scholarly journals The Action Scales Model: A conceptual tool to identify key points for action within complex adaptive systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 175791392110067
Author(s):  
James D Nobles ◽  
Duncan Radley ◽  
Oliver T Mytton ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Intervention Level ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Four Levels

Background: Systems thinking is integral to working effectively within complex systems, such as those which drive the current population levels of overweight and obesity. It is increasingly recognised that a systems approach – which corrals public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations to make their actions and efforts coherent – is necessary to address the complex drivers of obesity. Identifying, implementing and evaluating actions within complex adaptive systems is challenging, and may differ from previous approaches used in public health. Methods: Within this conceptual article, we present the Action Scales Model (ASM). The ASM is a simple tool to help policymakers, practitioners and evaluators to conceptualise, identify and appraise actions within complex adaptive systems. We developed this model using our collective expertise and experience in working with local government authority stakeholders on the Public Health England Whole Systems Obesity programme. It aligns with, and expands upon, previous models such as the Intervention Level Framework, the Iceberg Model and Donella Meadows’ 12 places to intervene within a system. Results: The ASM describes four levels (synonymous with leverage points) to intervene within a system, with deeper levels providing greater potential for changing how the system functions. Levels include events, structures, goals and beliefs. We also present how the ASM can be used to support practice and policy, and finish by highlighting its utility as an evaluative aid. Discussion: This practical tool was designed to support those working at the front line of systems change efforts, and while we use the population prevalence of obesity as an outcome of a complex adaptive system, the ASM and the associated principles can be applied to other issues. We hope that the ASM encourages people to think differently about the systems that they work within and to identify new and potentially more impactful opportunities to leverage change.

scholarly journals A Transdisciplinary Complex Adaptive Systems (T-CAS) Approach to Developing a National School-Based Culture of Prevention for Health Improvement: the School Health Research Network (SHRN) in Wales

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Murphy ◽  
Hannah Littlecott ◽  
Gillian Hewitt ◽  
Sarah MacDonald ◽  
Joan Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
School Health ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Culture Of Prevention

AbstractThe paper reflects on a transdisciplinary complex adaptive systems (T-CAS) approach to the development of a school health research network (SHRN) in Wales for a national culture of prevention for health improvement in schools. A T-CAS approach focuses on key stages and activities within a continuous network cycle to facilitate systems level change. The theory highlights the importance of establishing transdisciplinary strategic partnerships to identify and develop opportunities for system reorientation. Investment in and the linking of resources develops the capacity for key social agents to take advantage of disruption points in the re-orientated system, and engagement activities develop the network to facilitate new social interactions and opportunities for transdisciplinary activities. A focus on transdisciplinary action research to co-produce interventions, generate research evidence and inform policy and practice is shown to play an important part in developing new normative processes that act to self-regulate the emerging system. Finally, the provision of reciprocal network benefits provides critical feedback loops that stabilise the emerging adaptive system and promote the network cycle. SHRN is shown to have embedded itself in the system by securing sustainability funding from health and education, a key role in national and regional planning and recruiting every eligible school to the network. It has begun to reorient the system to one of evidence generation (56 research studies co-produced) and opportunities for data-led practice at multiple levels. Further capacity development will be required to capitalise on these. The advantages of a complex systems approach to address barriers to change and the transferability of a T-CAS network approach across settings and cultures are highlighted.

Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking Approach for Intelligence Base in Support of Intellectual Capital Management

2013 ◽  
pp. 122-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Rabaey
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Organizational Design ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Systems Thinking Approach

This chapter introduces Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking (CAST) into the domain of Intellectual Capital (IC). CAST is based on the theories of Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and Systems Thinking (ST). It argues that the CAST, combined with Intelligence Base offers a potentially more holistic approach to managing the Intellectual Capital of an organization. Furthermore, the authors extend this IC management with additional dimensions proper to a social entity such as an organization. New organizational design methods are needed and the capability approach is such a method that supports IC in virtual and real organizations. The characteristics of Intellectual Capital are discussed in the iterative process of inquiry and the Cynefin Framework, guaranteeing a holistic view on the organization and its environment.

