Emergent Complexity Discourses

Focus

Attending to the co-amplifying possibilities of systems comprising coupled agents

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge is … range of possible activity
  • Knowing is … doing, being
  • Learner is … a complex system
  • Learning is … adapting
  • Teaching is … influencing, occasioning

Originated

1950s

Synopsis

Most, but not all Emergent Complexity Discourses are explicitly aligned with Complex Systems Research and the phenomenon of Emergence (see below). A uniting theme of Emergent Complexity Discourses is that global behaviors cannot be predicted on the basis of the rules governing the individual agents. Associated constructs include:
  • Autopoiesis (Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela; 1970s) – From the Greek αὐτo- “self” + ποίησις “creation,” Autopoiesis is used to describe any system that is able to self-reproduce and self-maintain. Associated constructs include:
    • Infoautopoiesis (Wolfgang Hofkirchner, 2010s) – a portmanteau of information and autopoiesis (self-creation), referringto the idea that informational systems – such as minds or living organisms – continuously create, maintain, and regenerate themselves through the generation, maintenance, and movement of information
  • Complexity Reduction (Niklas Luhmann, 1980s) – the process by which individuals, organizations, or systems simplify or filter complex environments to make decision-making or functioning more manageable
  • Emergence – the manifestation of greater organizational and/or behavioral complexity as a whole transcends its parts – that is, when a phenomenon displays properties that its parts do not have. Subdistinctions are sometimes drawn:
    • Strong Emergence (Mark Bedau, 1990s) – properties that arise from complex systems but cannot be fully explained or predicted from the system’s individual components – even in principle. In Emergent Complexity terms, Strong Emergence is synonymous with Emergence.
    • Weak Emergence (Mark Bedau, 1990s) – properties that emerge from the interactions of lower-level components and can, in principle, be explained or simulated from those interactions – even if computationally difficult. In Emergent Complexity terms, Weak Emergence is not Emergence at all.
  • Multi-Level Causation – the idea that “causes” (i.e., influences on events), firstly, operate across different levels (e.g., like biological, psychological, and social) and, secondly, influence each other. Both lower-level and higher-level processes can shape outcomes, making complex systems understandable only by considering interactions across these layers.
  • Postdictable (Postdictability) – a counterpoint to “predictable.” Meaning literally “able to say after” (i.e., Latin post- + dicere combined with English able), Postdictable applies to situations that cannot be precisely foreseen – but that, after having occurred, can be precisely explained.
The following discourses are closely aligned with Emergent Complexity Discourses, at least insofar as they are focused on matters of human learning:
  • Cognitive Complexity Theory – a complexity discourse that is specifically focused on human learning, with prominent associated interests in collective action and technological augmentation of human possibility
  • Emergent Evolution – the perspective that species and biological traits arise from, but cannot be reduce to, ancestral sources. That is, evolution is interpreted as trending toward increased complexity.
  • Emergentism – broadly speaking, is the embrace of the phenomenon of Emergence (as described above), especially with regard to topics associated with mind and consciousness
  • Relational Paradigm (2000s) – a cross-disciplinary movement that is articulated quite differently across domains, but that consistently urges observers to interpret phenomena in terms of dynamic relationships among forms instead of focusing attentions on imagined-to-be-discrete forms. That is, a Relational Paradigm is discourse in which the actions and characters forms/agents are delimited and constituted not by those entities, but by a grander relational web.
  • Uncertainty Theory (Baodin Liu, 2000s) – the study of how to model, measure, and reason about situations with incomplete, vague, or unpredictable information. Uncertainty Theory formalizes uncertainty beyond probability – using tools like fuzzy sets, belief functions, and credibility measures – to guide rational decision-making under indeterminacy. Associated constructs include:
    • Aleatory Uncertainty – Uncertainty rooted in chance or randomness in future events – outcomes that cannot be reduced by more knowledge (e.g., weather, market shifts).
    • Epistemic Uncertainty – Uncertainty that arises from incomplete knowledge about past or present events – gaps that could, in principle, be reduced through further study or evidence
    • Ontological Uncertainty – Uncertainty that arises because the world itself is open, evolving, or fundamentally unknowable – not merely because of missing data. It contrasts with Epistemic Uncertainty, which comes from limited knowledge.

Commentary

A useful distinction is often drawn between “complicated” and “complex.” These words have the same etymological roots, but in contemporary parlance, complicated has come to refer to predictable, mechanical phenomena, whereas complex is used to describe more unruly forms. Complicated systems are the subjects of classical Newtonian mechanics. Complicated systems are better characterized in the language of Darwinian dynamics. (With reference to this meaning of “complex,” the modifier “emergent” is redundant. However, it is used here to underscore the intended sense.) While only a relatively small region of our map is explicitly labeled as Emergent Complexity Discourses, the sensibilities that define this cluster can be appropriately applied to most, if not all, Coherence Discourses.

Subdiscourses:

  • Aleatory Uncertainty
  • Autopoiesis
  • Cognitive Complexity Theory
  • Complexity Reduction
  • Emergence
  • Emergent Evolution
  • Emergentism
  • Epistemic Uncertainty
  • Infoautopoiesis
  • Multi-Level Causation
  • Ontological Uncertainty
  • Postdictable (Postdictability)
  • Relational Paradigm
  • Strong Emergence
  • Uncertainty Theory
  • Weak Emergence

Map Location



Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2025). “Emergent Complexity Discourses” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


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