Ivo Velichkov posted this on LinkedIn. I can’t find an un-paywalled version.
I said:
This makes me think it would be interesting to see a Jungian/archetypal reading of complexity. I confess I’m thinking of Jordan Peterson here.
To handle ‘unwieldy outer nature’ (the chaos! the chaos!) you must build barriers, but you must also bring some chaos into the order – both structured chaos, and symbolic representation of chaos… there’s something fascinating in there!
Complexity and rationality: a material-systemic approach
- Author(s):
- Abstract:
-
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to solving the complexity problem as increased complexity is a main reason why projects fail to reach their goals, and it is unclear what complexity is.Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual development integrating theories of materiality, teleology, and complexity, decision-making theory, communication theory, coordination theory, and qualitative, quantitative and participatory approaches are used in this paper.Findings
To understand complexity, it is necessary to develop a material-systemic process approach and to distinguish structured from unstructured complexity. The social actors construct a complex material-systemic process between themselves and nature to handle unwieldy outer nature. The material-systemic approach reveals how materiel life-world arenas are developed through increased complexity and specialization. Handling complexity is possible by materiality in general and structural material in special, the interplay between inner time (planning) and outer time (production), and between human subjects and an underlying coordination mechanism. It is a systematic organizational blockade that reproduces internal complexity as unstructured and incomprehensible complexity.
- Keywords:
- Coordination, Construction, Communication, Decision making, Complexity
- Type:
- Research paper
- Publisher:
- Emerald Publishing Limited
- Received:
- 04 October 2017
- Revised:
- 10 July 2018
- Accepted:
- 04 August 2018
Copyright:© Emerald Publishing Limited 2018
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited
Licensed re-use rights only
- Citation:
- Lars Andersen, (2018) “Complexity and rationality: a material-systemic approach”, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-10-2017-0116