IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/wsi/wschap/9781860947339_0002.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

A Framework For Understanding Complex Systems

In: Complexity Theory And The Management Of Networks

Author

Listed:
  • PAUL CILLIERS

    (Department of Philosophy - University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch 7600 - South Africa)

Abstract

Our understanding of complex systems has increased tremendously in the last few decades. This understanding, however, does not necessarily lead to grand methods that will allow us to develop general models for all complex systems. We have to deal with the contingency of each specific system. This text provides a brief summary of a framework of ideas that would help in this process. After a characterisation of complex systems, some comments on the problems of modelling complex systems will be made. Finally, the inevitability of normative considerations will be argued for. These ideas are presented here in drastically shortened versions. They can be found in more detail in previously published material (Cilliers 1998, 2000).

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Cilliers, 2004. "A Framework For Understanding Complex Systems," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Pierpaolo Andriani & Giuseppina Passiante (ed.), Complexity Theory And The Management Of Networks, chapter 2, pages 23-27, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wschap:9781860947339_0002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9781860947339_0002
    Download Restriction: Ebook Access is available upon purchase.

    File URL: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9781860947339_0002
    Download Restriction: Ebook Access is available upon purchase.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miguel Amado & Francesca Poggi & Adriana Martins & Nuno Vieira & Antonio Ribeiro Amado, 2018. "Transforming Cape Vert Informal Settlements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Networks; Complexity Theory; Management of Networks; Distributed Systems; Strategy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:wschap:9781860947339_0002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscientific.com/page/worldscibooks .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.