Emergence refers to the ongoing process that arises through the interactions of a complex system’s basic parts.
It is a property of certain systems through which something new comes into being through the living interaction within and between the whole. In this sense, emergence speaks to the way complex systems give rise to qualities, patterns, and possibilities that cannot be reduced to their individual components.
In this way, emergence may be understood as both a property and a process of complex systems.
As a property, emergence names a characteristic of complex systems in which qualities or patterns arise that are not reducible to individual parts.
As a process, emergence names the ongoing unfolding through which those new qualities, patterns, or forms come into being through interaction across time.
Emergence therefore reflects the ever-unfolding movement of life as it organises through interaction, adaptation, and relationship across time. It is through emergence that new ways of being, knowing, and relating come into existence within Self, Other(s), and the World around us.
