Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Mechanisms For Long Term Maintenance Of Social Stability

博士论文改进资助：长期维护社会稳定的机制

• 批准号: 1538784
• 负责人: C Michael Barton
• 金额: $ 2.51万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1538784&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Mechanisms

This project will examine mechanisms of social stability and the reasons why some social systems resist change. Social stability, or the persistence of social systems, is a fundamental feature without which human society is not possible. Understanding contexts and processes that resist change and that maintain social stability is crucial to predicting and managing the effects of the intensity and pace of change of the modern world. Previous scholarship has shown that social stability is not an inherent property of a social system and cannot be defined simply as the absence of change but must be explained. Social stability is embedded over time through the cumulative social dependencies created between individuals who choose to form a relationship. The peculiar formations of these dependencies result in different levels of social cohesion, akin to "social glue", that act to promote or thwart social stability. Since the embedding of social stability is a cumulative process that plays out through time, archaeology is uniquely positioned with an established corpus of tools and the long-term perspective necessary to problematize social stability, to establish contexts in which societies resist change, good or bad, and ultimately to understand how, why, and when social transformation does or does not take place.The research will be conducted by Wendy Cegielski, under the direction of Dr. C. Michael Barton, as part of her doctoral dissertation research It will examine change or lack thereof in social complexity by combining quantitative modeling and the comparative archaeological record where the social system is represented by networks of relations between settlements. From prior sociological research, it has been demonstrated that multiple paths to social cohesion exist and the particular evolution of these paths may be responsible for a society's long-term resistance to change. Subsequently, recognizing the mechanisms governing these paths is important to understanding the evolution of social complexity. In order to accomplish this goal, this project uses formal, abstract modeling techniques called Exponential Random Graph Models from Network Science, the study of relational data. These methods move beyond static snapshots of data toward the investigation of the role of cumulative, bottom-up drivers of stability and change, and their relation to empirical record. The research will be conducted in eastern Spain along the Mediterranean and on the material culture of the Valencian Bronze Age, where prior research appears to indicate little, regional social change for 700 years. Previous scholarship has demonstrated the robusticity across complex social systems of the network theory used in this research; thus the methods proposed can be applied cross-culturally and across disciplines. This research also will increase collaboration between US and international institutions and provide new opportunities for technical training in these innovative techniques.

本项目将研究社会稳定的机制以及某些社会制度抵制变革的原因。社会稳定或社会制度的持久性是一个基本特征，没有它人类社会就不可能存在。了解抵制变化和维持社会稳定的背景和过程，对于预测和管理现代世界变化的强度和速度的影响至关重要。先前的研究表明，社会稳定不是社会制度的固有属性，不能简单地定义为没有变化，而必须加以解释。随着时间的推移，通过选择建立关系的个人之间建立的累积社会依赖关系，社会稳定是根深蒂固的。这些依赖关系的特殊形式导致不同程度的社会凝聚力，类似于“社会粘合剂”，促进或阻碍社会稳定。由于社会稳定的嵌入是一个累积的过程，随着时间的推移，考古学具有独特的定位，具有既定的工具库和长期的视角，这些工具和视角是解决社会稳定问题所必需的，以建立社会抵制变革的背景，无论是好是坏，并最终了解如何，为什么，以及社会转型发生或不发生的时间。这项研究将由温迪·切吉尔斯基在C.迈克尔巴顿，作为她的博士论文研究的一部分，它将通过结合定量建模和比较考古记录来研究社会复杂性的变化或缺乏，其中社会系统由定居点之间的关系网络表示。先前的社会学研究表明，社会凝聚力存在多种途径，这些途径的特定演变可能是社会长期抵制变革的原因。因此，认识到这些路径的机制对于理解社会复杂性的演变非常重要。为了实现这一目标，该项目使用了网络科学中称为指数随机图模型的形式化、抽象建模技术，网络科学是对关系数据的研究。这些方法超越了静态的数据快照，转向调查累积的、自下而上的稳定和变化驱动因素的作用，以及它们与经验记录的关系。这项研究将在西班牙东部沿着地中海和巴伦西亚青铜时代的物质文化进行，先前的研究似乎表明700年来该地区的社会变化很小。先前的学术研究已经证明了本研究中使用的网络理论在复杂社会系统中的鲁棒性;因此，所提出的方法可以跨文化和跨学科应用。这项研究还将加强美国和国际机构之间的合作，并为这些创新技术的技术培训提供新的机会。