Application of complexity theories to the understanding the territory

Abstract

Why the knowledge about how a territory behaves does not allow us to infer how another one, with the same structure and in the same circumstances, will do? Why it does not always derive identical consequences from the links between components of territorial capital? Why are not the development territorial actions applicable in an indiscriminate way? We all have asked ourselves these questions some times and we have drawn on the complex nature of the territory to answer them. Nevertheless, we believe that the argument of complexity has been assumed without further reason, confusing complexity with complication. That is, even when the complex character of the territory manifests itself in the form of structural complication, in fact it has a functional foundation derived from its construction as an organized and dynamic whole, constituted by natural and anthropic entities that maintain non-linear relationships with each other and with the environment. Our hypothesis is that theories about complexity provide an appropriate conceptual background to answer why it has a complex character. Therefore, our first objective is to understand and to explain the territory by applying some of the notions and principles of the complexity, and the second one is to argue about the usefulness of qualitative models of territorial synthesis to achieve the previous intention and to establish the second.