Panarchy, complexity and collapse

This article has some interesting notions consonant with my past criticisms of the model of hierarchical complexity (here and here). Also see this prior post.

A panarchy is a series of nested levels, from micro to macro development which operate via the "opposing forces of growth and stability versus change and variety." However, "where higher and lower order cycles are very tightly coupled, they may synchronize, becoming trapped in a extended growth phase at many scales at once, thereby risking synchronous collapse."

"Joseph Tainter's work complements that of Holling [...] providing a framework of diminishing marginal returns to complexity which encompasses ecosystems, individual societies and competitive peer polities. As complexity increases, it eventually becomes a liability, as we can see with Holling's description of rigidity reducing the resilience of ecosystems. [...] Past a certain point further investments in complex solutions to increasingly complex problems has a negative return."