Harnessing Complexity in CSCW
Simon M. Kaplan, Lesley Seebeck · Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks · 2005
We argue that socio-technical systems can be understood as complex adaptive systems , that is, systems containing component sub-systems interacting such that they co-evolve. This viewpoint may allow us to understand more clearly the factors that underlie the complexities of socio-technical systems, and allows for a new approach to systems design predicated on unpredictable adaptive processes. System designers, we argue, need to seek to understand the underlying structures, drivers and nature of change within the system and of the system as a whole. This paper presents an outline of the complexity mechanisms that operate within socio-technical systems, and illustrates the concepts and system design implications by way of a case. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.