Complexity and Emergence Essay ⋆ Sociology Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Complex phenomena reside between simplicity and randomness. When the laws governing a system are relatively simple, the system’s behavior is easy to understand, explain, and predict. At the other extreme, some systems seem to behave randomly. Small variations in the state of the system at one time could result in very large changes to later states of the system. Such systems are often said to be chaotic. Complex systems are somewhere in between these two extremes: complexity is not easy to explain, but it is not so chaotic that understanding is completely impossible.

An interest in complexity is often accompanied by an interest in emergence — the processes whereby the global behavior of a system results from the actions and interactions of agents. There is no central controller or plan. Higher-level order emerges from the interaction of the individual components. Such systems are self-organizing, with control distributed throughout the system. Emergent systems are often complex in that they manifest order at the global system level that is difficult to explain by analyzing the individual components of the system in isolation.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, several scientific developments converged to create a qualitatively more advanced approach to complex systems, and complexity theory began to influence a wide range of disciplines, from biology to economics. The study of complex systems can provide new perspectives on important unresolved issues facing the social sciences — the relations between individuals and groups, the emergence of unintended effects from collective action, and the relation between the disciplines of economics and sociology.

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