Complexity theory and the web

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the influence of complexity theory on the development of the web. It seeks to critique the role of complexity theory as a governing metaphor in the discourse of the web, and to examine whether complexity theory is able to provide an adequate description of the web, and its relationship to society and knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a critial review. Findings – The paper establishes the influence of complexity in the discourse of the web and questions the adequacy of complexity theory to provide a description of the web and its relationship to cognition and society. Originality/value – This paper explores the influence of a single concept (complexity theory) on the discourse and development of the web. Introduction This paper critiques the influence of complexity theory on the discourse of the worldwide web. It will argue that complexity theory has played a central role as a governing metaphor in the ongoing development of the web. The influence of complexity theory has led to the incorporation of largely unarticulated assumptions into the discourse of the web. By remaining largely unarticulated, those assumptions have avoided becoming subjected to proper scrutiny. This paper will therefore first summarise the field of complexity research and its uses in the social sciences. It will then examine how the idea of complexity emerges at two decisive moments in the web's development: its inception, and its movement to a Web 2.0 model. Finally it will explore the adequacy of complexity theory as a description of web technologies and their relationship to society, information and knowledge[1]. Adaptive complexity Adaptive complexity describes the behaviour of large scale, highly dynamic systems such as the economy, the ecology, and society, each of which although driven by the aggregated behaviour of individual elements seems to function in coherent and motivated ways. The field of complexity research explores the characteristics and evolution of such systems, and seeks to explain their apparently motivated nature. It emerged out of the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute during the 1980s. There, researchers from mathematics, computing, the physical and social sciences were drawn together in an attempt to synthesise new ways of understanding adaptive complexity (Waldrop, 1992; Lewin, 1999). Complexity theory has therefore always occupied an interdisciplinary space. Although closely related to fractal geometry, catastrophe theory and chaos theory (Waldrop, 1992; Lewin, 1999), its heuristic outlook