scholarly journals Causal attribution in block-recursive social systems: A structural modeling perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 205979911876841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Wunsch ◽  
Michel Mouchart ◽  
Federica Russo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Causal Attribution ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Structural Models ◽  
Structural Modeling ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multidisciplinary Perspective

One method for causal analysis in the social sciences is structural modeling. Structural models, as used in this article, model the (causal) mechanism for a social phenomenon by recursively decomposing the multivariate distribution of the variables of interest. Often, however, one does not achieve a complete decomposition in terms of single variables but in terms of “blocks” of variables only. Papers giving an overview of this issue are nevertheless rare. The purpose of this article is to categorize distinct types of block-recursivity and to examine, in a multidisciplinary perspective, the implications of block-recursivity for causal attribution. A probabilistic approach to causality is first developed in the framework of a structural model. The article then examines block-recursivity due to the presence of contingent conditions, of interaction, and of conjunctive causes. It also discusses causal attribution when information on the ordering of the variables is incomplete. The article concludes by emphasizing, in particular, the importance of properly specifying the population of reference.

Social Sciences between the Systems: The Ecuadorian University between Science, Education, Politics and Economy

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Altmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Education Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Global North ◽  
Self Production ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Operative Closure

Universities are, like all organizations, at the intersection of different functional subsystems. They are not only dedicated to research (science) and teaching (education) but are also place for communications that form part of politics, economics and so on. But, what happens to universities, and, more precisely, social sciences in university, if the social system they work in is not differentiated in the way the social sciences in the Global North are used to? What if there is no clear distinction between science and politics? Does academic autonomy lead in this situation to some kind of ‘university as a subsystem’, complete with its own code and autopoiesis? Or will the different subsystems de-differentiate increasingly, as predicted by Luhmann? This contribution will analyse social sciences in Ecuadorian universities as an example for organizations at the intersection of functional systems that are not fully differentiated. The development, the operative closure, the institutionalization and the self-production of a concrete discipline under constant pressure of other social systems will be analysed. The goal is a further insight into processes of differentiation in the Global South and the role of institutions in these processes. Part of this is the attempt to actualize and criticize Niklas Luhmann’s approach of systems theory to regions outside of the Global North. JEL: O300, Z130

Public Participation and Norm Formation for Risky Technology: Adaptive Governance of Solar-Radiation Management

Climate Law ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 210-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cymie R. Payne ◽  
Rachael Shwom ◽  
Samantha Heaton
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Solar Radiation Management ◽  
Formation Mechanisms ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Radiation Management ◽  
Risky Technology

As the international community comes to grips with climate destabilization, it has begun to evaluate potentially risky technologies, such as geoengineering, to mitigate the effects of warming. The geoengineering technology known as solar-radiation management (srm) poses many risks. There is also great uncertainty about whether society will decide to deploy srm in the future. Managing these risks and uncertainties requires adaptive governance that will be responsive to new knowledge and changing social systems. We analyse the dimensions of public participation and norm-formation mechanisms of current srm-related legal regimes and governance proposals. We find that there is a need for the social sciences, including legal and governance scholars, to engage with the theoretical and pragmatic challenges of engaging diverse and vulnerable publics fairly and efficiently.

ANALYZING THE AGENT-BASED MODEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 331-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUTAKA I. LEON SUEMATSU ◽  
KEIKI TAKADAMA ◽  
NORBERTO E. NAWA ◽  
KATSUNORI SHIMOHARA ◽  
OSAMU KATAI
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Agent-based models (ABMs) have been attracting the attention of researchers in the social sciences, becoming a prominent paradigm in the study of complex social systems. Although a great number of models have been proposed for studying a variety of social phenomena, no general agent design methodology is available. Moreover, it is difficult to validate the accuracy of these models. For this reason, we believe that some guidelines for ABMs design must be devised; therefore, this paper is a first attempt to analyze the levels of ABMs, identify and classify several aspects that should be considered when designing ABMs. Through our analysis, the following implications have been found: (1) there are two levels in designing ABMs: the individual level, related to the design of the agents' internal structure, and the collective level, which concerns the design of the agent society or macro-dynamics of the model; and (2) the mechanisms of these levels strongly affect the outcomes of the models.

Synergetic scientism and social picture of the world

10.12737/3395 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Карпин ◽  
Vladimir Karpin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Nonequilibrium Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Special Scientific

The paper discusses possible ways of solving the fundamental problem of the community of scientific knowledge – the integration of natural and social sciences and humanities. Attempts to find common patterns of special scientific pictures of the world, in particular, biological and social, have led to a discussion of an interdisciplinary science as sociobiology which attempts to explain the social behavior of living beings by set of certain advantage generated in the course of evolution. Research field of sociobiology intersects with the study of evolutionary theory, zoology, genetics and other disciplines. In the field of social sciences it is close to evolutionary psychology exploring the behavior theory. Attempts to explain such behaviors as altruism, aggression are made using evolutionary mechanisms. Today we are witnessing the birth of the third, synergetic paradigm based on emerging, formation, development and change (evolution) of complex open nonlinear nonequilibrium systems. The theory of self-organization claims to interdisciplinarity and universality, including in the field of creation of the modern social picture of the world. The central problem under the consideration is the fact that synergy deals with the collective, mass processes, with complex social systems and is the most rational key to this problem solving.

