thought or indoctrinated into it. The seed of the present book was planted by this group of young. scientists ata meeting in which we tried to synthesize a set of ideas that had been further developed during the previous two years of active participation in the RA. Buzz Holling’s book on adaptive assessment ané management in 1978 developed a number of the principles that today underlie the conceptual basis of adaptive management. Holling applied these principles not only to the natural systems that were the target of management efforts but also to the social process of management itself. His awareness of the importance of maintaining strategic options, his appreciation vf continuous change, his recognition of the limitations of our understanding of nature, and his anguments in favor of the creation of feedbacks between management ac- tions and their outcomes when implemented was farsteaching and contin- tues to strongly influence policy making today, Most of the authors in this volume have also been influenced, to various degrees, by two other research agendas: some of the groundbreaking ideas coming out of the Santa Fe In- stitute (SFI; and the influential writings of Princeton professor Simon A. Levin. Early complexity theory did not necessarily focus on adaptation, but was a term used for nonlinear systems that produced complex dynamics from simple rules, People associated with SFI, such as John Holland and Stuart Kaulfinan, emphasized the idea of selEorganization and the im- Portance of adaptive processes for the development of complexity. Simon Levin's work has further stressed the importance of adaptation and its scale dependence both in the evolution of organisms and in a more general sense ‘of adaptation as an important consequence of the action of selection on diversity. ‘These three strands of research come together in interesting ways throughout this volume. An important consequence of nonlinearity among, system components is the potential for egime shifts, which describe a fun- damental change in the underlying processes that govern system dynamics, ‘The potential for regime shifts in socialecological systems has vast implica- tions for how these systems can and should be managed. To what extent are ‘complex adeptive systems capable of dealing with change, and what deter- ‘mines their capacity to cope? Are there ways in which managers can butfer their system against regime shifts, keeping it in desired states and avoiding destructive change? These questions are the point of departure for ideas about system resilience, the capacity of a system to be subjected to distur bance without shifting into a new regime, and the focus of the Resilience Alliance. ‘This book takes three theoretical perspectives and one practical per- spective on complex systems theory. Complex systems ate frst viewed as asymmetrical systems that dissipate energy andl are composed of a variety of ‘components, Second, they are viewed as networks of interacting nodes and links; third, as systems that process information in the sense of receiving external inputs and responding to them with outputs, Last, and somewhat uniquely in a book about complex systems, they are viewed from a manage- ‘ment and policy perspective. Fach ofthese perspectives provides a different way of organizing ideas about complesty that help ws to conceptuulize and visualize complex system problems. Part 4 is an attempt to spell out some of the implications of complex systems theory for managers and policy mak- cers and to demonstrate how some of the more theoretical ideas discussed in earlier chapters can have important practical Gorsequences for natural resource management. While the application of complex systems theory to problems of natural resource management is still in its infancy, this is an ‘exciting and fast moving frontier in science We hope this book can be seen as a complement to the inspirational book Panarchy published by the RA in 2001. It has inherited many of the n and ine ideas first proposed in Panarchy, while expanding on some of th troducing others that have arisen from different perspectives. The diversity of perspectives from which CAS theory is developing is one ofits strengths, because differences between conceptual frameworks and disciplinary back: grounds continually trigger communication between scientists and have been the source of many new ideas. We hope thatthe present book contrib- tutes to the further development of complex systems theory as an exciting in- terdisciplinary body of theory, while pointing toward the many applications ‘of CAS theory to some of the most pressing problems of our time, INTRODUCTION Jon Norberg and Graeme S. Cumming ‘THE STORY ofhow life on earth developed is about.a gradual increase in the complexity, organization, and information-processing capabilities of oxgan- isms, from single cells with largely reactive behaviors to interactive multi celled organisms with claborate senses, learning capsbiliies, and proactive behavior. This story is paralleled in the development of human societies, which have grown from autonomous foraging groups of early humans to highly interconnected societies with specialized individual occupations and livelihoods, reduced local uncertainties due to trade and information ex- change, and elaborate institutional arrangements for governance. The simi- lacities between individual and social development are striking, and suggest the existence of a more general set of principles. Parallels between social and individual evolution must, however, be drawn with care; although Charles Darwin’s remarkable formulation of the process of evolution by ‘means of natural selection provided the understanding needed to explain the evolution of life on earth, naive analogies between natural evolution and social development have resulted in misguided conclusions and hor rific esults, Social Darwinism, for instance, has had a strong and negative influence on attempts to explore the conceptual links between evolutionary and sociological theories. ‘The coining of the term complex adaptive systems (CAS) by a group of scientists led by John H. Holland, Murray Gell-Mann, and others at the Santa Fe Institute (founded in 1984) provided the kin! of value-neutral con- ‘cept or metaphor that was needed to guide ideas and understanding about the common phenomena seen in many different arsas of research. Using such a concept tv Took al complex phenomena in societies and natural systems has revealed that CAS thinking has emerged in many disciplines and that the processes that underlie CASs seem to be common to many different systems. For example, the process by which selection among op- tions leads o self-organization and large-scale phenomena is found in such diverse fieds as economies (Arthur et al. 1997), stock markets and manu facturing businesses, institutional arrangements (Lansing 2003), politcal sciences (Ostrom 1998, 2005), and ecosystems (Levin 1998, 1999; Holling 1973, 1992), This level of generality provides a strong indication that inter-

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