ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2 we focused on the relationship between the functions of a structure and its context. As we have seen, the functions that a structure is capable of serving, and the contexts in which it can serve them, depend in part on its macroscopic form. That form, as we noted in Chapter 1, is nothing more than a relatively stable set of relationships among its microscopic constituents at some specific level of analysis. The notion of stability however implies that those relationships are in principle free to vary but in fact do not: that is, that they are in some way constrained. In this chapter we explore those constraints upon the microscopic constituents of a structure that determine the particular character of its macroscopic form and function. In Chapters 4 through 6 we explore four forms of organization that result from different combinations of these constraints: networks, hierarchies, nucleate forms, and organic forms.
