ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ways in which general systems theory can help people understand the meaning of crisis under capitalism. It focuses on food/land issues, both as an illustrative case and as a fundamental factor underpinning more general issues of social structure. The point of the imperialism debate of the early twentieth century was to understand an epoch of revolution, the transition from capitalism to a new social order. The chapter explains parallels between general systems theory and dialectics, and briefly present a model of the capitalist international political economy (IPE) as it moves through successive waves or regimes. It considers why the current crisis may be different from previous ones, notably because of chaotic factors, and the human system's interplay with a natural system itself prone to sharp extremes. The chapter offers the organisational role of chaos is often represented by the term attractor.
