These nested hierarchies of such whole-parts are holonocracies, so-called to indicate mutual power relationships and structural coupling among holons. For issues of ustainability, all systems are open and nested, and can be described as SOHO — Self-Organizing, Holonocratc, Open — systems.

The dynamics of SOHO systems can be described in terms of its propensities, the mutual causality of the feedback loops and autocatalytic process that give the system its coherence as an entity. This set of propensities that define a holon is referred to as its ‘canon´. While traditional scientific models and descriptions provide useful insights, no single perspective can capture the dense complexity of everyday life.

For complex systems, narratives are a cornerstone of the description of their dynamics, and subsume normal scientific descriptions and models. Furthermore, narratives reflect a particular mix of scale in a conventional hierarchy (households, regions), as well as type (what interests the observer).

The challenge for those who wish to foster sustainable and convivial human communities on this planet is how to generate complementary (structurally-coupled), adaptive, multi-layered narratives.

As a step in meeting this challenge, we have developed an Adaptive Methodology for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health.

About David Waltner-Toews
David Waltner-Toews is Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Prof. Waltner-Toews is a poet, veterinarian, and epidemiologist "specializing" in the epidemiology of zoonoses and food- and water-borne diseases, and in community-based ecosystem approaches to health.

He is an author or co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed papers, four books including Ecosystem Sustainability and Health: a Practical Approach (Cambridge, 2004). He is part of an international network of scholars working to integrate complex systems theories with practice to promote sustainable health and development, and founding president of the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health.