ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an emerging theoretical framework for assessing a wide range of personal and social systems that social workers are regularly asked to work with. This framework includes elements of traditional structural-functional general systems, and ecosystems theories that became popular in the latter half of the 20th century. It also incorporates several newer theories, collectively termed complex systems theory. These include chaos, self-organization, and autopoietic theories. Complex systems theories are built on an understanding of dynamic processes, which refer to the study of the ways that systems change. There are excellent examples, even of the application of chaos theory to psychosocial problems, but more typically from the field of psychology. One of the lessons of complex systems theory and extensive research on its applications in human development, learning and problem solving is that individuals are rarely at equilibrium, and, in fact, much learning thrives at far-from-equilibrium or ‘edge of chaos’ conditions.
