Planning & Organizing with Edgar Morin: Insights for Managing Emergencies

Introduction

This series begins by exploring the familiar discussion of planning and organizing for adaptation, this time from the perspective of French sociologist Edgar Morin. Morin introduces into the conversation new concepts and language for approaching the task of enabling teams and organizations as a whole to adapt when faced with change. It is interesting to note that Morin's writings on complexity largely predate the popularization of the term (Montuori, 2008).

The Theory

The theory at the core of this post comes from Morin's (2008) essay "Complexity and the Enterprise" found in his book On Complexity. The book provides an introduction to complexity as a concept, discusses the need for the integration of complex principles and thinking into science and everyday life, and provides an introduction to a portion of Morin's work. Morin seems to still be relatively unknown here in the U.S. due perhaps to the limited amount of translated material.