ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will argue that in order to model the dynamics of such complex systems as human communities usefully we need a unified notion of ecosocial systems. We need to understand how the general principles that govern complex, material, selforganizing systems become further specialized in the case of human communities, where physical activity depends on social meaning. To do this we will try to construct a specification hierarchy, so that we can see human communities as special cases of more general kinds of complex systems. We will then be in a position to apply what we know about these more general systems to the particular problems of social and cultural change, and we will also be able to see what is distinctive and unique about the kinds of communities where a textual politics matters.
