A Complex Systems Account of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Illustrations from India

The Covid-19 pandemic in India and the rest of the world was followed by tremendous health and social consequences. Worldwide the pandemic created challenges that were unpredictable and elusive to our existing ways of thinking. The paper posits that a complex systems thinking is needed to make sense of the society-wide ramifications of a ‘wicked’ problem like the pandemic and devise appropriate resolutions. A complex systems thinking conceptualizes our society as emergent from irreducible interdependencies across individuals, communities and systems and the pandemic as a complex systems problem that has consequences both immediate and future. The paper uses the complexity lens to explore the unanticipated repercussions of the pandemic control measures that further accentuated pandemic induced socio-economic disruptions, and secondly, the domain of Covid-19 treatment in India, as examples, to demonstrate that while devising a response to complex phenomena like the pandemic more needs to be accounted for than what meets the eye. It thus calls for a more caring science that understands and respects our shared existence and wellbeing and makes use of diverse, democratic and decentralised processes to forge shared pathways for navigating our complex world.

Osteopathy in the Cranial Field from a Systems Theory Perspective

A proposition is made for scientific substantiation of “Primary respiration” and related concepts, including suggestions for future research. For research and support, the field of mathematics, artificial intelligence, chaos theory and complex systems thinking can be of fundamental and essential value.

Teaching for Complex Systems Thinking

What do a short car trip, a pandemic, the wood-wide fungal web, a challenging learning experience, a storm, transport logistics, and the language(s) we speak have in common? All of them are systems, or multiple sets of systems within systems. What happens in any set of circumstances will depend on a mix of initial conditions, complexity dynamics, and the odd wild card (e.g., a chance event). While it is possible to model and predict what might or perhaps should happen, it is impossible to be certain. “It depends” thinking needs to be applied. Future-focused literature identifies complex systems thinking as an essential capability for citizenship, and this book sets out to show teachers how they might foster it—for themselves as well as for their students. There are implications for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Multiple examples show what changes might look like, for students of different ages, and in different subject contexts. This is a book of several layers: It is both practical and philosophical. There is explicit discussion of parallels between complexity science and indigenous knowledge systems (specifically mātauranga Māori in the New Zealand context). The many examples are designed to appeal to general readers with an interest in the complex challenges facing contemporary societies, as well as to teachers at all levels of the education system.

FOUNDATIONS OF cHINESE SYSTEMS SCIENCE

The fast developments of (complex) systems thinking cannot be understood without taking the cultural and philosophical context into consideration. In this article, An attempt is made to explain the foundation of thriving CHINESE systems thinking, because China seems to fully undertand the significance and importance of thinking (and engineering) systemically. The conclusion of the paper is two-pronged: (a) the Chinese have been system thinkers (or pattern seekers) from the very beginning of their turbulent history and (B) Western system thinkers, who disagree with each other on many fronts, could, nay should learn something from ancient China, particularly from that amazing, almost forgotten classical book called the Yijing, a book about systems science in a nutshell.

The implications of complexity, systems thinking and philosophy for pediatricians

National service systems in child healthcare are characterized by diversity and complexity. Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare services create complex networks covering pediatric subspecialties, psychology, sociology, economics and politics. Can pediatrics exist without philosophy? Does the absence of integrating philosophical perspectives during conceptualization of pediatric care contribute to deficiencies in the service systems structuring child healthcare? Philosophy offers new ways of complex systems thinking in scientific and clinical pediatrics. Philosophy could improve coping strategies on different levels when dealing with ethics of research projects, individual child healthcare and crises of healthcare service systems. Boundary and ultimate situations experienced by severely sick children require help, hope and resilience. Patients and families as well as pediatricians and other caregivers must act in concert. All of them may benefit from consulting with philosophers. The aim of this article is to point out the risks of a strict separation of scientific insight and sensory experience affecting child healthcare in our modern society, which is dominated by technology, competition and lack of equity and time.

Complexity in international society: theorising fragmentation and linkages in primary and secondary institutions

This article seeks to contribute to theorising the institutional structure of international society by exploring synergies between complex systems thinking and the English School theory of International Relations (IR). Suggesting that the English School already embraces key conceptual insights from complexity theory, most notably relational and adaptive systems thinking, it reconfigures international society as a complex social system. To further advance the English School’s research programme on international institutions, the article introduces the notion of “law-governed emergence” and distils two effects it has on global institutional ordering practices: fragmentation and clustering. These moves help to establish complexity as a fundamental structural condition of institutional ordering at the global level, and to provide a basis for taking steps toward better understanding the nature and significance of institutional interconnections in a globalised international society.

Systems modelling to support the complex nature of healthcare services

Healthcare is a service commonly associated with lacking performance in relation to output and the economy of production. Contingency theory and complex systems thinking are approaches here combined to study the logistics of healthcare service flows. Contingency theory directs attention to networked interdependencies while complex systems thinking concerns process emergence and flexible resource use in supporting logistics. This hybrid form of analysis gives conceptual direction to information technology development and use to support the logistics of healthcare services. Three small examples of healthcare service as logistics processes in their as-is state are provided and analysed based on the developed analytical framework. These illustrate in detail what exemplifies complexity in this industry. Given the inherently complex nature of many types of healthcare services, this discussion concerns how to conceptually model information systems in healthcare services as a complex system. This chosen complexity-sensitive approach of service logistics constitutes a basis for information technology enabled healthcare service development sensitive to this type of service provision directing focus to the emergent features of healthcare service needs. It is also a basis for further investigation into this topic of information technology use to support the inherent logistical complexity of healthcare services.

On complex archaeologies: conceptualizing social complexity and its potential for archaeology

This article surveys a number of approaches in complex systems thinking and their relevance for applications in the field of archaeology. It focuses in particular on the fundamental role of social interactions and information transmission as constituent elements for the development of organizational complexity on a community level. Given the impossibility of direct observations of these constituent interactions and practices, it is then outlined how this theoretical model can be applied on the material remains found in the archaeological record. It is discussed how material surroundings – including architectural structures and material objects – are used to shape and structure social interactions and practices in various ways. It is shown how complex organizational structures develop through underlying mechanisms of change such as diversification, connectivity and standardization, and how these can be applied in archaeological case studies. The presented framework will thus show how structures of social organization and development of social complexity can be inferred from the archaeological record.