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Understanding Complex Systems

A New Field of Inquiry

By: Brian Castellani, Frederic William Hafferty

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Hardcover | 4 February 2009

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Hardcover
300 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.13 x 16.51 x 2.54

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$169.00

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By now, most academics have heard something about the new science of complexity. In a manner reminiscent of Einstein and the last hundred years of physics, complexity science has captured the public imagination. ® One can go to Amazon. com and purchase books on complexification (Casti 1994), emergence (Holland 1998), small worlds (Barab¡si 2003), the web of life (Capra 1996), fuzzy thinking (Kosko 1993), global c- plexity (Urry 2003) and the business of long-tails (Anderson 2006). Even television has incorporated the topics of complexity science. Crime shows ® ® such as 24 or CSI typically feature investigators using the latest advances in computational modeling to "simulate scenarios" or "data mine" all p- sible suspects-all of which is done before the crime takes place. The ® World Wide Web is another example. A simple search on Google. Com using the phrase "complexity science" gets close to a million hits! C- plexity science is ubiquitous. What most scholars do not realize, however, is the remarkable role sociologists are playing in this new science. C- sider the following examples. 0. 1 Sociologists in Complexity Science The first example comes from the new science of networks (Barab¡si 2003). By now, most readers are familiar with the phenomena known as six-degrees of separation-the idea that, because most large networks are comprised of a significant number of non-random weak-ties, the nodes (e. g. , people, companies, etc.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews: "This ambitious book is an effort to provide a comprehensive overview of the research and people making up the rapidly expanding area ... 'Sociology and Complexity Science' (SACS). SACS refers broadly to the community of sociologists and like-minded scholars ... in social research. ... does a very nice job of tracing out the evolution of this field, and its antecedents in other areas of research. It may be best suited to someone ... interested in learning more about the area and its development." (Elizabeth Bruch, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 13 (1), 2010)

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Computing & I.T.Computer Science Mathematical Theory of Computation Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Social Research & Statistics Science Physics Statistical Physics Mathematical Physics

