Chaotics: An Agenda for Business and Society in the Twenty-first Century (Praeger Studies on the 21st Century.): An Agenda for Business and Society in ... Studies on the 21st Century (Hardcover)) - Hardcover

Anderla, Georges; Dunning, Anthony; Forge, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275956911 ISBN 13: 9780275956912

Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 1997

Synopsis

Chaotics The book examines personal identity and its loss in modern society, as well as the search for new contacts and gratification through technology. Full description

About this title

Review:

"This unusual book describes and promotes a new theory of economics based on two principles: chaos theory and complexity of the modern world. In the authors' view, the new theory of chaotics is drawn from some rather diverse sources: pre-Roman sages, predecessors of Adam Smith, and non-classical economists."-Choice

"Chaotics is another in an admirable series of efforts to transfer learning and concepts from branches of the physical sciences to the social sciences, including business and economics."-Competitive Intelligence Review

?Chaotics is another in an admirable series of efforts to transfer learning and concepts from branches of the physical sciences to the social sciences, including business and economics.?-Competitive Intelligence Review

?This unusual book describes and promotes a new theory of economics based on two principles: chaos theory and complexity of the modern world. In the authors' view, the new theory of chaotics is drawn from some rather diverse sources: pre-Roman sages, predecessors of Adam Smith, and non-classical economists.?-Choice

From the Author:

Chaos and complexity applied to business and social scene.
CHAOTICS: AN AGENDA FOR BUSINESS AND SOCIETY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Every major historical period develops its own brand of comprehensive world outlook or worldscape - Weltanschauung - based on its particular perception of the universe, as well as a social superstructure attuned to that vision. Examples include: the Italian Renaissance, Newton's age of reason and the industrial revolution.

Our times are no exception. Chaotics, as we see it, is a forerunner of a new cultural revolution that is increasingly engulfing mankind in a whirl of change before our very eyes. Chaotics challenges many of the assumptions that used to underpin conventional business, as well as the very fabric of our society.

What does chaotics stand for and how did it push itself to the forefront? In everyday parlance, «chaos» as such has no precise meaning. This vague concept began to change in the 1960s when researchers from astronomy to weather forecasting and the study of wildlife populations, became intrigued by rapidly mounting evidence of disorderly behaviour of systems that could be traced back to trifling events or fluctuations, or even to minuscule errors of measurement at an early stage.

Chaotic systems are networks of myriad autonomous agents interlocking in a multitude of ways. The overall impression is one of confusion; yet on closer inspection, some trends and behavioural patters are discernible. Examples include cells, brains, bees and ants, and they range from markets to industries, from firms to social entities of all kinds.

Agents alternately compete and cooperate, and this unceasing interplay gives rise to self-organised groupings, increasingly intricate, yet highly adaptive. In a nutshell: spontaneous self-organisation is the quintessence of chaotics.

This overall conception of the universe is antithetical to the deterministic, clockwork world of Newton and Laplace. People have always known that neither nature nor life are as linearly harmonious and straightforward as the models of scientists; engineers and philosophers would suggest. However, it was only much later, when computers became available, that the messy pieces of mother nature and even the mishaps of social organisation have become the focus of serious attention.

Another clarification is in order. Almost without exception, researchers and writers on the subject have stressed the negative, threatening aspects of chaos theory, pointing out in particular the danger of greater complexity and lamenting the pitfalls of space-time trade-offs under the umbrella disguise of globalisation. This fatalistic posture, which leads inevitably to defensive business strategies, as well as to social desperation, may have something to do with the present world landscape: total economic collapse of Africa north of Johannesburg, ultra-nationalism in Russia, militarism in China, violence in the Middle-East, repeated currency turmoil in the Far-East, organised crime in the Western World. It amounts to a doomsday list at the close of the second millennium.

The good news is that there is nothing in chaotics to support the fatalistic attitudes. We take complexity, chaos and chaotics in general, as tangible forces for good as well as bad, with a plea to make every effort to understand them, and to learn how to cope and use them creatively.

More and more companies, especially in high-tech industries where initial fixed costs have grown sky-high, tend towards a new pattern of returns, analogous to positive feedback.

Operating under increasing rather than decreasing returns is the baseline from which to start making hardcore decisions at the top. To produce better-quality goods or services, more quickly, while using fewer resources is today a must for all companies, large and small. This requires recasting some production processes, overhauling the organisation and, above all raising the acumen of management at the macro and micro level.

There are richly rewarding parallels to be drawn between the corpus of principles and precepts of chaotics, on the one hand, and the effective operation of businesses and the economy under new conditions and constraints, on the other hand. Rigidities all along the line must go unconditionally, and that includes, in particular, such sacred cows as quantifiable "scientific management" , and of course command-and-control deterministic strategies, based on extrapolations from the past and on "business as usual".

Everywhere we see new forms of business organisation emerging under the impact of chaotic reverse scale effects, combined with self-organisation. Future projects of herculean proportions will be beyond the means even of the biggest corporations. But they will be achievable via "schools of minnows" - smaller companies acting in concert. The self-organisation principle points to a gamut of structures, from ad hoc alliances to virtual communities spread across the globe.

In such a context, the advantages of small size - in terms of special skills, scaled-down equipment and flexible machines, shorter production runs, leaner operations, extreme adaptability to changing markets and environments - will be at a premium. Acting and reacting together, these often inconspicuous pluses will foster "coopetition", an original combination of phased-in and phased-out competition and cooperation, unimaginable only a generation ago.

To apply chaotics to social problems and woes may well turn out to be even more relevant than preaching the same gospel to the business congregation. In this vast area, three problems stand out; unemployment, under development, and the degradation of the environment.

Prevailing human and societal preoccupations are to be seen against a backdrop that is shamefully disquieting. Throughout the world, three billion human beings lead a highly precarious existence, whilst two billions are permanently parked under the poverty line. According to the OECD, here are over 800 million unemployed and grossly underemployed world-wide. In Europe alone, real joblessness is record-high, estimated at perhaps 30-35 million. And, whilst the US presently enjoys long-term growth and high employment the staggering figure of 1,800,000 prison inmates illuminates the shattered cultural frameworks of America's marginalized millions.

Moreover, the casualty rates caused by natural and man-made calamities are rising exponentially at close to 6 per cent per annum. Consider the near destruction of the ozone layer; the death-throes of the Caspian sea; the systematic deforestation of Brazil and Malaysia; the desertification of sub-Saharan Africa; the continuous migration of people from the country everywhere to unmanageable megalopolises.

Our book provides an overview of some appropriate therapies for curing some of the woes of business and society, based on the ideas of chaos, complexity and self-organisation.

About this edition

• Publisher: Praeger Publishers
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0275956911
• ISBN 13: 9780275956912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240