The rise of complexity sciences has led to the development of new language about systems. Concepts such as ‘complex systems thinking'; or ‘complexity thinking'; have appeared in the literature, appealing to ways of thinking (in) complexity. The notion of ‘complex thinking,'; may be considered as referring to a mode of thinking more congruent with the complexity of the world. The widespread and sometimes undifferentiated usage of these concepts results in a lack of clarity and terminological confusion, which jeopardizes their heuristic and pragmatic value. We identify literature using terms related to thinking (in) complexity and use a combination of computational and qualitative methods to extract definitions and analyse their usage. We map the relationships of the concepts and their usage across different intellectual communities. Our goal is to clarify these concepts and to strengthen their pragmatic value for the promotion and management of positive changes in complex systems.

Humanity’s biggest challenges call for organised collective action, informed by the most complex forms of thinking. Different forms of knowledge and practices of knowing operate at different levels of organisation within society. Scientific knowledge is one form of knowing, but the development of science under a culture of disciplinisation and increasing specialisation has led to its fragmentation and blinded it to the possibilities offered by the integration of knowledge. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are privileged routes for rich knowledge construction and integration. There is a pressing need for efforts directed toward the intentional construction of a culture where interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices may flourish. However, we believe significant change will only occur through the orchestration of a set of activities that attend to the complexity of knowledge construction and integration as emergent outcomes of a complex network of processes and relations that constitute an evolving inter and transdisciplinary ecosystem. In this paper we present a thought experiment in the form of a proposal for the organisation of an Alliance for Knowledge Integration and of Inter/Transdisciplinary Hubs aimed at coordinating collaborative actions and contributions from a diversity of agents and systems from different levels of organisation of society towards richer and more integrated practices of knowing.

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Love is a fundamental dimension of being human and a powerful resource for flourishing and well-being. Yet, it is still insufficiently understood. Despite advances, the Science of Love remains a fragmented field, producing mostly partial, fragmented and unintegrated views on love. In this paper, we present a novel perspective on love based on a complex systems perspective, building from a theoretical framework of families and family relationships as complex systems. We establish a set of preliminary assumptions for the development of an Integrated Theory of the Complexity of Love (C.ofLove) and for a novel inter and transdisciplinary research approach, as the foundations for an Integrated Science of Love.