The place of complexity

This article is an attempt to understand the increasing profile of complexi ty theory as a geography of dissemination. In the first part I suggest that complexity theory, itself a rhetorical hybrid, takes on new meanings as it circulates in and through a number of actor-networks and, specifically, gl obal science, global business and global New Age. As complexity theory circ ulates in these networks, so it encounters new conditions, which generate n ew hybrid theoretical forms. In the second part of the article, I consider how complexity theory might be interpreted as the emergence of a new struct ure of feeling in Euro-American societies, which frames the future as open and full of productivity. The conclusion offers some words of warning.