"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...

Professor Scott E. Page from University of Michigan introduces you to complexity science. You learn how this vibrant and still evolving discipline helps you understand the nature and behavior of systems formed of financial markets, corporations, native cultures, governments, and more.

"Mechanisms are very much a part of social life. For example, we can see that inequality has tended to increase over time and that cities can become segregated. But how do such mechanisms work? Analytical sociology is an influential approach to sociology which holds that explanations of social phenomena should focus on the social mechanisms that bring them about. This book evaluates the major features of this approach, focusing on the significance...