Complex Systems Theory and Development Practice: Understanding Non-linear Realities

This book could change Development. Here, for the first time, Development Studies encounters the set of ideas popularly known as 'Chaos Theory'. In the natural sciences these new ideas have usurped Newtonian certainties about the simple linearity of physical phenomena, causality and certainty. Samir Rihani applies to the processes of economic development ideas from complex adaptive systems like uncertainty, complexity and unpredictability. Well written and ranging widely over evolving economic thinking, specific country experiences and development issues, the book explains the key concepts developed by complex adaptive systems thinking and applies them, showing their power to explain. Rihani examines various aspects of the development process - including the World Bank, debt, and the struggle against poverty - and demonstrates the limitations of fundamentally linear thinking in an essentially non-linear world. Little wonder, he concludes, that the results of half a century of development effort have been so disappointing. Applying these ideas to the unpredictable social processes which development thinkers seek to understand and direct could make an unexpectedly important contribution not only theoretically, but to the actual policies and practice of development.