ABSTRACT
A new global societal paradigm is emerging. This is a paradigm informed by complexity. It is one which recognises an irreducible and dialectical dualism at many levels of reality that is, not a reductionist either-or dualism but one characterised by agonistic tendencies. At its heart it is a paradigm not of another metanarrative but of a context for a plurality of little narratives to coexist which offers hope for the future'. While still at the margins compared with the dominant paradigm of disjunction/reduction/simplification' that has characterised modernity, its effects are pervasive right across the disciplines and beyond. Four disciplinary examples from disparate areas will be considered through this chapter. This range from the hard scientific to the socio-technical and from the socio-economic to the philosophical and transcendent. Specifically, these relate respectively to: chemical phase equilibrium thermodynamics, electrical power generation and transmission/distribution, management and leadership and influence of process thought and integrative thinking on theology.
