Abstract accepted: 6th World Conference on Complex Systems - WCCS 2026

April, 20-22, 2026

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir-Marrakech, Morocco

About Us

Building on the success of previous editions, we are delighted to announce WCCS26, organized by the Chair of Complexities ∞ Humanities - UM6P and the Moroccan Society of Interdisciplinary Studies, with technical sponsorship from IEEE. This conference remains a premier international platform where researchers and Ph.D. students come together to share cutting-edge research, address emerging challenges, and explore new frontiers in complex systems and interdisciplinary science.

WCCS26 fosters collaboration and debate on the most advanced methodologies and approaches for understanding, modeling, simulating, predicting, and mastering societal, ecological, biological, and engineered complex systems. By bringing together experts from diverse disciplines, the conference bridges theory and real-world applications, driving scientific progress and innovation.

Join us for a stimulating exchange of ideas at WCCS26!

WCCS26 Theme :

Navigating Contemporary Complexity:
Transdisciplinary Approaches to Economic, Social,
Political, and Environmental Challenges

Conference Topics (But not limited to...) :

• Foundations and Approaches to Complex Systems
• Social and Economic Complexity
• Complexity in the Anthropocene
• Biological Complexity: From Cells to Societies
• Complexity in Health and Medicine
• Philosophical Dimensions of Complexity
• Complex Systems With Artificial Intelligence
• Complexity in Emerging Technologies
• Grand Challenges in Complexity Science
  
  

Continued at: https://wccs-conference.org/wccs26/#call

See also: 'complexity'

n.b. I am attending (unsponsored) as an independent scholar and researcher; and by abstract alone.

v WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

Day 2 Tuesday 21st April (Revisiting) Keynote Speaker: Abderrazak El Albani - 
Emergence of Intercellular Cooperation: At the Origins of Eukaryotic Complexity
Session Chair: Khawla Tadist

This keynote was fasacinating. As I begin this post on the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough, who would have us all see life in the broadest terms, value life and diverse habits, and Earth as our collective and shared home.

Abderrazak El Albani explained the search for LUCA the last universal common ancestor - 3.8 billion years ago. Many dates in the emergence story of humanity, have been progressively pushed back. The first fire, art, languages, our co-habitation and intimate relationships with Neanderthals.

In healthcare, as a practitioner you have to be aware of your scope of practice. At WCCS, scale (as in iv) was ever present across research in complexity, and complex systems. Not just physical size nano-to-mega but temporal too, as we journeyed billions of years. Several of the slides are presented here:

https://www.synchrotron-soleil.fr/en/news/discovery-oldest-macroscopic-planktonic-eukaryotes-contribution-nanoscopium-beamline (with a reference).

There is a video (French): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh3t26cU7xc

I asked a question, which may have been psychological preparation for own presentation to follow. Listening, I could see how the work Abderrazak El Albani and his team are doing, could be readily translated to the search for life on Mars. There has been a 'routine' interchange of planetary material between Earth and Mars over the aeons. Fitting surely that the sedimentary rocks sought lie in  A key lesson, is that light helps us see, but not all lights are equal. Light sources brighter than the sun become incredible scientific instruments. The longevity of the dinosaurs was highlighted, at least 140 million years. There is no comparison with homo sapiens then, even as those dates have been pushed further back in time. Time defeated me as I tried to make the observation that even the dinosaurs did not make it to their first galactic birthday (c.250 million years - and what a carousel). I like the thought (slide) of 'Earth as Memory'. 

What really counted was the expressed concern about what is happening now: in the Anthropocene.

The second keynote:
Nigel Gilbert - Policy in a Complex World: Towards Complexity-Aware Policymaking
Session Chair: Ali Idri 

Was helpful to me, as the dated conundrum of benefits realisation from our technologies, and evidence-based policy still leaves a gap (for me) within the POLITICAL care/knowledge domain of Hodges' model. The illustration/graphic elements of Prof. Gilbert's slides were a brilliant complement to the content:

Prof. Nigel Gilbert - WCCS26 21st April

I wonder if within policy the constant in the equation is continuity and as a quantity it is an unknown? This seems to the case in health policy, across successive governments. You may (also) find this chart informative: https://www.cecan.ac.uk/news/the-visual-representation-of-complexity/

