Cities as Hybrid Complex Systems

Abstract

Part I of the book lays the theoretical foundations for the discussions that follow. We start this chapter that opens Part I, by reference to two interrelated developments of the last decades: the emergence of complexity theories (CT), and, the subsequent emergence of complexity theories of cities (CTC). We show that following the evolving core CT, the first wave of CTC applications defined cities as complex systems in a physicalist sense, while the second wave treated cities as complex adaptive systems. The latter successful applications were a result of the fact that cities as complex systems share many similarities with natural material and organic complex systems. However, cities also differ from natural complex systems in that they are hybrid and as a consequence dual complex systems. In this chapter we thus elaborate on the uniqueness of cities as hybrid complex systems and the implications thereof to the study of cities.