Capra and Luisi (2014) provide a good entry point into complexity science; see especially Chapter 8, which discusses the self-organization of a wide range of complex systems, including molecules, cells, individual living things, and social organization in various species.

a science of qualities introduced by the biologist and mathematician Brian Goodwin, the physicist and systems thinker Prof. Fritjof Capra and Prof. Pier Luigi Luisi,