Perhaps, a key factor in complexity is the fact that nothing stays the same, so continuity is nuanced? Michael Quinn Patton's book Developmental Evaluation was noted re. learning while doing. Now I wish I'd held on to Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). The discussion of 'obesity system map' and 'whole systems analysis' was appreciated here.*

Since Marrakech and WCCS, I've noticed acknowledgement in the literature that 'research' is currently flooded with AI tools. I'm sure PRSM - Participatory System Mapper is a welcome addition, (as noted in iv) tools to facilitate participation are much needed:

Collaborative Creativity

The Participatory System Mapper (PRSM) is an app that makes it easy to draw networks (or 'maps') of systems, working together collaboratively.'

I will definitely check this resource out; and CECAN. After Prof. Gilbert, the next Track included my contribution, which I will return to. Rather distracted, I have a somewhat blurred slide, with: 'The global tensor of educational research is' then headed 'Learning poverty. Being unable to read and understsand a simple text; with points 1-4.'. I'm not sure which presentation this was, but zeroed in on the literacy theme, and the word tensor. Another slide refers to '6. Topological substitution for Success'. I think it is (writing this is helping recall!):

Harvey Spencer Sánchez-Restrepo, Jorge Louçã, Martha Belén Carmona-Soto and Sofialeticia Morales-Garza
Topological Patterns of Academic Success: Insights from Complex Network Analysis

'Always Label Your Axes' - Zazzle.

Before that there was another model, as the next keynote speaker: Chris Bauch demonstrated during the conference wearing a t-shirt:

Critical Transitions in Coupled Human-and-Natural Systems and their Early Warning Signals
Session Chair: Mohamed Essaaidi  

Previously: 'nexus'


*Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;5: doi:10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000254

Wirnitzer, KC. et al. (2025) Toward a roadmap for addressing today's health dilemma – The 101-statement consensus report. Frontiers in Nutrition. Volume 12.
https://frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1676080 DOI:10.3389/fnut.2025.1676080

S. Bettiol, P. Jones, H. A. Onyedikachi, and W. G. Kernohan, (2026) Bridging Gaps in Oral Health Frameworks: Mapping With Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model, Journal of Public Health Dentistry. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1111/jphd.70034

vi WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

April and WCCS26 seems an age ago, but the motivational impetus provided by this experience has been ongoing.

Luis Comolli - Best Paper Award 
for Emergence in Designed Agroecosystems:
Collective Dynamics in a Perennial Multi-Species 
Agroforestry Network

At the closing ceremony there was an award for the best paper which was awarded to Luis Comolli for:

Emergence in Designed Agroecosystems: 
Collective Dynamics in a Perennial Multi-Species Agroforestry Network

Sat by Luis, I offered to take his photo to which he agreed - so better late than never! And: Well done Luis!

My presentation on the 21st April was part of:

Parallel Session 2
Track 1 - Agent-Based and Social Complexity
Session chair: Helena Knyazeva

    ▪ Peter Jones
Presenting a Universal and Simple Conceptual Workbench to Situate and Encompass Complexity

    ▪ Nisrine Jarmoune and Bouchra Lebzar
The Ontology of Behavior: Formalizing the Institutional Project as a Complex System
    
    ▪ Lionel Scotto d’Apollonia, Florian Charvolin, Lise Verlaet, Deborah Nourrit, Dominique Deveaux, Elisabeth Sénégas and Nourdine Bara
Participatory Action Research with and for Society: The Case of “Oasis of Fraternity”

▪ Harvey Spencer Sánchez-Restrepo, Jorge Louçã, Martha Belén Carmona-Soto and Sofialeticia Morales-Garza
Topological Patterns of Academic Success: Insights from Complex Network Analysis

To be clear there was a great deal in all the sessions (see below!). I noticed in Nisrine Jarmoune's presentation, however, more specific conceptual overlap in terms of the individual, collective - groups, behaviour and institutions, with reference to ontology and philosophy. Several mathematical concepts also arose and since April online discussion has proved very interesting. In the near future I hope to report on how ideas develop and may be taken further, both for Nisrine's PhD studies and my work on Hodges' model.