‘Trust no one’: Modernization, paranoia and conspiracy culture

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stef Aupers
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Swine Flu ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Logic ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Flu Vaccination ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Knowledge Claims

Popular conspiracy theories, like those about JFK, the attacks of 9/11, the death of Princess Diana or the swine flu vaccination, are generally depicted in the social sciences as pathological, irrational and, essentially, anti-modern. In this contribution it is instead argued that conspiracy culture is a radical and generalized manifestation of distrust that is embedded in the cultural logic of modernity and, ultimately, produced by processes of modernization. In particular, epistemological doubts about the validity of scientific knowledge claims, ontological insecurity about rationalized social systems like the state, multinationals and the media; and a relentless ‘will to believe’ in a disenchanted world – already acknowledged by Adorno, Durkheim, Marx and Weber – nowadays motivate a massive turn to conspiracy culture in the West.

The Concept of “Stress” in the Biological and Social Sciences

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence E. Hinkle
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Biologic Agents ◽  
Adequate Explanation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mechanical Models ◽  
Living Organisms

The concept of “stress” was applied to biological and social systems in the first half of this century because it appeared to provide an explanation for the apparently “non-specific” effects of biologic agents, and for the occurrence of illness as a part of the response of people to their social environment. Evidence subsequently accumulated has confirmed that a large proportion of the manifestations of disease are produced by reaction of the host and not directly by the “causal agents” of disease, and that the components of the host's reactions are not in themselves “specific” to any given “causal agent”; it has confirmed that reactions of people to other people, or to the social environment may influence any physiological process or any disease; but it has also indicated that the concept of “stress” does not provide an adequate explanation for these phenomena. Living organisms are highly ordered and complex biological organizations that maintain themselves precariously over a limited period of time by the interchange of energy and information with the environment. Their reactions to the environment are complex and highly ordered, are based upon information, and are communicative and “logical” in nature. Although the components are “not specific,” the reactions themselves may be highly specific to the stimulus that initiates them. These reactions are not random but are “directed” (apparently “purposeful”) and tend to preserve the integrity of the organism, and the integrity of its relation to its social group and to its environment. The concept of “stress,” which was derived partly from popular usage, and based upon 18th and 19th century mechanical models of “force,” “counterforce,” and “distortion,” does not provide a meaningful scientific description of organism-environment relationships. These are better described by other concepts. The “stress concept” was heuristically valuable in the past, but it is no longer necessary, and it is in some ways hampering at the present.

scholarly journals Communication Processes in Social Systems Through the Prism of the Paradigm of Complexity

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-388
Author(s):  
Javier A. Piloto Rodriguez ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Methodological Foundation ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Task

This article is focused on the results of the study of social systems based on the principles of the Complexity Paradigm.Our research task is focused on the analysis of communication processes in social systems. Our objective is to study their way of functioning of the parameters which we find in “a human” type of social systems. As a theoretical and methodological foundation, we use the Complexity paradigm, and we also rely on the Complex Discourse Analysis that was obtained as a result of our previous studies. The results of this work introduce a new approach to a group of characteristics and development dynamics present in communication processes and systems.The conclusions set out in the article fix the paradigmatic transformations in the study of human communication systems, caused by the penetration of the category of Multi-complexity, which serves here as the adapter of the paradigm of the complexity, in the research space of the social sciences.

scholarly journals The Cop21 Process from the Point of View of the Social Sciences

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Energy Emissions ◽  
The Universe

<em>Thus far, all the debate about climate change in the myriad of UN conferences and special meetings has been about the application of the theories of the natural sciences to the global warming phenomena. Now, that there is a decision by the governments of the world countries to go ahead with a radical decarbonisation policy in the 21st century, the lessons from the social science theories must be taken into account. The COP21 project is a case of policy implementation, but implementation is difficult. Greenhouse Gases (GHG) like CO2:s stem from the anthropogenic sources of carbon emissions from the factors that drives not only the universe but also all social systems, viz. energy. This article spells out the energy-emissions conundrum of mankind.</em>

scholarly journals Entropic Citizenship Behavior and Sustainability in Urban Organizations: Towards a Theoretical Model

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Coldwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Organizational Citizenship ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Citizenship Behavior ◽  
Organizational Sustainability ◽  
The Social

Entropy is a concept derived from Physics that has been used to describe natural and social systems&rsquo; structure and behaviour. Applications of the concept in the social sciences so far have been largely limited to the disciplines of economics and sociology. In the current paper the concept of entropy is applied to organizational citizenship behaviour with implications for urban organizational sustainability. A heuristic is presented for analysing personal and organizational citizenship configurations and distributions within a given workforce that can lead to corporate entropy; and for allowing prescriptive remedial steps to be taken to manage the process should entropy from this source threaten its sustainability and survival.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document