The 2010-2011 Strategic Working Group on Inflections: A Critical Inquiry into Moments of Radical Transformation investigated moments of radical transformation or “inflections.” The group defined inflections as critical moments in the dynamic of a system—moments when the system undergoes such a major change that it transforms into a different system. Unlike changes that can be seen and analyzed from within a system itself, inflections are often only recognized and understood after the fact (when the system has already changed) or from the perspective of a different system. Most current work in history and social and human sciences approaches the analysis of such moments of transformation as if they were founding events. For example, focusing on a new invention as a fortuitous instrument of historical discontinuity, on crucial events or people that “caused” a revolution, on the character or intentions of a charismatic leader, tends to obscure the fact that this invention, revolution, or leader becomes possible only as a result of the convergence of systemic and distributed influences, as opposed to single antecedent causes.

The Strategic Working Group focused on inflections as effects of the convergence of many distributed processes within a larger system. The group considered historical transformations not as simple cause-and-effect transitions, but as emergent phenomena in which highly distributed systemic influences converge holistically to produce unprecedented inflections.