Preface

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface ix
4. 1. The Challenge of Complexity 1
5. 2. Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Chemistry and in Biology 40
6. 3. On the Dynamics of Technological Evolutions: Phase Transitions 63
7. 4. The Many Faces of Scaling: Fractals, Geometry of Nature, and Economics 91
8. 5. Successive Reequilibrations as the Mechanism of Cultural Evolution 110
9. 6. The Emergence of Hierarchical Social Structure: The Case of Late Victorian England 116
10. 7. Self-Organization in the Urban System 132
11. 8. Criticality and Urban Retail Structure: Aspects of Catastrophe Theory and Bifurcation 159
12. 9. Trip Making and Locational Choice 174
13. 10. Creation of Order by Environmental Noise in the Volterra-Lotka Model 187
14. 11. Noise-Induced Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions 193
15. 12. Nucléation Paradigm: Survival Threshold in Population Dynamics 203
16. 13. The Efficiency of Oxidative Phosphorylation and the Thermodynamic Buffer Enzymes 225
17. 14. Patterns of Nonequilibrium Organization in a Marine Bacterial Population 239
18. 15. Boolean Equations with Temporal Delays 245
19. 16. Remarks on Traffic Flow Theories and the Characterization of Traffic in Cities 260
20. 17. Fluctuations in Demand and Transportation Mode Choice 285
21. 18. A Calibration of the Boltzmann-Like Theory of Traffic Flow 303
22. 19. Energy Analysis and Technology Assessment 313
23. 20. Thermodynamic Constraints in Economic Analysis 323
24. 21. Economic Dynamics 339
25. 22. From Self-Reference to Self-Transcendence: The Evolution of Self-Organization Dynamics 344
26. 23. Four Different Causal Metatypes in Biological and Social Sciences 354