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Globalization: understanding complexity

School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK, k.cole{at}uea.ac.uk

With the increasing availability of relatively cheap computer technology, and the development of sophisticated, nonlinear mathematical techniques, the ‘science’ of complexity emerged in the 1990s. The intellectual concern is the process by which systems composed of interdependent components change, and order is restored, while not tending to equilibrium or stability. Initially concerned with order in ‘natural’ processes (chemical reactions, biological evolution, etc.), recently there has been interest in the study of a complex, emerging order within the process of globalization. This paper reviews the debate, concluding that a process of democracy is the feedback mechanism for establishing order in a complex, globalized world.

Key Words: complexity • democracy • globalization • localization • mobilization

Progress in Development Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, 323-338 (2003)
DOI: 10.1191/1464993403ps068oa


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