OVERCROWDING
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2453 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences, Methodology or model |
The gathering of an excessive number of elements in a limited environment.
When elements of a system begin to increase considerably in an environment that cannot be expanded, they exert growing reciprocal constraints on their displacements and, more generally on their activity.
This systemic pathology, which amounts to a kind of environmental poisoning, has been diversely described by, for instance:
- the French sociologist R. BOUDON, who coined the expression of “perverse effects”;
- J. CALHOUN in his research on population density and social pathology (1962 and 1971);
- R. ARNOTT and K. SMALL in their study on the economics of traffic congestion (1994).
The subject is ominously important for any species in full demographic explosion… as ours is.