Cited by 183Complex Systems and DynamicsSystems Engineering Methodologies and ApplicationsChaos, Complexity, and Education

Stable or robust? What's the difference?

Jen, Erica·2003·Complexity

Abstract

Exploring the difference between “stable” and “robust” touches on essentially every aspect of what we instinctively find interesting about robustness in natural, engineering, and social systems. It is argued here that robustness is a measure of feature persistence in systems that compels us to focus on perturbations, and often assemblages of perturbations, qualitatively different in nature from those addressed by stability theory. Moreover, to address feature persistence under these sorts of perturbations, we are naturally led to study issues including: the coupling of dynamics with organizational architecture, implicit assumptions of the environment, the role of a system’s evolutionary history in determining its current state and thereby its future state, the sense in which robustness characterizes the fitness of the set of “strategic options” open to the system; the capability of the system to switch among multiple functionalities; and the incorporation of mechanisms for learning, problem-solving, and creativity.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/cplx.10077

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28 of 28 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Robustness means persistence in the presence of changes in system composition, system topology, or fundamental assumptions regarding the environment.

    “Robustness on the other hand means persistence in the presence of changes in ' system composition, system topology, or in the fundamental assumptions regarding the environment in which the system operates ' (Jen 2003: 4).”

    From Religion as a Complex and Dynamic System (2013) · cites this paper as Jen 2003: 4

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Authors
Jen, E.
Affiliations
Santa Fe Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Jen, Erica
Venue
Complexity
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2003-01
Volume
8
Issue
3
Pages
12-18
ISSN
  • 1076-2787 (ISSN-L)
  • 1099-0526
OpenAlex
W2132886043
Cited by
183
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 10
FWCI
6.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Complexity (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Systems and Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Systems Engineering Methodologies and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Chaos, Complexity, and Education
Keywords
robustness, stability, perturbations, organizational architecture, evolutionary history, strategic options, complex systems

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