I would recommend this one particularly if you are looking at environmental aspects of systems thinking in the social sciences:

Capra, F. and Luisi, P.L., 2014. The systems view of life: A unifying vision. Cambridge University Press.

You can find the first chapter online:

http://www.capracourse.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Introduction.pdf

Dear Bianca, most of economic literature is not about that, while most of social science literature is not mathematical. But I can recommend you this book by Brian Arthur that is quite different: https://www.amazon.com/Increasing-Returns-Dependence-Economics-Cognition/dp/0472064967

Besides that, you can look for the working papers in Santa Fe Institute: https://www.santafe.edu/research/results/working-papers

Hi Yuri,

thanks for your suggestions. I don't need it to be mathematical or related to economics. I just need to read about the theory of complex systems especially if connected to social science.

Panarchy. Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems.

Gunderson and Holling (eds), 2002, Island Press

You could also check out work from Ray Ison

A wonderful overview of systems theory in relation to systemic (social) interventions is Midgley, G. (2000) Systemic Intervention. Philosophy, methodology and practice. Kluwer Academics

It's some time that I would like to buy that book Anne..it is so expensive.

Dear Blancs,

Check this link, you can find all literature and theory of CAS, Dr. Wohl is making a grenat job in it.

http://cas.seanwittmeyer.com

Regards,

thanks!

"Complex adaptive systems: An introduction to computational models of social life" (John Miller & Scott Page)

''Complex Adaptive Systems in the Behavioral and Social Sciences''

Roy J. Eidelson, (1997) Vol. 1, No. 1,42-71

I can send the pdf of Midgley, G. (2000). Please provide email. Can´t share it here.

Hi Horacio, thanks for offering...at the end I bought it.

Good!

Arthur WB. 2015. Complexity and the economy. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. 211 pp.

Beinhocker ED. 2006. The origin of wealth : evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. 527 pp. Jervis R. 1997. System effects : complexity in political and social life. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 309 pp.

Have you seen The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, by Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi?

And a classic: Checkland, P. and J. Scholes (1990). Soft systems methodology in action. Chichester, England, John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

One of the bests I've seen:

Axelrod, R. and M.D. Cohen. 1999. Harnessing Complexity. Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier. NY: The Free Press.

Using a different language and framework (but also very good):

Christensen, C.M. 2003. The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do Business. Harper Business Essentials, New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Kelly Chapman (2016) Complexity and Creative Capacity: Rethinking knowledge transfer, adaptive management and wicked environmental problems. https://www.routledge.com/Complexity-and-Creative-Capacity-Rethinking-knowledge-transfer-adaptive/Chapman/p/book/9781138929999

--- why "drive-by shooting" doesn't work for knowledge transfer and what you have to do instead.

Agent-Based models of Socio-Technical Systems, eds. van Dam, Nikolic and Lukso

There is a Theory chapter and a Practice chapter that may be particularly useful, followed by lots of examples of people who have built an agent-based model as a way of dealing with complexity and evolution in systems with people, technologies, economics, etc.

What a great thread! Also curious...

The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability. 2008. David Waltner-Toews · James Kay · Nina-Marie Lister

https://binged.it/2RmmxqR

I have just started reading, and am interested to hear if others know the book / have found it useful.

I'm also finding STS-type work very helpful but I am not sure if it's been explicitly linked to CAS...anyone know?

About the Ecosystem Approach:

Is sustainable development a workable solution for today's environmental problems? Is it scientifically defensible? Best known for applying ecological theory to the engineering problems of everyday life, the late scholar James J. Kay was a leader in the study of social and ecological complexity and the thermodynamics of ecosystems. Drawing from his immensely important work, as well as the research of his students and colleagues, The Ecosystem Approach is a guide to the aspects of complex systems theories relevant to social-ecological management. Advancing a methodology that is rooted in good theory and practice, this book features case studies conducted in the Arctic and Africa, in Canada and Kathmandu, and in the Peruvian Amazon, Chesapeake Bay, and Chennai, India. Applying a systems approach to concrete environmental issues, this volume is geared toward scientists, engineers, and sustainable development scholars and practitioners who are attuned to the ideas of the Resilience Alliance-an international group of scientists who take a more holistic view of ecology and environmental problem-solving. Chapters cover the origins and rebirth of the ecosystem approach in ecology; the bridging of science and values; the challenge of governance in complex systems; systemic and participatory approaches to management; and the place for cultural diversity in the quest for global sustainability.

