ABSTRACT
The contribution by John Haldon, covering both the collapse and non-collapse of Byzantium ca. AD 650, also demonstrates that collapse is not such a straightforward and linear concept. His thesis is also one of resilience rather than total collapse. From an analysis of geographic reach and military defeat, Haldon notes that the Byzantines saw a dramatic loss of empire, production, and revenues in the mid-AD 600s, yet like many societies before them, their state proved extremely resilient to severe challenges. Haldon argues that total systemic collapse is rare in complex societies due to the linked and nested multi-scale sub-systems that are constantly and almost imperceptibly changing. More broadly for the study of collapse, Haldon raises intriguing questions regarding whether a true collapse occurred, how we might frame and demarcate the collapse time period, and what criterion or biases we may use in these judgments.
