Helene Shulman integrates experiences of synchronicity, altered states of consciousness, trance, ritual, Buddhist meditation practice and creativity into a broad perspective on cross-cultural psychology. What emerges is a comprehensive way to understand psychological illness and healing as a perpetual work-in-progress near the edge of chaos, where the seeds for new models of reality lie. With mental illness as the focus, she leads us on a fascinating interdisciplinary exploration, linking such areas as cultural studies, anthropology, evolutionary science and new work in mathematics and computer science " known as complexity theory " to Jungian psychology. A new paradigm for postmodern psychology emerges as the author presents a dynamic theoretical model containing rational and irrational aspects of individual and collective life.
Complexity is a gift that can be made available for the successful implementation of projects, and used to create a new order or to change an existing one. Based on scientific facts, the authors present a systematic approach, which integrates complexity and its multitude of facets and gives practical recommendations for dealing with complexity in projects. The methods paradigm in project management is currently undergoing a massive upheaval. Projects are complex entities that cannot be tackled using traditional methods, such as classical cause and effect approaches. Complexity, and the associated phenomenon of self-organization, is a natural, but hidden designer. It offers a great opportunity in its use as a key driver for the implementation of projects. This requires identification of the principles of complexity and then using these for project management. In this book, the latest findings from natural sciences and brain research are used and transferred within a practice-oriented framework. The authors describe the methods of complexity regulation in projects and how self-organization for the management of projects can be applied.
It is widely recognised that the foreign aid system - which today involves every country in the world - is in need of drastic change. But there are conflicting opinions as to what is needed. Some call for dramatic increases in resources, to meet long-overdue commitments, and to scale up what is already being done around the world. Others point to the flaws in aid, and bang the drum for cutting it altogether - and argue that the fate of poor and vulnerable people be best placed in the hands of markets and the private sector. Meanwhile, growing numbers are suggesting that what is most needed is the creative, innovative transformation of how aid works. Aid on the Edge of Chaos is firmly in the third of these camps. In this ground-breaking book, Ben Ramalingam shows that the linear, mechanistic models and assumptions on which foreign aid is built would be more at home in early twentieth century factory floors than in the dynamic, complex world we face today. All around us, we can see the costs and limitations of dealing economies and societies as if they are analogous to machines. The reality is that such social systems have far more in common with ecosystems: they are complex, dynamic, diverse and unpredictable. Many thinkers and practitioners in science, economics, business, and public policy have started to embrace more 'ecologically literate' approaches to guide both thinking and action, informed by ideas from the 'new science' of complex adaptive systems. Inspired by these efforts, there is an emerging network of aid practitioners, researchers, and policy makers who are experimenting with complexity-informed responses to development and humanitarian challenges. This book showcases the insights, experiences, and often remarkable results from these efforts. From transforming approaches to child malnutrition, to rethinking processes of economic growth, from building peace to combating desertification, from rural Vietnam to urban Kenya, Aid on the Edge of Chaos shows how embracing the ideas of complex systems thinking can help make foreign aid more relevant, more appropriate, more innovative, and more catalytic. Ramalingam argues that taking on these ideas will be a vital part of the transformation of aid, from a post-WW2 mechanism of resource transfer, to a truly innovative and dynamic form of global cooperation fit for the twenty-first century.
A powerful new elixir will be the saving grace—or the doom—of the Plaguewrought Lands in this third standalone novel in the Wilds series On the border of a dangerous, magically unstable area called the Plaguewrought Lands, a powerful new alliance is formed between an alchemist and the leader of the Order of Blue Flame. One seeks the spread of the wild magic created by the Spellplague while the other is eager to bring such magic under control. Though divided in their goals, the pair makes plans to create a special elixir that allows pilgrims to survive Plaguewrought Lands. But only one of them can succeed. A young man with strange powers and a priestess of the god of death will help set the course of the future. Will it end in salvation—or destruction?
The study of complex systems has attracted a broad range of researchers from many disciplines spanning both the hard and soft sciences. In the Autumn of 1997, 300 of these researchers came together for the First International Conference on Complex Systems. The proceedings of this conference is the first book in the New England Complex Systems Institute Series on Complexity and includes more than 100 presentations and papers on topics like evolution, emergence, complexity, self-organization, scaling, informatics, time series, emergence of mind, and engineering of complex systems.
This book is in honor of Yasuhiko Takahara, a first-class researcher who has been active for some 50 years at the global level in systems research. Researchers and practitioners from Japan and other countries who have been influenced by Takahara have come together from far and wide to contribute their major research masterpieces in the field of systems research in the broadest sense. While the roots of Takahara’s systems research are in general systems theory and systems control theory, he developed his research and teaching in diverse directions such as management information science, engineering, social simulation, and systems thinking. As a result, many of the researchers and practitioners he supervised or influenced have established their own positions and are now active around the world in a wide range of systems research. Volume II is a collection of their masterpieces or representative works in the fields of systems management theory and practice.
Here, Russ Marion discusses formal and social organizations from the perspectives of chaos and complexity theories. The book aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the new sciences of chaos and complexity.
This is the substantive scholarly work to provide a map of the state of art research in the growing field emerging at the intersection of complexity science and management studies.
From the early 1960s until his death, French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. One of Deleuze's main philosophical projects was a systematic inversion of the traditional relationship between identity and difference. This Deleuzian philosophy of difference is the subject of Jeffrey A. Bell's Philosophy at the Edge of Chaos. Bell argues that Deleuze's efforts to develop a philosophy of difference are best understood by exploring both Deleuze's claim to be a Spinozist, and Nietzsche's claim to have found in Spinoza an important precursor. Beginning with an analysis of these claims, Bell shows how Deleuze extends and transforms concepts at work in Spinoza and Nietzsche to produce a philosophy of difference that promotes and, in fact, exemplifies the notions of dynamic systems and complexity theory. With these concepts at work, Deleuze constructs a philosophical approach that avoids many of the difficulties that linger in other attempts to think about difference. Bell uses close readings of Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, and Whitehead to illustrate how Deleuze's philosophy is successful in this regard and to demonstrate the importance of the historical tradition for Deleuze. Far from being a philosopher who turns his back on what is taken to be a mistaken metaphysical tradition, Bell argues that Deleuze is best understood as a thinker who endeavoured to continue the work of traditional metaphysics and philosophy.
This publication reflects on the discussion on using chaos theory for the study of society. It explores the interface between chaos theory and the social sciences. A broad variety of fields (including Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Management, Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences) is represented in the book. The leading themes are: Conceptual and Methodological Issues, Social Connectionism and the Connectionist Mind, Social Institutions and Public Policy, and Social Simulations. The book includes the following topics: the relevance of the complexity-chaos paradigm for analyzing social systems, the usefulness of nonlinear dynamics for studying the formation and sustainability of social groups, the comparison between spontaneous social orders and spontaneous biological/natural orders, the building of Artificial Societies, and the contribution of the chaos paradigm to a better understanding and formulation of public policies.
