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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: PARTS
Any system is composed of two or more component parts, or elements. The nature and interactivity of parts varies depending on the type of system.
In simple and complicated systems, parts are inert and their behaviour can, at least in principle, be described as the straightforward, mechanical result of external causes. In complex systems, on the other hand, parts are self-organizing, adaptive agents in their own right (i.e. they can be seen as smaller scale complex wholes). Like the larger scale complex systems in which they are embedded, or nested, their behaviour cannot be reduced to external or mechanical causes.
If one is examining a classroom or school as a complex system, then individual teachers and students can be seen as parts of that system. However, they are not the inert, mechanical and externally-determined parts described in simple and complicated systems. Instead, they are self-organizing, adaptive agents in their own right. Collectively, their activities alter the operation of the system as a whole.
See related terms: Causation, Self-Organization, Adaptation, Reductionism, Nestedness.
