Syverson moves these concepts of complex systems into composing processes:
writers, readers, and texts form just such a complex system of self-organizing, adaptive, and dynamic interactions. But even beyond this level of complexity, they are actually situated in an ecology, a larger system that includes environmental structures, such as pens, paper, computers, books, telephones, fax machines, photocopiers, printing presses, and other natural and human-constructed features, as well as other complex systems operating at various levels of scale, such as families, global economies, publishing systems, theoretical frames, academic disciplines, and language itself. (5)
Ecological systems have four attributes:
- Distribution: “processes…are…both divided and shared among agents and structures in the environment…Complex systems are also distributed across space and time in an ensembles of interrelated activities” (7).
- Emergence: the system operates on particular processes (such as genres), new processes emerge (such as a new and/or adapted genre), the new processes become adapted by the system and the cycle continues. In this process, old processes may decay and disappear. This is how systems evolve (10-11). (This is also an explanation of how complex systems are dynamic.)
- Embodiment: “Writers, readers, and text have physical bodies and consequently not only the content but the processes of their interaction is dependent on, and reflective of, physical experience” (12). Writing and reading are also physical activities. “Embodiment grounds our conceptual structures, our interactions with each other and with the environment, our perceptions, and our actions” (13). “The coupling between our own physical architecture and the materials and tools we take up for use constrain our activities (and our texts) in nontrivial ways” (56). Writers and readers are also embodied in texts because our bodies are “embedded in language and the schemas by which we understand the world” (152).
- Enaction: “the principle that knowledge is the result of ongoing interpretation that emerges through activities and experiences situated in specific environments” (13).
There are also five dimensions of complex systems:
- The physical-material dimension (including technology): “Texts emerge through writers’ and readers’ physical interactions with material structures…Writers and readers are physical beings, too” (18).
- The social dimension (inter-individual): “the social dimension is not confined to interactions between individuals…or groups…but also encompasses a broad range of social structures, practices, and relationships, including cultural and political movements, literary traditions, and institutions” (19).
- The psychological dimension (intra-individual): “Thoughts and emotions…[are] the source of writing and the determinant of its reception by readers” (19).
- The spacial dimension: “Texts are constructed across bounded space” yet can also cross spaces as texts are physically moved from place to place (20). Writers and readers are “situated in particular spaces” and can also be transported to the imaginary spaces in the text (20).
- The temporal dimension: everything in a composing situation is historically, culturally, and temporally situated. More, “our sense of time is [often] embodied in…physical artifacts” (51).
Combining the dimensions and the attributes of complex systems, we get an ecological matrix (23).