Systemic Risks: A Homomorphic Approach on the Basis of Complexity Science

Klaus Lucas; Ortwin Renn; Carlo Jaeger; Saini Yang

doi:10.1007/s13753-018-0185-6

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Article Navigation > International Journal of Disaster Risk Science > 2018 > 9(3): 292-305

Klaus Lucas, Ortwin Renn, Carlo Jaeger, Saini Yang. Systemic Risks: A Homomorphic Approach on the Basis of Complexity Science[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2018, 9(3): 292-305. doi: 10.1007/s13753-018-0185-6

Citation:

Klaus Lucas, Ortwin Renn, Carlo Jaeger, Saini Yang. Systemic Risks: A Homomorphic Approach on the Basis of Complexity Science[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2018, 9(3): 292-305. doi: 10.1007/s13753-018-0185-6

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Systemic Risks: A Homomorphic Approach on the Basis of Complexity Science

doi: 10.1007/s13753-018-0185-6

1 Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany;
2 Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies(IASS), 14467 Potsdam, Germany;
3 Economic and Social Science Department, University of Stuttgart, 106037 Stuttgart, Germany;
4 Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
5 Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disasters, Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
6 Global Climate Forum, 10178 Berlin, Germany

Funds:

We gratefully acknowledge the financial and institutional support provided by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Berlin (BBAW) and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam (IASS). Discussions among the members of the working groups on systemic risks organized by BBAW and IASS, additional conversations with Dr. Armin Haas from IASS, and comments from anonymous reviewers were extremely helpful in improving the original manuscript. Responsibility for errors stays with the authors.

Available Online: 2021-04-26

Abstract

Abstract

Although the notion of systemic risk gained prominence with respect to financial systems, it is a generic term that refers to risks of increasing importance in many domains—risks that cannot be tackled by conventional techniques of risk management and governance. We build on a domain-overarching definition of systemic risks by highlighting crucial properties that distinguish them from conventional risks and plain disasters. References to typical examples from various domains are included. Common features of systemic risks in different domains—such as the role of agents and emergence phenomena, tipping and cascading, parameters indicating instability, and historicity—turn out to be more than noncommittal empirical observations. Rather these features can be related to fundamental theory for relatively simple and well-understood systems in physics and chemistry. A crucial mechanism is the breakdown of macroscopic patterns of whole systems due to feedback reinforcing actions of agents on the microlevel, where the reinforcement is triggered by boundary conditions moving beyond critical tipping points. Throughout the whole article, emphasis is placed on the role of complexity science as a basis for unifying the phenomena of systemic risks in widely different domains.
- Complexity science,
- Integrated risk governance,
- Multiagent modeling,
- Systemic risks

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References(71)

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