Whom This Book Is For Ive written this book with three audiences in mind. The first is the business leaders, investors, and policy makers who are interested in how new ideas from economics and science might impact their work. For this audience I should note that this is not intended to be a What do I do Monday morning? book. Complexity Economics contains a set of very powerful concepts that are highly relevant to some of the most difficult problems executives and policy makers face. However, readers will not find detailed case examples of how leading companies are using Complexity Economics, nor any easy ten-step programs, in this book. Many management books promise readers ideas that are cutting edge and yet have also been proven to work by successful application in scores of companies over many years—of course, you can t have it both ways. My claim is that the ideas of Complexity Economics are indeed cutting-edge, and thus by definition have not yet been widely applied. A few companies have experimented with them, and others, through instinct and serendipity, have stumbled into practices that are consistent with Complexity Economics thinking. Although there have been a few attempts to turn these experiences into management tools, I believe it is still t oo early to say specifically how these ideas will be applied.4 Rather than cases and tools, my focus will be on helping readers rewire their thinking about how economic systems work. Rather than a Monday-morning book, I would think of this as a Sunday-morning book—its goal is not to tell you what to do, but to change how you think. The second audience is anyone with a general interest in economics, social issues, public policy, and science. It is not often that one gets to witness a scientific revolution in the making, particularly one that will have such a large impact on the world. For this audience, I hope that this book can provide a front-row seat for what I believe will be one of the most exciting changes in the intellectual landscape during this century. The book does not assume a prior background in economics or science, and the discussions are not overly technical. However, I will introduce a number of terms that may not be familiar to all readers, and have italicized those terms where they are defined in the text. In fact, one of the important contributions of Complexity Economics is a new language for discussing and understanding economic, business, and social issues. The third audience is scholars and students. For this group my hope is that this book will be a useful nontechnical review of where we are and where we might go. I also hope it helps clarify (although surely will not resolve) some of the ongoing debates in economics, as well as instigate new ones. For scholars and other readers with a deeper interest in the material, the chapter endnotes should be viewed as an integral part of the discussion. They provide detailed references, as well as more technical discussions and excursions into debates not presented in the main text. For readers interested in pursuing their questions in the original source material, a full bibliography is given at the back.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:12:30 +0000
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