We are considering, especially with the options to participate available -

https://www.measuringbehavior.org/

'The next Measuring Behavior conference will take place from 28 to 30 April, 2027, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Düsseldorf is in a region with a high concentration of behavioral research across a variety of fields both in universities and industry. It is easy to reach by international trains and flights. It is a city combining innovative modern architecture with a historic city centre. The conference will take place in the Clayton Hotel, which is in the Little Tokyo region of Düsseldorf, with its distinctive Japanese flavor. We will be hosted by the Heinrich Heine Medical University and the location is within easy walking distance of the central station.'

https://www.measuringbehavior.org/call-for-symposia-mb2027-2/

Going back to the Monday, the closing Keynote Speaker: Abdelmajid Ibenrissoul 

Public Decision-Making and Complexity: What Rationality for Evaluation?

- provided fascinating insights and economic history:

Abdelmajid Ibenrissoul - Public Decision-Making and Complexity: What Rationality for Evaluation?

There remains much to follow up, seek understanding and see how this relates to Hodges' model.

More details to follow.

I have noticed the main website for WCCS appears to be unavailable? I will check.

Complexity science as a frame; or, a frame for complexity science?

In reading for WCCS later this month, I wonder if Braithwaite et al. (open access) may have found Hodges' model useful in addressing both the learning objectives and questions they raise in their chapter; and as a response to the recommendations?

Braithwaite J, Ellis LA, Churruca K, et al. Complexity Science as a Frame for Understanding the Management and Delivery of High Quality and Safer Care. 2020 Dec 15. In: Donaldson L, Ricciardi W, Sheridan S, et al., editors. Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management [Internet]. Cham (CH): Springer; 2021. Chapter 27. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585611/ doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-59403-9_27

' Learning Objectives and Questions Covered in the Chapter

• How does a linear view of improvement contrast with a complexity science approach? 
• The complexity frame makes it harder to manage and deliver high quality and safer care — does it therefore need to be rejected in favour of simpler improvement models?
• What examples can be brought to bear to show how studies in the complexity frame can lead to good outcomes and positive change?'

'In addition, in homing in on any part of a CAS, we can discern elements of both selfsimilarity and local nuances. Self-similarity can manifest fractally, at different scales (e.g., features of the culture of the organisation at the team level approximate to that of the culture of the department, and then division, and then the whole organisation) or laterally (e.g., one department looks comparable structurally to another). It might seem paradoxical, but healthcare levels or departments, despite being self-similar in some respects, also each operate as unique entities. There are always localised contextual, cultural and structural distinctions. Such local nuances occur as the result of the particular configurations of agents (e.g., nurses, doctors, quality managers, patients) following their internalised rules and shared mental models (e.g., put the patients first, project a good reputation to the outside world, prioritise safety) in that unique setting.' pp.378-379.

'Bringing clinicians from different departments together with the patient as the focus, provided a deeper understanding of other’s roles and barriers, helped create a shared mental model, and fostered a whole-of-system approach to the care for patients with this condition.' p.382.

[CAS - Complex Adaptive System]
 

'Recommendations

1. Sensitise those with responsibility for leading, managing, improving or researching care settings to a systems view. 
2. Train sufficient staff in the tools of complexity: FRAM, network analyses, system dynamics modelling, process mapping, and the like. 
3. Approach quality and safety and risk management activities with a knowledge of complexity science, sense-making, and non-linearity rather than as a set of linear problems amenable to simplistic causal change logic. 
4. Consider how our studies, borrowing from complexity theory, have resisted simplifying the challenges, but have nevertheless made progress in understanding care systems and their improvement.' p.389.

 [FRAM - Functional Resonance Analysis Method]

 I will include this in my presentation, duly cited:

 'Complexity science as a frame: or, frame for complexity science?'

Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual' ii

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

Now I can say: "This year, Hodges' model will be presented at WCCS 6th World Conference on Complex Systems", so current reading needs to match this project. And, it does. In spades, in fact c/o and with thanks to Edinburgh University Press. Look at chapter 1! 'Chaos' with Mandelbrot fractals, smooth space drawing from Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus. For readers unfamiliar with the Deleuzian oeuvre, abbreviations of texts that feature in Bill Ross's book Order and the Virtual are listed (xii) and includes key sources by Michel Serres, Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead. This works as you mentally take a note, of work to lookup. Almost twenty years ago, I related some ideas of Michel Serres to Hodges' model:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109. 

