scholarly journals Resilient Social Actors in the Transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age on Cyprus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Meyer ◽  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Material Evidence

AbstractOur understanding of the earliest Iron Age on Cyprus has long remained somewhat obscure. This is the result of both a relative lack of material evidence and the fact that scholarly attention has focused more on the preceding Late Bronze Age and on the subsequent Cypro-Archaic period. As more, and more varied, data have accumulated, there have been calls for a more theoretically informed approach to considering the social changes involved, and even for prehistorians to extend their work into the Cypriot Iron Age. As a response to this, the present study considers a broad range of material and documentary evidence, attempts to reconstruct the political economy, and offers an interpretative framework based on social understandings of Complex Adaptive Systems theory. Using this approach, the authors conclude that, while the enduring realities of Cyprus—its geography, copper resources and long tradition of agropastoralism—continued to shape Cypriot culture, the Iron Age is not simply a continuation of its Bronze Age sociopolitical forms. We argue instead that the earliest Iron Age involved social actors negotiating new politico-economic agendas in response to changing conditions in the Iron Age eastern Mediterranean.

scholarly journals The class as a learning entity (complex adaptive system): An idea from complexity science and educational research

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Newell
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Individual Student ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Complexity Thinking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Social Collective

Educational theorists are making increasing use of the metaphors and concepts of complexity thinking in their discourses. In particular, Professors Brent Davis, Elaine Simmt, and Dennis Sumara have written extensively about using complexity thinking to shift attention from the individual student as the locus of learning (cognizing agent) to the social collective—the class—as the locus of learning. In this model, the class (students and teacher) is (potentially) a complex adaptive system. The students and teacher remain complex adaptive systems in their own right, but through dynamic local interactions there is the possibility of emergent behaviours indicative of learning that transcends that of the individuals within the class. The social collective we know as a class becomes an instance of the Aristotlean adage, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” (With the coda that we cannot understand the whole by merely understanding the components.) Davis, Simmt, and Sumara have segued from complexity-informed descriptions of educational collectives to discussions about facilitating the self-organization of classes into complex adaptive systems – learning systems, in their language. In this paper, I discuss complex adaptive systems and look at how Davis, Simmt, and Sumara developed their thesis that the class collective, rather than individual student, is the appropriate level to investigate learning and teaching. We conclude by addressing some of the possibilities and challenges inherent in such a redescription of communities of learners.

scholarly journals Organizing Theories for Disasters into a Complex Adaptive System Framework

Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Annetta Burger ◽  
William G. Kennedy ◽  
Andrew Crooks
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Disaster Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Interacting Systems ◽  
Individual Actor ◽  
The Individual

Increasingly urbanized populations and climate change have shifted the focus of decision makers from economic growth to the sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure and communities, especially when communities face multiple hazards and need to recover from recurring disasters. Understanding human behavior and its interactions with built environments in disasters requires disciplinary crossover to explain its complexity, therefore we apply the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS) to review disaster studies across disciplines. Disasters can be understood to consist of three interacting systems: (1) the physical system, consisting of geological, ecological, and human-built systems; (2) the social system, consisting of informal and formal human collective behavior; and (3) the individual actor system. Exploration of human behavior in these systems shows that CAS properties of heterogeneity, interacting subsystems, emergence, adaptation, and learning are integral, not just to cities, but to disaster studies and connecting them in the CAS framework provides us with a new lens to study disasters across disciplines. This paper explores the theories and models used in disaster studies, provides a framework to study and explain disasters, and discusses how complex adaptive systems can support theory building in disaster science for promoting more sustainable and resilient cities.

scholarly journals Estudos organizacionais e complexidade: Stacey e Morin

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Sérgio Luis Boeira ◽  
Ana Elise Cardoso Inácio ◽  
Jorge Altair Pinto Stürmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
The One

This theoretical essay aims to identify some approaches to the complexity of comparing contributions of internationally renowned authors as a reference in organizational studies, such as Stacey and Morin. In the literature that deals with the theme of complexity, many similar concepts are observed; several contributions of authors, some trained in natural sciences, others in the human sciences and philosophy. It is a theme that is recognized both inter and transdisciplinary, and it has been gaining pulse since the 1980's. The conclusion is that Stacey and Morin have significantly contributed to the understanding of the organizational process and the differences between their approaches can be understood by comparing their life experiences and academic training. Furthermore, it is evident that overtime Stacey supports the critical and broad approach advocated by Morin complexity. On the one hand, while Stacey remains in the social sciences, Morin articulates social sciences as well as biophysics and philosophy. Regarding existing disputes in the field of complexity studies, this comparison indicates an improvement from the perspective of complexity intelligence (Latin culture) over the angle of complex adaptive systems (Anglo - Saxon culture).

