(Non-) Human Coordination Dynamics: Scaling Transformative Processes Through Indigenous Knowledge Systems

T. Yunkaporta, J. Manning Bancroft, S. Beck and P. Punjabi Jagdish

Complexity, 2026, vol. 2026, 1-8

Abstract: This paper describes the theory, method and customary knowledge behind the design of a global systems change network grounded in Indigenous relational processes. The project leverages nested cohorts of human and nonhuman agents, affiliated through ancient borderwork protocols within biocultural governance structures. In our Australasian cultures, the coordination dynamics of traditional foraging groups scales outward as a holarchy of interdependent relations, expanding decentralised social organisation principles from local to nonlocal sovereignties far afield. Using Indigenous ritual, Lore, land-care and kin-making processes as methods of inquiry, we advance a creolised version of this system in dialogue with academic research on team optimisation, the limits of scale, the cognitive limits of social relations, homophilic clustering and network effects. We argue that social imaginaries engineered through land-based cultural narratives have the potential to overcome network saturation points, maintaining coherence in distributed governance systems beyond local spheres of trust. We propose that traditional Indigenous embassy processes provide models of borderwork that might resolve issues of organisational complexity in emergent systems change movements.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hin:complx:5554866

DOI: 10.1155/cplx/5554866

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