Ross discusses the extent and proximity of Deleuze's thought to chaos, complexity theory and science more generally as identified by commentators. Now up to chapter 4, it would have helped to have a look at the bibliography at the book's end. Deleuze saw how his work resonated with chaos theory. Steve Strogatz's book (now in a 3rd edition):

Strogatz, S.H. (2015) Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Application to Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering. 2^nd edition. Perseus Books Publishing, Cambridge. 

- explains in the introduction how 'home computing' contributed to the aesthetic appeal of fractals, which could display incredible patterns derived from seemingly simple mathematics. Even though, the programs often required many hours of running to deliver their results.

In the late 1980s I was fascinated with a subscription to Fractal Report:

https://stephen.shawweb.co.uk/Fractalreportindex.html

The relevance for me of Order and the Virtual is apparent on page 1, Deleuze and Guattari's thought having an immediate transdisciplinary application, crossing boundaries, and the creation of regions of bifurcation. Ross connects Deleuze's thought and Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers' text:

Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature. London: Heinemann, 1984 

Ross is encouraging (to me and for Hodges' model), as he notes how the notions may be inexact, but they are nonetheless rigorous. Spanning as they do, philosophy, science - what is scientific(? - itself a boundary - demarcation) and artistic. I've often thought of Hodges' model as filled with folds, and multiple bifurcations. It looks like Bill Ross is going help me to isolate several, and possibly make my search more efficient (the latter really would assist). The memorial event held in Manchester last September was revalatory. Since the early 2000s I'd grown to  really appreciate the availability of books by Michel Serres. I was not aware of the force behind the Clinamen Press, which Bill Ross established in 1999. 'Clinamen' is a useful concept too, which I have encountered previously, through Serres and Lucretius. 

Readers new to philosophy, sociology and the development of ideas must often grapple with a new and specific vocabulary. This is a primary purpose of such texts. On page 2 the springboard is sprung, the Event is key in Deleuzian scholarship. The Event is a force for creative and disruptive force for thought,  idea generation and creativity. The Event is experienced in our current 'realities' of: time and space (Kronos) where things are actualised, and the virtual (Aion) - the pure Event. This lack of hesitation is welcome. Our 'virtual' world quickly provides access to reading:

parrhesia 27 · 2017 · 1-12
extract from the birth of physics
michel serres, translated by david webb, with an introduction by bill ross
https://parrhesiajournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/parrhesia27_serres.pdf

Where you have bifurcations, you have convergences and divergences, stasis, state - stasis or not, paths, a series and metrics. We are reminded that science is not just about theory - metaphysics, it is, sleeves rolled-up about doing too; as I've noted in subsequent reading. As 'chaos' predicts, there is no let up,  the Choasmos, quickly follows. I'm thinking of a 'situation' clinically as a rollercoaster - 'constant displacement' seeking a difference, and repetition, the ravages of alcohol, dementia, low mood, psychosis, obsession and compulsive 'states'. The chaosmos is central in Hodges' model, although as both continua and oppositions. Ross explains how Deleuze's chaosmos is not necessarily scientific, but belongs to the ancient cosmologies of the Greeks (p.3). I thought of flux here. 'Parity' is not just a physical metric, but a quality that acts, seeks resolution - equilibrium(?) - between the mental chaos and physical chaos.*

Thinkers like Deleuze 'trap' words, concepts, in boxes, drawing from other other sources (for chaosmos - with Guattari again); then they can be examined and tested for their scope, application, meaning and association. Hodges' model provides a trap, for any situation. Not as specific as a physicist's ion (or Penning) trap, but the model can act as a series of holistic traps. To provide a metric of holistic bandwidth.

*Of course, equilibrium is never found - until the 'End'; such is the nature of flux. 

More to follow...

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

iii WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

Chaos
Making a New Science 
by James Gleick

When I first learned of WCCS26, I saw a connection, an affinity across the conference themes. This was reinforced when I read the final program for WCCS. Here was a home for the model, a way-point for Hodges' model. For an independent scholar, it was quite a trip to Ben Guerir, to the north of Marrakech; 13 hours (brief by global standards). It was a place to wave wildly, making use of the opportunity to present Hodges' model, to say - "Dear All, can you do anything with this?".

It is almost 40 years since I read James Gleik's, Chaos: Making a New Science. That was in Cornwall I think? Now, something more than book - a complexity conference.  