scholarly journals Holonic Handling the Unexpected in Project Management

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
Levente Bakos ◽  
Dănuț Dumitrașcu
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Multi Agent Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Known Unknowns

Abstract Risk assessment is one the key activities of any project. The unexpected situations can have catastrophic consequences. Risk assessment tries to estimate to potential known unknowns, but there is no guarantee to foresee all circumstances around a project. In this situation the project team must be adaptive and find solutions by cooperation, creativity and abductive reasoning. In the paper we tried to analyse on what extent a project and a project team can be handled as a complex adaptive system. More precisely, how the scientific and practical achievements of the theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS) can be used in project management. More exactly, we analyse the applicability of the Holonic Multi-Agent Systems in risk management of the projects. We consider the way in which holons handle the unexpected situations can be a model in project management.

scholarly journals Next Generation Data Infrastructures: Towards an Extendable Model of the Asset Management Data Infrastructure as Complex Adaptive System

Complexity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Brous ◽  
Marijn Janssen ◽  
Paulien Herder
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Emergent Behavior ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Management Domain ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Data Infrastructures

Organizations are increasingly looking to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) to collect the data required for data-driven decision-making. IoT might yield many benefits for asset management organizations engaged in infrastructure asset management, yet not all organizations are equipped to handle this data. IoT data is collected, stored, and analyzed within data infrastructures and there are many changes over time, resulting in the evolution of the data infrastructure and the need to view data infrastructures as complex adaptive systems (CAS). Such data infrastructures represent information about physical reality, in this case about the underlying physical infrastructure. Physical infrastructures are often described and analyzed in literature as CASs, but their underlying data infrastructures are not yet systematically analyzed, whereas they can also be viewed as CAS. Current asset management data models tend to view the system from a static perspective, posing constraints on the extensibility of the system, and making it difficult to adopt new data sources such as IoT. The objective of the research is therefore to develop an extensible model of asset management data infrastructures which helps organizations implement data infrastructures which are capable of evolution and aids the successful adoption of IoT. Systematic literature review and an IoT case study in the infrastructure management domain are used as research methods. By adopting a CAS lens in the design, the resulting data infrastructure is extendable to deal with evolution of asset management data infrastructures in the face of new technologies and new requirements and to steadily exhibit new forms of emergent behavior. This paper concludes that asset management data infrastructures are inherently multilevel, consisting of subsystems, links, and nodes, all of which are interdependent in several ways.

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.

Speech as a breakthrough signaling resource in the cognitive evolution of biological complex adaptive systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias A. Mattei
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Triggering Events ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn self-adapting dynamical systems, a significant improvement in the signaling flow among agents constitutes one of the most powerful triggering events for the emergence of new complex behaviors. Ackermann and colleagues' comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the brain structures involved in acoustic communication provides further evidence of the essential role which speech, as a breakthrough signaling resource, has played in the evolutionary development of human cognition viewed from the standpoint of complex adaptive system analysis.

Price discovery by the market's mind: an investor's perspective on numerical archetypes

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-153
Author(s):  
Patrick Schotanus
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Price Discovery ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Complex Adaptive

The aim of this paper is to contribute to Jung's later work, with a particular focus on the numerical archetypes viewed from an investor's perspective. It attempts to achieve this via a three-pronged approach. First, placing complex psychology in the framework of complexity theory allows a robust acknowledgement and treatment of ‘elusive’ macroscopic properties, i.e. archetypal dynamics, involved in the ordering of a mind as a complex adaptive system. Second, modern insights in number sense (the direct intuition of what numbers mean) provide neuroscientific support for numerical archetypes and clarify their primacy. Third, this paper points to the empirical relevance of numerical archetypes in price discovery, the self-organizing principle of the capital markets (which allocate resources in modern society). The resulting proposition is that the (collective) mind's unconscious and conscious forces can be considered as ‘intelligent’ agents. The competition between these two domains provides the necessary condition to endogenously generate innovative outcomes, the essential capability of complex adaptive systems. According to this view producing such adaptive novelty is achieved in the form of intuitive insights and imagination, which result in a vast array of symbols, e.g. prices in the case of the market's mind.

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.

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