Welcome to the Complex Systems Research Centre.
Improving our knowledge of socio-economic systems through Complexity thinking
The Complex Systems Research Centre (CSRC) moved to the School of Management in 1999. Its aim is to develop and present the theory and implications of Complex Systems thinking for Management Science - both as a collaborative research theme, and as an integrating conceptual framework. It provides an overarching scientific perspective within which strategy, operations, human resources, economics and finance all find their place.
The CSRC is a focus of Research and Applications of complexity thinking for the whole University. Members include: Dr Liz Varga, Dr Mark Strathern, Profs Peter Allen, Cliff Bowman and Mike Bourne from SOM; Profs Phil John and Mark Savill from Engineering and Prof Jeremy Ramsden from SAS. Already several interdisciplinary research proposals have been written and one of them has already been funded by EPSRC (see CASCADE). The Centre organizes seminars and workshops and will be developing short teaching courses to provide information and ideas about complexity and its importance to the whole University. A recent example was an ESRC Seminar that was organized by the Centre. Keynote speakers were: Prof Brian Collins (Chief Scientific Advisor to DfT and to DIS; the OMEGA (aviation/environment) team led by Prof Roger Gardner and Prof Ian Poll; and Lucian Hudson, convener of the Strategic Collaboration Network and senior civil servant in the Ministry of Justice. The seminar presented the need for complex systems thinking and modelling in order to support improved policy making and government.
In the CSRC complex systems thinking is applied to a wide variety of issues, supported in the main by UK Research Council or European funding. The research undertaken covers a wide range of themes, such as new product/service definition and development, developing innovative organizations, the evolution of market systems and business sectors, the limits to knowledge and the building of resilient and sustainable systems.
The Centre is active in several Networks concerning the implications of complexity for management and business. The first is the Complexity Society, a global network aimed at linking people interested in the ideas and implications of Complexity. It established the Journal:
This also provides links to many other Networks and Societies working in related areas, allowing information about the ideas, about conferences, workshops, meetings and courses to be sent to a whole range of people, corporations and organisations. The European Complexity Society is a large international organization which holds an annual conference at different locations around Europe, and attracts hundreds of participants. Other links are to the Complexity Network linked to Liverpool and Lancaster universities, to PLEXUS a US based complexity society with strong interests in health care delivery. The Centre is also linked to many of the Complexity Centres that now exist around the world.
A particular area of expertise of the CSRC is that of the importance of creativity and learning in the design and innovation process. The capacity of a firm or an organisation to co-evolve successfully with its surroundings is closely related to its ability to acquire, contextualize and implement appropriate new product designs, new domains of activity and new organisational practices. The ideas behind complex systems provide a conceptual framework, and real advice concerning the mechanisms of exploration and learning and the necessary features of organisational cultures that will be able to do this.
The Centre offers opportunities to research these issues in private and public sector organisations, to provide courses and training material for managers concerning these ideas. The Centre also welcomes and supports PhD and Executive Doctorate students wishing to research into the implications and methods of implementation of complex systems thinking in real situations.