 After the first two keynotes - two panels: 

 Panel 1 - Complexity, Society & Global Challenges

▪ Carlos Álvarez Pereira - No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity
▪ David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society
▪ Louis Klein - Noospheric Singularity and the Mirror of Tamkeen
Panel Chair: Karima Kadaoui

These confirmed I was in the right place. Well, it was bit late if I wasn't! I was reminded of the slow movement, and how in healthcare, specifically client-nurse intereactions you had time to manage your time, that is your caseload to deliver person-centred care. I don't mean time-wasting, as in social chat, tea and custard creams either. This is what being professional is about, truly trying to make a difference - that lasts. So we worked through: What is; (science) what we understand; and (tech and law) what should be. Ecologically, we often refer to the size of our footprints. Panel one considered this individually and collectively - institutionally. Fascinating to reflect upon these themes and how modernity is stamping about in a rather chaotic way? We are seemingly power-less to stop this.

c/o Carlos Álvarez Pereira
No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity

Three reports to the Club of Rome were displayed, spanning 'NO LIMITS TO LEARNING - Bridging the human gap' 1979; 'Limits and Beyond' 2022; 'NO LIMITS TO HOPE - Liberate the potential for Collective Learning' 2026. Should we be troubled, worried even, that the latest followed after a mere four years? There are of course, many reports as per the link above.

David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society spoke about the beneficial and malign impacts of social media AI tools. Covid featured as might be expected. Within the sciences, what was worrying, was an innovation slowdown associated with AI, non-AI use, chartered around a central point (centroid). I believe the slide referred to:

Qianyue Hao & Fengli Xu & Yong Li & James Evans, 2026. "Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus," Nature, vol. 649(8099), pages 1237-1243, January. 

There was one slide:

Is this the demise of any efforts to achieve SOCIO-technical synergy? Even to the extent of realising benefits for the human in socio-technical systems? Did Covid not teach us anything about the informational difference technology can make? When so many technologies are muted by a virus? This is what we need: things to think about, question and critique. 

There used to be a series of A3 step-by-step oil painting magazines in the 1970s. One presented a desert campfire, clearly set in the east. I did try it, though not sure were the result is now. ... Such a scenario was presented by Louis Kleinand the Noospheric Singularity and the Tamkeen Process - Regenerative Hermeneutics, with the following reference provided:

Klein, L., & Kadaoui, K. (2024). Realising metamorphic transformation in the mirror of Tamkeen: Growing a shared understanding from co-reflected lived experiences. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 41(5), 738–749. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3058 

There was much I could identify with. And, once again, I cannot continue at this pace. We have only covered (touched!) panel one. Hopefully you now have an idea of the depth of the conference programme. More however, will follow.

See also: thefifthelement.earth

Chaos - cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/826080.Chaos

iv WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

Day 1: Panel 2 - Rethinking Knowledge in the Age of Complexity

• Helena Knyazeva - Dancing with Complexity: How the World Thinks Through Us
• Carlos Gershenson - The Implications of Complexity
• Leonardo Rodríguez Zoya - Can Statistics Think? Complexity, Future, and Freedom in the Age of Large Language Models
  Panel Chair: Nigel Gilbert 

Courage is one of the 6Cs in nursing, and was on display at WCCS26.

Carlos Gershon began by offering two references, the first:

De Domenico, et al., (2019). Complexity explained: A grassroot collaborative initiative to create a set of essential concepts of complex systems. https://complexityexplained.github.io

This is a brief 20 pages, larger text, and provides a helpful primer to complexity and related concepts covering:

Interactions
Emergence 
Dynamics 
Self-organization
Adaptation
Interdisciplinarity
Methods

For each concept, the authors explain:

Definition/Description
Examples
Relevant Concepts
References

Plus, secondly:

Gershenson, C. The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy. Found Sci 18, 781–790 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-012-9305-8

I liked the practical feel here, the encouragement to think anew, and perhaps taste the "flavors of emergence": synchronic - space; diachronic - time, weak and strong feedback, transversal of scale - upwards and downwards.

