Complexity and Method in the Social Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Approach

在过去的二十年里，人们越来越有兴趣应用“复杂性理论”来思考和了解我们所生活的真实的社会世界。这是一种关于如何看待世界和研究世界的特殊理论--它在物理学和数学中有历史，但现在也被所有科学所采用，越来越多地被社会科学，甚至艺术和人文科学所采用。简而言之，复杂性理论涉及试图检测，理解和解释特定类型的变化模式和动力系统的连续性。在社会科学中，由于所有社会系统的开放动态性质，复杂性特别重要。事实上，我们生活在一个无休止的实时数据迅速自我积累的世界中，产生了一个关于我们每个人的虚拟“数据库”，作为个人，以及我们生活其中的政治、经济、地理、环境、技术和文化网络和系统，从全球一直到地方。此外，所有这些数据驱动的复杂网络都在多个层面相互碰撞，塑造着各种因素和行为体、结构和代理人，也被这些因素和行为体、结构和代理人所塑造-因为整个全球世界及其无数相互依存、有背景的社区在时间、空间和地点上不断演变。所有这些复杂性给社会科学家带来了严重的方法论挑战。为了支持这些方法上的挑战，我们可以转向新兴的复杂系统文献。研究方法和方法问题的呼吁也反映在ERSC的2008年英国社会学国际基准审查中，该审查对社会科学家的方法准备表示关注。然而，复杂性位于各种知识传统、认知方式、理论传统和跨学科概念和方法的交叉点。在复杂性社会科学方面，这个复杂的交叉点创造了几个及时和高度重要的问题，这些问题围绕着各种英国资助理事会的优先事项（例如，ESRC，EPSRC）关于数据和跨学科研究。例如，大数据问题，整合定性和定量方法，以及研究时间，空间和地点的复杂性。正是这些关键，及时的问题推动了社会科学的复杂性和方法（CaMSS）系列研讨会的发展。CaMSS利用其为期三年的研讨会和现有的合作，以创建一个既定的，跨学科的18位领先学者名单（包括Paul Ormerod教授、Sylvia Walby教授和奈杰尔吉尔伯特教授等英国社会科学家），探讨复杂性给社会科学带来的方法论挑战。复杂性方法的最新进展是什么？A.我的功能王国：通过量化社会科学研究来研究复杂性可以获得什么？B。时间、暂时性、变化和连续性的模式。那么，定性社会学家有什么要说的呢？隐喻和定性方法在复杂性研究中的价值主题二：复杂性研究的不同方法多视角：复杂性科学方法的认识论。复杂社会系统建模：基于案例的视角。建模认知和社会理解：拓扑方法主题3：把它放在一起A。创建复杂性社会科学家的方法工具包：需要，欲望和未来。我要教他们什么？改善学生如何教授复杂的社会研究方法。接下来呢？复杂性方法的最新发展方向在哪里？

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interesting in applying 'complexity theory' to think and learn about the real social worlds in which we all live. This is a particular kind of theory on how to see the world and study it--which has a history in Physics and Mathematics, but is also now taken up across all the sciences and increasingly the social sciences and even the arts and humanities. In a nutshell, complexity theory involves trying to detect, understand and explain particular kinds of patterns of change and continuity across dynamics systems. In social science, complexity is particularly relevant given the open dynamic nature of all social systems. Indeed, we live in a world in which never-ending, real-time data has quickly built upon itself, generating a virtual "database" on each of us, as individuals, and the political, economic, geographical, environmental, technological and cultural networks and systems in which we live, from the global all the way down to the local. Furthermore, all of these data-driven complex networks are colliding into one another, at multiple levels, shaping and being shaped by factors and actors, structures and agents--as the whole global world and its myriad of interdependent, contextualized communities evolves across time, space and place. All of this complexity has created serious methodological challenges for social scientists. For support on these methodological challenges, we can turn to the burgeoning complex systems literature. The call to look at methods and methodological concerns is reflected also in the ERSC's 2008 International Benchmarking Review of UK Sociology, which expresses concern over the methodological preparedness of social scientists. Yet, complexity sits at the intersection of various intellectual traditions, ways of knowing, theoretical traditions, and interdisciplinary concepts and methods. In terms of complexity social science, this complex intersection has created several timely and highly important questions that revolve around various UK funding council priorities (e.g., ESRC, EPSRC) regarding data and interdisciplinary research. Examples include issues of big data, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods, and studying the complexities of time, space and place.It is these key, timely questions that drive the Complexity and Methods in the Social Sciences (CaMSS) seminar series forward. CaMSS uses its three-year seminar and existing collaborations to create an established, interdisciplinary list of 18 leading scholars (including key UK social scientists in complexity, such as Prof. Paul Ormerod, Prof Sylvia Walby, and Prof. Nigel Gilbert) to address the methodological challenges that complexity presents to the social sciences.CaMSS will address the following three themes:THEME 1: What is the state-of-the-art in complexity method?A. My kingdom for a function: What is gained by quantifying social science research to study complexity?B. Time, temporality and patterns of change and continuityC. So, what does the qualitative sociologist have to say? The value of metaphor and qualitative method in complexityTHEME 2: Different approaches to complexityA. Multiple perspectives: The epistemology of complexity science methodB. Modeling complex social systems: A case-based perspectiveC. Modeling cognition and social understanding: a topological approachTHEME 3: Putting it all togetherA. Creating the complexity social scientist's methodological toolkit: Needs, desires and futuresB. I've got to teach them what? Improving how students are taught complexity social research methodsC. What next? Where is the state-of-the-art in complexity method heading?