About Us
The Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence (ISCE) was founded in 1999 to facilitate the conversation between academics and practitioners regarding the implications of complexity thinking for the management of organizations. We closed in December 2018. ISCE organized a variety of events, sponsored the international trans-disciplinary journal, Emergence: Complexity and Organizations (formerly known as Emergence), or simply, E:CO, supported an ongoing book series, and conducted research.
ISCE's research activities were focused on social complexity theory and its applications including: the philosophical implications of complexity, the role of language in understanding organizations, coherence in organizations, the simplification of the irreducible, complexity-based tools for policy analysis.
ISCE also acted to help co-ordinate the
research activities of the ISCE fellows to
ensure that each fellow is aware of each other
fellow's research to facilitate
cross-disciplinary collaboration and synthesis.
In 2015, ISCE began a
social experiment in resilient coherence by
attempting to create social change in the areas
of sexual assault prevention, domestic violence,
and bullying. These activities have been gifted
to the public domain.
14 Stratford Rd, Marblehead, MA 01945
Faculty and Fellows
Michael Lissack,
Executive Director and ISCE Professor of Meaning
in OrganizationsHugo Letiche, ISCE Professor of Meaning in Organizations (emeritus)
Kurt Richardson, Managing Editor of E:CO
Peter Allen, Editor of E:CO
Jeffrey Goldstein, Editor of E:CO
David Snowden, Editor of E:CO
Max Boisot (in memorium)
Paul Cilliers (in memorium)
Jerry L.R. Chandler
Jack Cohen
Lynn Crawford
Ken Friedman
Alicia Juarerro
Susanne N. Kelly
Terrence Letiche
Roger Lewin
Gerald Midgley
Birute Regine
Andrew Rixon
Duska Rosenberg
Ron Schultz
Christine Sutherland
Stuart Umpleby