There is further conference on complexity later this year (and also online!):

CCS 2026:
The 2026 Conference on Complex Systems
OCTOBER 9 - 16, 2026 BINGHAMTON, NY, USA & ONLINE

In my search I also found:

Carlos Gershenson; Complexity, Artificial Life, and Artificial Intelligence. Artif Life 2025; 31 (3): 289–303. doi:https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00462

Gershenson, C. Self-organizing systems: what, how, and why?. npj Complex 2, 10 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44260-025-00031-5

Leonardo Rodríguez Zoya's presentation helpfully connected social practice, interdisciplinary bridges, statistical rationality, complex (human) rationality and the future(s): desirable, possible, latent and probable.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

COMPLEX (HUMAN) RATIONALITY   cognition	STATISTICAL RATIONALITY Techopraxis LLMs - technology
socio- HUMAN PROBLEMS SOCIAL PRACTICE PRACTICE (one of the 4Ps)	ELECTION - CAMPAIGN SPENDING PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ISLAND ECONOMY CRYPTOCURRENCY

To answer the prompt - 

"Give me a less likely but more fruitful interpretation of this [concept]*."

*Replace with a significant concept in your practice

Would it might help to have a simple, and yet complexity (and simplicity!) primed conceptual framework to assist reflection, argumentation, and progress?

 

I missed the poster at the afternoon break, and followed track 1. I greatly enjoyed Julian Arevalo's - Adaptive Readiness: an Agent-Based Model of Peace Negotiations. Perhaps this accounts for my having no notes or photos for this track except for one. I realise now we did speak, sitting together for the conference dinner. I'm sure I remember Negotiation Lab 1.0 - 

https://www.comses.net/codebases/1256dc74-9ae4-4f49-a235-1ec129be1930/releases/1.0.0/

 

This past week I heard discussion (BBC Radio 4) of the 'income' Norway obtains from its expertise and engagement in peace negotiations.

 

Nicholas Roxburgh, and colleagues Rachel Creaney, Mindi Premarathne and Ruth Wilson through 
Exploring Interdependencies in an Island Economy, reminded me of public engagement in research. Especially when it involves their community; and that community is somewhat rural, or remote.

 

Remah Dahdoul, with Jan Korbel and Stefan Thurner presented -

Campaign-Spending Driven Polarization Transition in a Double-Random Field Model of Elections. The following paper brings home the mathematics in complex systems. The reference is:

 

Jan Korbel and Remah Dahdoul and Stefan Thurner. (2026) Empirical validation of the polarization transition in a double-random field model of elections. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00612.  doi.org/10.1103/9gjj-1df6.

 

The paper by Saida Hachimi El Idrissi and Mohamed Nemiche is not open access, but the abstract follows. 

 

S. H. El Idrissi and M. Nemiche, "Formation of Complex Societies: An Agent-Based Model Inspired by Freudian Theory," 2024 World Conference on Complex Systems (WCCS), Mohammedia, Morocco, 2024, pp.1-6, doi: 10.1109/WCCS62745.2024.10765573.

Abstract: The rise and emergence of complex societies in the Old World mark a pivotal chapter in human history, characterized by the transition from small, kin-based communities to large, hierarchical states. This transformation raises fundamental questions: How did human societies progress from small, cohesive groups characterized by face-to-face cooperation to the expansive, anonymous societies of today, often organized as states? What factors account for the significant variation in different human populations' capacity to construct stable and functional state structures? To address these questions, we developed an agent-based model grounded in Freud's hypothesis, which posits that civilization could neither emerge nor evolve without the repression of human desires. In the context of social evolution, this repression of desires can be interpreted as the repression of intra-societal competition, ultimately strengthening the society and facilitating the formation of complex social structures. We implemented this model within a realistic representation of the Afroeurasian landmass, incorporating various geographical factors. To validate our model, we compared our simulated results with historical data. The model-predicted pattern of expansion of complex societies demonstrated remarkable congruence with the observed historical patterns in the Old World. The emergence, growth, and distribution of large-scale societies predicted by our computational model showed remarkable consistency with the archaeological and historical record.

keywords: {Analytical models; Computational modeling; Predictive models; Data models; Agriculture; Rivers; History; Complex systems; component; Agent-based Modeling; Repression of satisfaction; cooperation; competition; Social Simulation},
URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10765573&isnumber=10765499 

Unless you are a microsurgeon (increasingly with robotic co-workers), is the word practice, more likely to manifest what is larger, the big picture, a sense of space, even at a societal or continental scale? In reading, I came across four forms of attractors. For me, how they fit into the question of scale makes this paper worthy of seeking out. 

