Complexity and Method in the Social Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Approach

在过去的二十年里，人们对应用“复杂性理论”来思考和了解我们所生活的真实社会世界越来越感兴趣。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一段历史，但现在也被所有科学所采用，越来越多的是社会科学，甚至是艺术和人文科学。简而言之，复杂性理论包括试图检测、理解和解释动态系统中特定类型的变化和连续性模式。在社会科学中，考虑到所有社会系统的开放动态特性，复杂性尤为重要。的确，我们生活在这样一个世界，在这个世界里，永无止境的实时数据迅速建立起来，产生了一个虚拟的“数据库”，关于我们每个人，作为个人，以及我们所生活的政治、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在多个层面上相互碰撞，塑造和被因素、行动者、结构和代理人塑造——整个全球世界及其无数相互依存的、情境化的社区在时间、空间和地点上不断发展。所有这些复杂性给社会科学家带来了方法论上的严峻挑战。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。对方法和方法论关注的呼吁也反映在ERSC的2008年英国社会学国际基准评估中，该评估对社会科学家的方法论准备表示关注。然而，复杂性位于各种知识传统、认识方式、理论传统以及跨学科概念和方法的交叉点。就复杂的社会科学而言，这个复杂的交叉点产生了几个及时且非常重要的问题，这些问题围绕着英国资助委员会的各种优先事项（例如，ESRC， EPSRC），涉及数据和跨学科研究。例子包括大数据问题，整合定性和定量方法，以及研究时间、空间和地点的复杂性。正是这些关键的、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，建立了一个由18位顶尖学者（包括英国复杂性领域的主要社会科学家，如Paul Ormerod教授、Sylvia Walby教授和Nigel Gilbert教授）组成的成熟的跨学科名单，以解决复杂性给社会科学带来的方法论挑战。CaMSS将讨论以下三个主题：主题1：什么是最先进的复杂性方法？我的王国为一个功能：通过量化社会科学研究来研究复杂性得到了什么？时间、时间性以及变化和连续性的模式。那么，定性社会学家是怎么说的呢？隐喻与定性方法在复杂性研究中的价值主题二：研究复杂性的不同途径多重视角：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：一种拓扑方法主题3：把它们放在一起创造复杂的社会科学家的方法论工具包：需求、欲望和未来。我要教他们什么？改善学生学习复杂社会研究方法的方式。下一个什么?最先进的复杂性方法将走向何方？

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?