%0 Journal Article %J Complexity %D 2011 %T The Sigma Profile: A Formal Tool to Study Organization and its Evolution at Multiple Scales %A Carlos Gershenson %X The σ profile is presented as a tool to analyze the organization of systems at different scales, and how this organization changes in time. Describing structures at different scales as goal-oriented agents, one can define σ ∈ [0,1] (satisfaction) as the degree to which the goals of each agent at each scale have been met. σ reflects the organization degree at that scale. The σ profile of a system shows the satisfaction at different scales, with the possibility to study their dependencies and evolution. It can also be used to extend game theoretic models. The description of a general tendency on the evolution of complexity and cooperation naturally follows from the σ profile. Experiments on a virtual ecosystem are used as illustration. %B Complexity %V 16 %P 37-44 %G eng %U http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.0504 %R 10.1002/cplx.20350