Toward a General Theory of Societal Collapse: A Biophysical Examination of Tainter’s Model of the Diminishing Returns of Complexity

Ugo Bardi, Sara Falsini () and Ilaria Perissi
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Ugo Bardi: University of Florence
Sara Falsini: Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Scienza e la Tecnolgia dei Materiali (INSTM)-University of Florence
Ilaria Perissi: Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Scienza e la Tecnolgia dei Materiali (INSTM)-University of Florence

Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, 2019, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The collapse of large social systems, often referred to as “civilizations” or “empires,” is a well-known historical phenomenon, but its origins are the object of an unresolved debate. In this paper, we present a simple biophysical model which we link to the concept that societies collapse because of the “diminishing returns of complexity” proposed by Tainter (The collapse of complex societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988). Our model is based on the description of a socio-economic system as a trophic chain of energy stocks which dissipate the energy potential of the available resources. The model is based on the idea that we observe that the exploitation of a non-renewable resource stock (“production”) has a strongly nonlinear relation with the complexity of the system, assumed to be proportional to the size of the stock termed “The Economy” (or “capital”), producing various trajectories of decline of the economy, in some cases rapid enough that they can be defined as “collapses.” The evolution of the relation of production and the economy produces a curve similar to the one proposed by Tainter, for the decline of a complex society.

Keywords: Tainter’s theory; Societal collapse; System dynamics; Complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s41247-018-0049-0

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