Dispositionality

[Dave Snowden 2016-04-24]

• Dispositionality refers to the inherent or stable characteristics or tendencies of an object, substance, or individual to behave or react in certain ways under specific conditions
• It describes the underlying potential or capacity of something to exhibit a particular behaviour or response

**Dispositionality is the way in which something is placed or arranged, in relation to other things

• The complexity and adaptive capabilities of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) emerge out of the dipositionalities of the system and cannot be understood, explained or predicted in terms of linear causality or underlying causal laws
• In a CAS the future state cannot be predicted but the dispositionalities indicate a set of possibilities and plausibilities

[Chris Corrigan]

Dispositionality simply means that making change in a system is much easier when you have a sense of what the system is pre-disposed to do (and what it is NOT pre-disposed to do…)