Sociological Complexity Theory:From Epistemology to Empirical Methodology

This study,through a re-conceptualization of sociological complexity theory’s epistemological sources,specifically in Edgar Morin’s formulation,sheds light on the theoretical models as well as empirical methodologies of sociological analysis of today’s complex,interconnected,diverse and globalized society and global disorder.Complexity theory leads to a shift in perspective and a transformation of the epistemological status of social sciences with an in-depth intervention of disorder,contingency,case,singular,and non-repeatable in the sociological analysis.The notion of dialogic interplay is placed at the paradigm level and stands out at the heart of the concepts,analyzing the social system as auto-eco-organizer.Similarly,the notion of‘emergence’at macro-micro levels imposes itself as complex,logically requiring overcoming simple,linear thinking and model of explanation to adopt the perspective of organizational rotativity in which the product retroacts by transforming the one producing it,by conceiving a circularity of co-production between individuals and society through interactions.Declining epistemology and sociological complexity theory in the empirical methodology setting,the complex sociological approach is phenomenon-,event/information-and crisis-centered,privileging observation,participation-intervention,and‘live inquiry’.The open,in-depth and possibly non-directive interview is part of clinical sociological methodology,raising the question of the observer-phenomenon-observed relation.

Complex Systems Theory: Some Considerations for Sociology

This essay presents a reflection on the main implications of Complexity Theory for science in general, redefining and dispelling myths of traditional science, and Sociology in particular, suggesting a redefinition of Parsons’ classic concept of Social System, articulated around the property of self-maintenance of order rather than on its possible discontinuity and instability. It argues that Complexity Theory has established the limits of Classic Science, leading to a more realistic awareness of working and evolution mechanisms of Natural and Social Systems and showing the limits of our capacity to predict and control events. Dissipative structures have shown the creative role of time. Instability, emergence, surprise, unpredictability are the rule rather than the exception when systems move away from equilibrium (entropy), even if these processes are generated from a system’s deterministic working mechanisms. Therefore, we have come to realize how constructive the contribution of Complexity is, in regards to the long lasting problem of the relationship between order and disorder. Today, the terms of this relationship have been re-specified in its new configuration of inter-relationship link, according to a unicum which finds its synthesis in self-organization and deterministic chaos concepts. From this perspective, as Prigogine suggested, studies on Complex Systems are heading toward a historical, biological conception of Physics, and a new alliance between natural systems and living, social systems. Non-linearity, far from equilibrium self-organization, emergence and surprise meet at all levels, as this paper attempts to highlight. In Sociology, insights of Complexity Theory have contributed to a new way of thinking about social systems, by re-addressing some fundamental issues starting to social system, emergence and change concepts. The current social system conception as complex dynamical systems is supported by a profitable use of non-liner models (in particular, the Logistic map) in the study of social processes.