Understanding Complex Systems

From the reviews: "I strongly recommend it to scholars who work on spatial agent models. ... The book starts from a presentation of the history of urban research, which revolves around the description of two cultures: first, the quantitative revolution in the theories of the City and, secondly, a structuralist-Marxist, humanistic approach. ... To sum up, this is a book well worth reading. Furthermore, it allows us to highlight certain limitations of social simulation in dealing with complex cognitive processes and complex system modelling." (Anne van der Veen, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, April, 2012) "The best part of the book probably consists of its rich, multicolored fireworks combining an unusually large and diverse spectrum of ideas from many disciplines, and leading to a broad and fresh vision. ... The book covers a vast amount of material. ... The most fruitful approach to Portugali's book probably is to allow oneself to be stimulated by the many interesting ideas and the wealth of original insights ... ." (Cristian Suteanu, Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 52 (3), 2012) "The latest book by Juval Portugali is a comprehensive volume covering the key themes and outputs of his recent work. The book covers a wide range of material related to methods of understanding and modelling the city. ... the book as a whole are likely to be of great interest. A wide range of material is covered and concisely tied together in a lucid and clear manner. ... the book has a lot to offer to those seeking to understand what a city essentially is." (Ashley Dhanani, The Journal of Space Syntax, Vol. 3 (1), August, 2012)