Introduction	p. 1
Telling the Story of Sociology's Complexity	p. 1
The Story of Sociology's Complexity	p. 4
Sociology's Complexity: The Early Years	p. 5
Embracing the Complexity of Western Society	p. 5
Embracing a Systems Perspective	p. 7
Learning from the Past	p. 8
Intellectual Dead End	p. 12
The Case of Parsons	p. 12
The Rise of Complexity Science	p. 17
The New Challenge of Complexity	p. 22
The Emergence of SACS	p. 27
Reinventing Parsons	p. 28
Questions for Our Study	p. 30
Method for Our Study	p. 31
SACS Toolkit-Theoretical Framework	p. 33
Overview of the SACs Toolkit	p. 33
Overview of Chapters 2 and 3	p. 34
Social Complexity Theory	p. 34
Social Practice	p. 36
The Five Components of Social Practice	p. 38
Social Systems as Social Practice	p. 44
Overcoming the Agency/Structure Dualism	p. 45
Field of Relations	p. 47
Web of Social Practice	p. 50
Network of Attracting Clusters	p. 53
Environment	p. 62
System Dynamics	p. 62
SACS Toolkit-Assemblage	p. 67
Introducing Assemblage	p. 67
The Key Features of Assemblage	p. 69
The Six Steps of Assemblage	p. 73
Step 1: The Research Question	p. 73
The Core: Steps 2 through 4	p. 74
Step 5: The Working Model	p. 81
Step 6: Conclusion	p. 81
Overview of SACS	p. 83
Web of Social Practices	p. 84
The Network of Attracting Clusters	p. 84
Internal Dynamics of SACS	p. 86
Negotiated Ordering	p. 86
Internal Trajectories	p. 87
Environmental Forces	p. 88
The Legitimacy of SACS	p. 90
SACS as Enclosed Intellectual Space	p. 91
The Five Research Areas of SACS	p. 92
The Non-Corporate Government of SACS	p. 95
The SACS Community	p. 95
Common Concerns	p. 96
Interstitial Character of SACS	p. 98
Why Not Call SACS the Sociology of Complexity?	p. 99
The Formal Emergence of SACS	p. 100
Situating SACS	p. 101
Environmental Forces	p. 105
Sociology's Complexity	p. 106
Wallerstein's Gulbenkian Commission	p. 107
SACS's Millennial Musings	p. 110
Systems Thinking	p. 112
Systems Science: A Brief History	p. 113
Systems Science	p. 113
Cybernetics	p. 115
Systems Science and SACS	p. 116
Artificial Intelligence	p. 116
Complexity Science	p. 119
The Making of Complexity Science	p. 119
Popularizing Complexity	p. 120
Material Conditions	p. 122
A New Vocabulary	p. 123
Topics of Study	p. 124
Method	p. 129
Five Areas of Research	p. 139
Complex Social Network Analysis	p. 140
The Sub-clusters of CSNA	p. 143
Computational Sociology	p. 152
What Makes Computational Sociology Unique	p. 158
Three Subfields of Study	p. 159
British-based School of Complexity	p. 162
Complexity Science Lineage	p. 162
Complexity Science and Sociological Methods	p. 167
C²	p. 168
Integrating Complexity Science and Sociological Topics	p. 170
Sociology Intellectual Traditions	p. 170
Conclusion	p. 171
The Luhmann School of Complexity	p. 171
The Luhmann School of Complexity Profile	p. 173
Niklas Luhmann: A Basic Review	p. 175
The LSC Today	p. 179
Sociocybernetics	p. 179
Complexity Science Lineage	p. 180
Sociology Lineage	p. 185
Complexity Science and Sociology Method	p. 185
Complexity Science and Sociological Topics	p. 185
Conclusion	p. 186
The System of SACS	p. 187
Why More Method?	p. 187
More Data and Techniques	p. 187
Into the Swamp Again!	p. 189
Data and Procedures	p. 190
Is a Network a System?	p. 190
Choosing the Top 25 Scholars	p. 190
Database	p. 191
Analytic Procedure	p. 192
How to Read the Map 6	p. 194
Map 6 versus Map 4	p. 194
The Emergence and Growth of SACS (1998-2008)	p. 195
The Emergence of SACS	p. 196
A Decade of Growth (1998-2008)	p. 199
SACS Today	p. 207
Negotiated Ordering	p. 208
Generating Map 6	p. 208
General Structure of SACS	p. 208
Degree of Connectedness	p. 210
Powerbrokers	p. 212
Internal Division	p. 217
The Interstitial Character of SACS	p. 218
The Chaos of Sociology	p. 219
The Fractal Dynamics of SACS	p. 223
The Near Future of SACS	p. 231
Conclusion	p. 233
Overview	p. 233
Why Read This Book	p. 234
Expressing Old Ideas in New Ways	p. 234
Reviewing SACS	p. 236
SACS Toolkit	p. 236
What We Learned About SACS	p. 237
The Impact of SACS	p. 238
Mapping Complexity	p. 241
The Map	p. 241
Map 1: The New Science of Complexity	p. 243
Map 2: SACS Town	p. 245
Graph 1: The Pareto Distribution	p. 247
Figure 1: Venn Diagram of SACS Folders	p. 248
Map 3: Fill-in-the-Blanks Tool	p. 249
Figure 2: Web of Social Practices for SACS	p. 251
Figure 3: Web of Social Practices as Molecule	p. 252
Flowcharts 1 and 2	p. 253
Map 4: The Community of SACS	p. 255
Map 5: The Lineage of Computational Sociology	p. 257
Map 6: Social Network Model of SACS	p. 259
Map 7: Social Network Map of SACS Minus Gatekeepers	p. 261
References	p. 263
Index	p. 271
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Understanding Complex Systems

A New Field of Inquiry

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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