Complexity science has been a source of new insight in physical and social systems and has demonstrated that unpredictability and surprise are fundamental aspects of the world around us. This book is the outcome of a discussion meeting of leading scholars and critical thinkers with expertise in complex systems sciences and leaders from a variety of organizations, sponsored by the Prigogine Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the Plexus Institute, to explore strategies for understanding uncertainty and surprise. Besides contributions to the conference, it includes a key digest by the editors as well as a commentary by the late nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, "Surprises in half of a century". The book is intended for researchers and scientists in complexity science, as well as for a broad interdisciplinary audience of both practitioners and scholars. It will well serve those interested in the research issues and in the application of complexity science to physical and social systems.

Uncertainty and Surprise: An Introduction.- Understanding Social and Economic Systems as Evolutionary Complex Systems.- Managing the Unexpected.- Surprises in Half of a Century.- An Integrated View of Uncertainty and Surprise.- Fundamental 'Uncertainty' in Science.- The Complementary Nature of Coordination Dynamics: Self-Organization and the Creation of Information.- The tyranny of Many Dimensionless Constants: A Constraint on Knowability.- View for the Inside: The Task of Managing Uncertainty and Surprise.- Chaos.- The Social Construction of Uncertainty in Healthcare Delivery.- Primary Care Practice: Uncertainty and Surprise.- Medical Errors and Microsystems: The Best Things Cannot be Told.- Organization and Leadership in Hospitals.- Fundamental Uncertainty in Business: Real Options.- Approaching the Unknown in Appalachia.- Uncertainty and Certainty.- Uncertainty and Surprise: Ideas from the Open Discussion.