Louisa Jane Di Felice
About
Self-organisation, anarchism, and complexity
In this theme, I explore the theoretical and political implications of alternative understandings of hierarchy, as well as the synergies between complexity science and anarchism. This is my newest line of research and the one I am most excited about.
Complex systems are often organised hierarchically, but the term “hierarchy” is frequently misunderstood as referring only to systems of power or control, where elements “at the top” give orders to those “at the bottom”. While this is one possible form of hierarchy, systems can also be organised across multiple informational scales, with power and control distributed at the middle or lower levels. Such structures preserve the advantages of multi-scale organisation (such as scalability), while avoiding the centralisation of power. Many past and present anarchic systems provide valuable examples of this type of hierarchical self-organisation, and examining the intersections of complexity and anarchism offers both theoretical and political insights.
- Articles & conference proceedings:
In preparation
Di Felice, L.J. & Diaconescu, A. Complexity and anarchism: synergies and new ways forward.
Published
Di Felice, L. J., & Diaconescu, A. Hierarchy beyond top-down control: the architecture of self-organised social systems (2023).
In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems Companion.