«The search for the isomorphism of power leads the authors of this book along paths with a depth that is not at all obvious, having to scrutinize the emerging forms that go beyond their immediate appearance. On the other hand, working in depth, in many cases they arrive at "out of the norm" and sometimes surprising results» Enzo Rullani
The book presents the results of a research aimed at building a first nucleus of a complex theory of power - called isomorphism of power - capable of embracing, in addition to politics, other social systems such as knowledge, the economy and organizations. The approach used is the systemic one, within the broader conceptual framework of the sciences of complexity. Isomorphism in crystallography is a phenomenon that occurs when two or more different substances, having similar physical and chemical properties, crystallize with a similar structure. The thesis supported is that in the social world - as well as in crystallography - different systems, but with similar properties, as social structures, present similarities about the phenomenon of power. These similes are the so-called "isomorphisms" of power. For the development of research it was decided to investigate four fundamental processes: the conquest of power, the management of centralized power, the management of decentralized power and the management of self-organized power. For each of the four processes, the isomorphisms transversal to the four investigated systems are identified: knowledge, politics, economics and organizations. Numerous isomorphisms of power are described, including: methods of conquering power with out of balance competitive strategies, the role of mediation in centralized power systems, etc. Starting from the awareness that power and complexity are two sides of the same coin, in analogy to Ashby's law of necessary variety, we propose an advancement called "law of necessary power", in the sense that to face systems with increasing complexity we need have systems with increasing power.
