Emergence Engineering: A Review

Energy infrastructures such as the electricity grid and natural gas networks are socio-technical systems, complex adaptive systems that exhibit emergence. Their structure, function and performance is the result of actor decisions, technology operation, interconnections and economic transactions. Policy making, regulation, and strategic management which address social and economic issues can be framed as the manipulation of some emergent phenomena. This paper offers a review and analysis of relevant literature on emergence manipulation and interprets work originating in computer science, social science and biological science to develop a 'system' understanding of this approach. We define the notion of 'emergence engineering' to cover emergence manipulation practices. Furthermore, we discuss how we can use this state-of-the-art to underpin and facilitate the management of emergence in socio-technical systems. The review reveals that 'emergence engineering' is mainly used for computing practices. The theories and tools provided therein are applied in biology and the social sciences. The major applicable definition of emergence appears to be the 'design, observation and surprise.' The relation between emergence engineering and self-organization and the effect of downward causation on such practices are also discussed. The review is concluded by a discussion on how current emergence engineering practices can be applied to the study of socio-technical systems.