Book Review: How Nature Works

per-bak-how-nature-worksHow Nature works is a fascinating book. I first heard of the late Per Bak and his sandpile theories when I some time back read an article by Koubatis and Schönberger (1995) on Risk management of complex critical systems. At that time I had just discovered the International Journal of Critical Infrastructure, and I was perusing their archives for articles I could use in my research on transportation vulnerability. Koubatis and Schönberger actually consider Per Bak’s “sandpile” model to be as relevant to business and society as Adam Smith’s legendary “invisible hand”. When I read that I was simply compelled to investigate more.

Self-organized systems

I looked up Per Bak on Wikipedia and was intrigued by his theories, but I put it aside as not particularly relevant to me at that time. Currently I am writing a book chapter on risks in Virtual Enterprise Networks (VENs), as described by Ken Thompson in The Networked Enterprise and it was as a background for VENs that Per Bak’s sandpile model came into my mind again. A VEN is a collection of loosely coupled businesses, self-organized and more efficient than traditional businesses, and it’s the self-organizing concept that I needed to understand more about. How nature works provided me with that understanding. Chapter 11 on economics was particularly helpful here. Actually, every economist should read that chapter. It has certainly widened my horizon.

Amazon.com

amazon.com: How Nature Works



Reference

Koubatis, A., & Schönberger, J. Y. (2005). Risk management of complex critical systems. International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 1(2/3), 195-215.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Tags: , , , , ,

ARTICLES and PAPERS
Transport Network Disruption
Today is my last day at work as Researcher at Møreforsking Molde. It is a sad day, because I am leav[...]
Global Supply Chain Risk Management
Finally it appears that someone has developed an easy, hands-on, not-so-academic and straightforward[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Book Review:Managing Risks in Supply Chains
To make up for yesterday's perhaps overly harsh critique of just one article from this book, this is[...]
Supply Chain Risk - the forgotten discipline
No, it's not that supply chain risk is a forgotten discipline, it' is well and alive an kicking, it'[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
How New Zealand develops resilient organisations
Is New Zealand better prepared for a disaster than other countries? As our infrastructure and organi[...]
Supply chain vulnerability: an invisible global risk?
Supply chain disruption - a global issue? All companies and governments dependent on external suppli[...]