scholarly journals The cooperative dynamics of Brazilian Oil and Gas Innovations Systems A Research Proposal

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Alexandre Ferreira Gama ◽  
Adriana S Vivacqua
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Innovation System ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Brazilian legislation for the oil and gas sector stipulates a mandatory R&D investment for Oil and Gas Companies. This so-called Petroleum Law led to the establishment of an Innovation System between Universities, Government and Industry (UGI) in which relations between industry researchers and university professors are the heart of this system. From this perspective, modeling the social dynamics of researchers and professors could be considered a relevant contribution to understand the complex dynamic of this Innovation System. This article presents a research proposal to analyze and simulate the social dynamics of cooperation between researchers and professors through the Complex Adaptive Systems lens, in order to understand and measure the possible effects of the investment policy adopted by Brazilian government .

Distributed Agency

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Dante Suarez ◽  
Manuel Castañón-Puga
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Human Choice ◽  
Backwards Induction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Common

Distributed Agency is the name of a conceptual framework for describing complex adaptive systems that this paper develops. To understand the complexity of the world in a holistic fashion, the field of Modeling and Simulation is currently lacking a common terminology in which different bodies of knowledge can communicate with each other in a general language. In this work, agency is proposed as the common link between the different dimensions of reality, expressing the influence of one dimension on another. This conceptualization is based on a process of backwards induction where nested actors such as an evolved organism or a human choice can be represented as the resulting force of intertwined aims and constraints. The theoretical framework can serve as a point of reference for the social and computational researcher by communicating structural and emergent properties that are essential for the understanding of social and evolutionary phenomena such as companies, economies, governments, and ecosystems.

scholarly journals Recreation as a Social-Ecological Complex Adaptive System

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayde C. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Outdoor Recreation ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Recreation Management ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Adaptive

The environment and society are both the context for and product of human actions and interactions. Outdoor recreation is the primary interaction many people have with the environment and it is an interaction that greatly contributes to human well-being. To sustainably manage the social and ecological components of outdoor recreation, an integrative and dynamic systems perspective is needed. Analyses that link recreation management and recreational experiences to both social and ecological outcomes across multiple sales and over time are not developed. This article will outline how a number of fragmented recreation management frameworks such as the recreation experience model, beneficial outcomes, the recreation opportunity spectrum, limits of acceptable change, and constraints theory can be organized within a larger social-ecological framework. The outdoor recreation meta-framework presented here links structuration theory from the social sciences with theories of complex adaptive systems and hierarchical patch dynamics from ecology to understand the human and ecological drivers for and responses to outdoor recreation.

Cold and dry outbreaks in the eastern Mediterranean 3200 years ago

Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 933-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kaniewski ◽  
Nick Marriner ◽  
Rachid Cheddadi ◽  
Christophe Morhange ◽  
Joachim Bretschneider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Winter Precipitation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Food Shortages

Abstract Can climate affect societies? This question, of both past and present importance, is encapsulated by the major socioeconomic crisis that affected the Mediterranean 3200 yr ago. The demise of the core civilizations of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (Dark Ages) is still controversial because it raises the question of climate-change impacts on ancient societies. Although evidence for this climate shift has gradually gained currency, recent attempts to quantify its magnitude remain equivocal. Here we focus on the northern Levant (coastal Syria) where the economic, political, and cultural changes were particularly acute. We quantify past climate changes and find that mean annual temperatures attained anomalies of − 2.3 ± 0.3 °C to − 4.8 ± 0.4 °C compared to present-day conditions. Rainfall regimes displayed an important shift in seasonality, with a 40% decrease in winter precipitation. A 300 yr period of dry and cool climate started ∼3200 yr ago and was coeval with deep social changes in the eastern Mediterranean. These “Little Ice Age”–type conditions affected harvests, leading to severe food shortages that probably aggravated the sociopolitical tensions. This crisis highlights the fragility of societies, both past and present, to major climate-change episodes and their broader consequences.

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