I also suggest the publications by Scott Page. He has (co-)authored two books:

- Miller, J. H., & Page, S. E. (2009). Complex adaptive systems: An introduction to computational models of social life (Vol. 17). Princeton university press.

- Page, S. E. (2010). Diversity and complexity. Princeton University Press.

Also the book mentioned above " Agent-Based models of Socio-Technical Systems " is insightful. I believe Dr. Nikolic is a key figure at the moment, and there are lots of interesting dissertations and publication coming out every year from TPM department at TU Delft.

For a summary of important papers, you can also look at the first chapter of this dissertation:

Thesis Three Essays on Methodologies for Dynamic Modeling of Emergi...

This book of Patton describes the adaptive cycle in developmental evaluation and systems thinking:

M. Q. Patton. (2011). Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 373 pages.

Midgley, G. (2000). Systemic intervention. Philosophy, methodology and practice. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Based on an overview of the development of systems thinking, Midgley proposes an ontology (questioning the subject-object opposition, and evaluating different approaches to systems thinking in that light). This ontology is then translated into an methodological framework, which he next illustrates by various cases from social sciences (cases in the global North as well as South). Excellent book !

It's also totally in line with Kelly Chapman's 'Complexity and Creative capacity' which is the best introduction to complex non-linear ontology I've read so far. What drives her research is the question how to influence governance for more sustainability (complex cocreated solutions). She gives the broad philosophical basis for a cocreative/co-evolutionary epistemology, whereas Midgley goes deeper into the methodological implications of co-evolution (leaving behind the subject-object opposition).

I would recommend this one particularly if you are looking at environmental aspects of systems thinking in the social sciences:

Capra, F. and Luisi, P.L., 2014. The systems view of life: A unifying vision. Cambridge University Press.

You can find the first chapter online:

http://www.capracourse.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Introduction.pdf

Social Systems. [by] Niklas Luhmann and translated by John Bednarz, Jr. with Dirk Baecker. (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1995).

The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability

David Waltner-Toews, James J. Kay and Nina-Marie E. Lister

Columbia University Press, August 2008

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ecosystem-approach/9780231132510

For more insight into two specific theories within system thinking, transition theory and social practice theory, and the theoretical link:

Kris Bachus Frederic Vanswijgenhoven: The use of regulatory taxation as a policy instrument for sustainability transitions: old wine in new bottles or unexplored potential? · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 61(1):1-18

Rick Hölsgens · Stephanie Lübke · Marco Hasselkuß: Social innovations in the German energy transition: an attempt to use the heuristics of the multi-level perspective of transitions to analyze the diffusion process of social innovations · Energy, Sustainability and Society 8(1)

Geyer, Felix, and Johannes van der Zouwen. Sociocybernetics: Complexity, Autopoiesis, and Observation of Social Systems. Greenwood Press, 2001.

Blute, Marion. Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution: Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

This article is a really good overview that will direct you to many sources not mentioned above

Article The Complexity Turn

Dear Bianca,

If you haven't already come across this publication, I also recommend:

Kim, Rakhyun & Mackey, Brendan. 2014. International Environmental Law as Complex Adaptive System. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. 14(1): 5-24

I am reading about CASs and legal systems. In that field, J.B. Ruhl is doing interesting work. Also, the recent book https://www.amazon.com/Complexity-Theory-Law-Emergent-Jurisprudence/dp/0415786096