Traditionally, the open systems approach has been used to describe communication structures and processes. This book does not deal with social systems from this perspective. Rather it examines self-organizing systems models that seek to explain the emergence of patterns of behavior in systems that are initially in a state of disorganization. This volume examines the models currently under development - autopoiesis, catastrophe theory, fractal geometry, dissipative structures, complexity theory, cellular automata and artificial intelligence - and presents a number of applications to contemporary communication theory.
