| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.05
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Diversity and Complexity (Primers in Complex Systems) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.05, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This book provides an introduction to the role of diversity in complex adaptive systems. A complex system--such as an economy or a tropical ecosystem--consists of interacting adaptive entities that produce dynamic patterns and structures. Diversity plays a different role in a complex system than it does in an equilibrium system, where it often merely produces variation around the mean for performance measures. In complex adaptive systems, diversity makes fundamental contributions to system performance.
Scott Page gives a concise primer on how diversity happens, how it is maintained, and how it affects complex systems. He explains how diversity underpins system level robustness, allowing for multiple responses to external shocks and internal adaptations; how it provides the seeds for large events by creating outliers that fuel tipping points; and how it drives novelty and innovation. Page looks at the different kinds of diversity--variations within and across types, and distinct community compositions and interaction structures--and covers the evolution of diversity within complex systems and the factors that determine the amount of maintained diversity within a system.
- Provides a concise and accessible introduction
- Shows how diversity underpins robustness and fuels tipping points
- Covers all types of diversity
- The essential primer on diversity in complex adaptive systems
From the Back Cover
"Scott Page effectively illustrates the multiplicity of results from diverse aspects of complex systems. While all too many social scientists have tried to focus on making analysis simple, Page points out that this overlooks the great variety of relevant material in our social worlds. I am looking forward to having my students read it in my graduate seminar and encourage others to do so as well."--Elinor Ostrom, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics
"At once clear and precise, Page not only makes a persuasive case for the advantages of diversity in biological, ecological, and social systems alike, but also provides the reader with the analytical tools necessary to engage real-world debates in a rational, even quantitative manner. The result is a valuable primer on a difficult and important subject."--Duncan J. Watts, author of Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness
"Scott Page has performed a remarkable work of synthesis. The concepts of diversity and its implications for performance and growth are common to many fields, especially biology and economics. Page has drawn these illustrations together and shown the common elements and how each field illuminates others."--Kenneth J. Arrow, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics
"Page engagingly seduces readers into rather deep ideas in complex systems, including sophisticated mathematical formulas, by using a relaxed style with lots of examples. Yet the treatment is rigorous."--Simon A. Levin, Princeton University
"One of the book's many strengths is that it draws upon insights from seemingly disconnected areas of research and shows how they can be viewed within a common framework. Page's style is lively and conversational, making challenging subject matter quite readable, but without any sacrifice of rigor. He manages to convey both the excitement and difficulty of analyzing complex systems and the role of diversity within them."--Rajiv Sethi, Barnard College, Columbia University
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Definitions are easy, insight isn't. Definitions I can get anywhere or make them up myself. The invitation Page provides is simple: here's a couple of ways to think about the phenomenon under consideration. And he does so with a comfortable degree of depth and rigor. I have to admit, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the role of diversity in complex systems. So maybe now it isn't an afterthought.
Page is no Tom Clancy, but neither is the book boring. A bit of a warning though, if you do not know much about complexity, maybe it would be a good idea to read a primer first. Page gives an intro on complexity, but its a bit shallow. I think a novice ought to have a better appreciation for connectedness, inter-dependency, adaptability, etc. in general to provide a richer context.
Let's face it, a lot of concepts in complexity science are axiomatic at best, and ill-defined/poorly understood to any degree of depth. I think it is very much worthwhile to take a characteristic of complex systems, i.e. diversity, and spend some time and effort exploring its nuances. Good job and a worthy addition to anyone's library on complexity.
If I lost my copy, is the book worthwhile enough to buy it again? Yes.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > Science & Nature
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Anthropology > Social & Cultural
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology > Family & Social Groups > Marriage & Family
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
