Re:The Collapse of Complex Societies (Book Review)
by dredmorbius on Saturday August 20, 2022 @03:13PM
(#32534452)
On the bridging of economics and sociology, I'd strongly recommend Charles Perrow's Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay (1986), which is a tour de force survey of the literature.
Notably, Herbert Simon spanned multiple domains (economics, psychology, sociology, organisational behaviour, AI, mathematics, ...), though comes off somewhat poorly in the text.
On Tainter, he specifically assesses eleven factors: resource depletion, new resources, catastrophes, insufficient response to circumstances, other complex societies (e.g., warfare/invasion), intruders, conflict / contradictions / mismanagement, social dysfunction, mystical factors, chance concatenation of events, and economic explanations.
Chapters 4 & 5 specifically address marginal productivity. They are titled "Understanding collapse: th emarginal productivity of sociopolitical change" and "Evaluation: compelxity and marginal returns in collapsing societies".
Yes, declining marginal returns to complexity is Tainter's principle thesis.
Notably, Herbert Simon spanned multiple domains (economics, psychology, sociology, organisational behaviour, AI, mathematics, ...), though comes off somewhat poorly in the text.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/complex-organizations-a-criti...
On Tainter, he specifically assesses eleven factors: resource depletion, new resources, catastrophes, insufficient response to circumstances, other complex societies (e.g., warfare/invasion), intruders, conflict / contradictions / mismanagement, social dysfunction, mystical factors, chance concatenation of events, and economic explanations.
Chapters 4 & 5 specifically address marginal productivity. They are titled "Understanding collapse: th emarginal productivity of sociopolitical change" and "Evaluation: compelxity and marginal returns in collapsing societies".
Yes, declining marginal returns to complexity is Tainter's principle thesis.