Social complexity

Social complexity

Social complexity is the approach to social phenomena that tries to analyze a social system as a complex system. The social complexity can be seen as an impact on the social analysis of increasingly influential complexity theory. It can be understood as the arrangement of contemporary social studies in the paradigm of a complex adaptive system, evolutionary computation, a self-organizing system in almost all aspects of social sciences, sociology, psychology, political science, anthropology, economics, etc.

Aspects of social complexity

Some important properties of social complexity are:
* The understanding of differences among description levels in a social system; at the minimum the distinguishment of macro-level (e.g.: collective or aggregate phenomena), meso-level (e.g.: social interaction among social agents), and micro-level (e.g.: the belief systems of individual social agents). In this case, there is a tendency to see a social system as a multi-agent system.
* There are macro-micro linkages between description levels. The macro levels emerged from the micro levels and in return there is a causality relationship between the macro properties and the micro. This aspect is reminiscent of the concept of emergence in a complex adaptive system. In return, the interplay between macro and micro levels are commonly modelled as non-linear phenomena.
* There is a tendency to use formal approaches in social complexity studies, e.g.: game theory, cellular automaton, evolutionary programming, neural network modeling in many aspects, dynamical system modeling, computer simulation, etc.

Some forms of social complexity

It is believed that social complexity is the cumulative form of contemporary research into complex systems. Some famous subjects often related to social complexity studies include computational sociology, cognitive science, econophysics.

External links

* [http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation] - the principal journal covering this area and freely accessible
* [http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu/ The Center for Social Complexity, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University] - First university-based research center specifically dedicated to the scientific investigation of social complexity across all levels-of-analysis: cognitive, decision-making, groups, organizations, societies, and international or world systems. Offers the world's first Ph.D. Program in Computational Social Science. Founded in 2002 by Prof. Claudio Cioffi-Revilla.
* [http://www.bandungfe.net/faq/ Frequently asked questions about social complexity]
* [http://www.bandungfe.net/ The Official Web of Bandung Fe Institute]
* [http://cfpm.org The Centre for Policy Modelling] - a research group specialising in simulating social complexity, with large open-access list of papers
* [http://essa.eu.org/ The European Social Simulation Association]
* [http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/naacsos/ The North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Sciences (NAACSOS)] Leading professional association in North America for social complexity scientists and computational social scientists
* [http://www.springerlink.com/content/102865/ Computational and Mathematical Organizational Theory (CMOT)] Journal of The North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Sciences (NAACSOS)
* [http://www.personal.kent.edu/~bcastel3/ Sociology and Complexity Science Website]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Social simulation — is the modeling or simulation, normally performed using a computer, of social phenomena (e.g., cooperation, competition, markets, social networks dynamics, etc.). A subset within social simulations are Agent Based Social Simulations (ABSS) which… …   Wikipedia

  • Complexity — For other uses, see Complexity (disambiguation). In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of complex systems theory. In… …   Wikipedia

  • Social identity complexity — Social Identity Complexity: Who is We ? Given the recognition that individuals belong to multiple social groups, with multiple corresponding social identities, an important question to be addressed is how individuals combine these group… …   Wikipedia

  • Complexity theory and organizations — Complexity theory and organizations, also called complexity strategy or complex adaptive organization, is the use of Complexity theory in the field of strategic management and organizational studies. Contents 1 Overview 2 Early research 3 Later… …   Wikipedia

  • Social movement — Social movements are a type of group action. They are large groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change. Modern Western social …   Wikipedia

  • Complexity, Problem Solving, and Sustainable Societies — is a paper on energy economics by Joseph Tainter from 1996. Contents 1 Focus 1.1 Attempts 1.2 Requirement of knowledge 2 See …   Wikipedia

  • Social Darwinism — is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics.[1] It especially refers to notions of struggle for… …   Wikipedia

  • Social work — / child and youth worker Occupation Activity sectors Pursuit of social welfare and social change Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community… …   Wikipedia

  • social service — social service, adj. organized welfare efforts carried on under professional auspices by trained personnel. [1850 55] * * * Introduction also called  welfare service,  or  social work,         any of numerous publicly or privately provided… …   Universalium

  • Social exchange theory — is a social psychological and sociological perspective and that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. Social exchange theory posits that all human relationships are formed by the use of a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”