M. Nemiche was unable to attend the conference, and was greatly missed.

ii Book: 'Complexity in Health Care - A Paradigm Shift for Clinical Practice'

I didn't have time to finish reading Frankel et al. before WCCS26. This book has an index which was very useful, to efficiently check certain points. It is amazing the number of books without an index.

Chapter 1 is 'Guiding Principles' and links really well with the index. At two pages it is brief and yet also constitutes Part 1. 

Part II The Clinical Situation, continues an introductory thread. Chapter 2 The “Clinical Situation”: An Introduction to Its Structure and Complexity is what attracted me to the book. At five pages, there was more in this vein. I looked ahead and found that the chapters all seemed short. Checking the book's web page, 50 chapters in 270 pages, so just over 5 pages and well referenced too.

Initially, you might feel short-changed, of course, I didn't with a review copy. But don't worry. You are in patient- person-centred hands here. Sometimes content matters. The three authors work and are researchers in psychiatry. For me, the guiding principles and part II provide a handshake with the index. The person here then, is given a literary hug. Immediately, there is a link between the variables of care and the structure of a case (or caseness). 

'But importantly that "structure" is dynamic changing over time. We classify variables as "clinical" as they are brought into play for the purpose of treatment, i.e., the goal of healing.

The clinician is not just challenged to unravel this complicated situation but also to represent the patient accurately, including his or her "human" elements as represented by temperament and personal attitudes. What are the patient's essential needs. tolerances, preferences? Yet, there is even more to know about each patient. Does she have children? What is her financial status, her ethnicity? What are her attitudes about medical professionals. Does she believe in medicine, or even in science?

Beware! None of these factors are dispensable when trying to understand a patient. Just try to leave out a few and you are left with a gutted rendering of that person, not a living human being.' p.7. 

(and continued in fragmented form below ...)

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

'The result even when this level of detail, is available may still be an anemic version of the patient.    Traditionally a medical patient is subjected to an extensive workup that includes a mental status examination, in addition to a detailed past and present history, ...	... and an extensive "review of (organ) systems.
Now add the multiplicity of problems, psychiatric and systemic medical, from which the patient suffers. ...	Multiplicity may include systemic medical, psychiatric, social, financial, and lack of access to health providers.' p.7.

'From this description it seems logical that complex patients presenting with mixed medical-psychiatric disorders be managed with an ongoing collaborative approach delivered by a multispecialty team. Included may be a primary care physician, psychiatrist, and/or psychotherapists. One or more of the collaborating professionals may be a nurse practitioner and/or a physician's assistant.' p.7

I will return to the 'logical' in the final quoted paragraph above. The author's declare their intent from the outset, and by the literature-to-date they achieve this (may I please add? 'in spades!').

 

Over the years and as raised on W2tQ, several colleagues and contacts have asked "Where is the book on Hodges' model?" Not to sound weird, but this book asks that same question through some challenges to the usual 'medical' text. There are several lessons to take away here, even if only to keep a dream alive. While the physical size of a textbook, its practical appeal and stance makes it appear as something to pop in your top shirt/jacket pocket. A pocket guide: quite an impression just 10-20 pages in, and in this digital age.

 

As you would expect from mental health practitioners - psychiatrists - psychotherapists, interpersonal, subjective-objective and intersubjective factors are integral to how complexity is defined and measured. In Chapter 2, pp.11-12 there is mention and reference to the Value-Based Integrated Case Management Complexity Assessment Grid:

Specker, S., Andrew, R., Drexler, E., Koithan, E., Thurber, S., & Frankel, S. (2026). Development of the Self-Administered Health Complexity Screening Instrument. Professional case management, 31(2), 81–89. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCM.0000000000000845

I will check this instrument as I complete this review. As noted on April 9th this book was published in 2023, so I remain grateful to Daniela and colleagues at SpringerNature for the review copy (which also enjoyed WCCS!).

Previously: 'complex' : 'holistic bandwidth' : 'mental health' : 'person(-centred)'

More to follow ...

Steven A. Frankel, Steven D. Thurber, James A. Bourgeois (2023) Complexity in Health Care: A Paradigm Shift for Clinical Practice. Cham. Switzerland: Springer. ISBN: 978303114948.