"In loosely coupled systems by contrast there is plenty of slack in terms of time, resources and organizational capacity. They are much less likely to produce normal accidents since incidents can be .coped with, so avoiding the interactive complexity found within the tightly coupled system. in the latter, moreover, the effects are non-linear. Up to a point, tightening the connections between elements in the system will increase efficiency when everything works smoothly. But, if one small item goes wrong, then that can have a catastrophic knock-on effect throughout the system. The system literally switches over; from smooth functioning to interactively complex disaster. And sometimes this results from a supposed improvement in the system." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"In particular, complexity examines how components of a system can through their dynamic interaction 'spontaneously' develop collective properties or patterns, such as colour, that do not seem implicit, or at least not implicit in the same way, within individual components. Complexity investigates emergent properties, certain regularities of behaviour that somehow transcend the ingredients that make them up. Complexity argues against reductionism, against reducing the whole to the parts. And in so doing it transforms scientific understanding of far-from-equilibrium structures, of irreversible times and of non-Euclidean mobile spaces. It emphasizes how positive feedback loops can exacerbate initial stresses in the system and render it unable to absorb shocks to re-establish the original equilibrium. Positive feedback occurs when a change tendency is reinforced rather than dampened clown. Very strong interactions occur between the parts of such systems, with the absence of a central hierarchical structure that unambiguously' governs' and produces outcomes. These outcomes are to be seen as both uncertain and irreversible." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"[…] it is useful to note that there are three basic network topologies. First, there are line or chain networks with many nodes that are spread out in more or less linear fashion. Second, there are star or hub networks, where most important relationships move through a central hub or hubs. Third, there are all-channel networks, in which communications proceed in more or less all directions across the network simultaneously […]." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"More generally, thermodynamics shows that there is an irreversible flow of time. Rather than there being time symmetry and indeed a reversibility of time as postulated in classical physics, a clear distinction is drawn between the past and future. An arrow of time results within open systems in the loss of organization and an increase in randomness or disorder over time. This accumulation of disorder or positive entropy results from the Second Law of Thermodynamics." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"Systems are thus seen by complexity as being ‘on the edge of chaos'. Order and chaos are in a kind of balance where the components are neither fully locked into place but yet do not fully dissolve into anarchy. chaos is not complete anarchic randomness but there is a kind of 'orderly disorder' present within all such dynamic systems." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"The science of complex systems provides a way of thinking about social order that transcends the static nature of classical sociological functionalism, where the fixed parts of the social body are seen as providing specific functions within the workings of the social whole." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"This connectedness of science with its system of investigation has two major implications for what follows. First, we need to ask if the particular physical and/or social system presents itself to the current practices of social science in ways that mean it can be systematically observed and analysed. What are the conditions of possibility of a science of that system, or systems in question? What forms could it take given the current observational, measurement and theoretical practices of contemporary science? Second, we should ask if these practices of investigation themselves produce complex effects upon the system in question, in cases resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy where research findings help to bring about the very effects that they are themselves investigating." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
"Tipping points involve three notions: that events and phenomena are contagious, that little causes can have big effects, and that changes can happen not in a gradual linear way but dramatically at a moment when the system switches." (John Urry, "Global Complexity", 2003)
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