Communication and Self-Organisation in Complex Systems: A Basic Approach

The emergence of complex behaviour in systems consisting of interacting elements is among the most fascinating phenomena of our world. Examples can be found in almost every field of today’s scientific interest, ranging from coherent pattern formation in physical and chemical systems (Feistel and Ebeling 1989; Cladis and Palffy-Muhoray 1995), to the motion of swarms of animals in biology (DeAngelis and Gross 1992) and the behaviour of social groups (Weidlich 1991; Vallacher and Nowak 1994). In the social and life sciences, it has generally been held that the evolution of social systems is determined by numerous factors —cultural, sociological, economic, political, and ecological, etc. However, in recent years, the development of the interdisciplinary ‘science of complexity’ has led to the insight that complex dynamic processes may also result from simple interactions. Moreover, at a certain level of abstraction, one can find many common features between complex structures in very different fields (Schweitzer 1997a, b).

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