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Self-Organization (Nonlinear Dynamic Spatial Systems)

Self-Organization (Nonlinear Dynamic Spatial Systems)

Self-Organization imposes on top of emergence the idea that the emergent outcomes a system exhibits are often structured so that the system can be considered to be organized into a number of interacting subsystems.
Self-Organization, partly because it demands more of the world than emergence, may be a more useful concept. The idea that it is possible for functionally distinct subsystems to develop in a complex system seems inherently geographic. Self-Organization presupposes spatial differentiation in a system and in a geographical context evokes concepts such as regions, or the functional areas of a city.
A further concept often overlaid onto Self-Organization is adaptivity. A Self-Organized system that is also considered adaptive is termed a complex adaptive system. Such systems are widely considered to be the paradigmatic objects of interest in complexity theory. How systems adapt to their environment in order to maintain their continuing function is a question with relevance in biology (where it is applied to organisms), but equally to social sciences where it may be applied to “systems” such as language, society itself, or indeed any collective social structure.