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Managing Complexity

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Social Self-Organization

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

This contribution summarizes some typical features of complex systems such as non-linear interactions, chaotic dynamics, the “butterfly effect”, phase transitions, self-organized criticality, cascading effects, and power laws. These imply sometimes quite unexpected, counter-intuitive, or even paradoxical behaviors of socioeconomic systems. A typical example is the faster-is-slower effect. Due to their tendency of self-organization, complex systems are often hard to control. Instead of trying to control their behavior, it would often be better to pursue the approach of guided self-organization, i.e. to use the driving forces of the system rather than to fight against them. This is illustrated by the example of hierarchical systems, which need to fulfill certain principles in order to be efficient and robust in an ever-changing environment. We also discuss the important role of fluctuations and heterogeneity for the adaptability, flexibility and robustness of complex systems. The presentation is enriched by a number of examples ranging from decision behavior up to production systems and disaster spreading.

This chapter reprints a previous publication with kind permission of the copyright owner, Springer Publishers. It is requested to cite this work as follows: D. Helbing and S. Lämmer, Managing complexity: An introduction. Pages 1–16 in D. Helbing (ed.) Managing Complexity (Springer, Berlin, 2008).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Specifically, Le Chatelier’s principle says: “If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, or total pressure, the equilibrium will shift in order to minimize that change.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CLU E1, ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 50, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Dirk Helbing (Chair of Sociology, in particular of Modeling and Simulation)

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  1. Dirk Helbing
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  1. Lehrstuhl Soziologie, CLU E1, ETH Zürich, Clausiusstr. 50, Zürich, 8092, Switzerland

    Dirk Helbing

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Helbing, D. (2012). Managing Complexity. In: Helbing, D. (eds) Social Self-Organization. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24004-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24004-1_15

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