Innovation in Complex Social Systems

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Ahrweiler
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Complex Social Systems

A missing link: a distributed cognitive perspective on fit

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayanga Bandara Herath
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Complex Social Systems

PurposeThis article presents a cognitive framework to study dynamic/adaptive aspects of a collection of popular fit measures used in organisation research, in an attempt to highlight what there is to be gained.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a distributed e-cognition (DEC) framework to examine the current organisational literature of fit measures.FindingsThis paper highlights that most measures have a rather narrow focus and do not address dynamic/adaptive aspects in complex social systems (e.g. organisations). To both provide a way to integrate fit measures and cover the cognition gap in this literature, this article highlights the need for a more sophisticated measure.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel approach to examining organisational fit literature through a distributed (e)-cognitive framework.

scholarly journals Health inequality as a large-scale outcome of complex social systems: Lessons for action on the sustainable development goals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Complex Social Systems

© 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs to become real and impactful, taking a “whole systems” perspective on levers for systems change. This article reviews what we have learned over the past century about the large-scale outcome of health inequality, and what we know about the behaviour of complex social systems. This combined knowledge provides lessons on the nature of inequality and what effective action on our big goals, like the SDGs, might look like. It argues that economic theories and positivist social theories which have dominated the last 150 years have largely excluded the nature of human connections to each other, and the environment. This exclusion of intimacy has legitimatised arguments that only value-free economic processes matter for macro human systems, and only abstract measurement constitutes valuable social science. Theories of complex systems provide an alternative perspective. One where health inequality is viewed as emergent, and causes are systemic and compounding. Action therefore needs to be intensely local, with power relationships key to transformation. This requires conscious and difficult intervention on the intolerable accumulation of resources; improved reciprocity between social groups; and reversal of system flows, which at present ebb away from the local and those already disadvantaged.

Fuzzy Models for Complex Social Systems Using Distributed Agencies in Poverty Studies

2011 ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogart Yail Márquez ◽  
Manuel Castanon-Puga ◽  
Juan R. Castro ◽  
E. Dante Suarez ◽  
Sergio Magdaleno-Palencia
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Fuzzy Models ◽  
Complex Social Systems

Whole Systems/Holistic Approaches in Individual and Collective Levels

2010 ◽  
pp. 57-74
Author(s):  
Murako Saito
Keyword(s):  
Business Performance ◽  
Organizational Transformation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Collective Levels ◽  
Complex Social Systems ◽  
Action Coupling ◽  
Whole Systems

In managing complexity and ambiguity, we need holistic or whole systems approaches. Complementary systemic approaches to integrate some separate systems are needed for fostering organizational adaptability or organizational flexibility in the changing social environment. It is not sufficient simply to keep in line with the standards established in the past by a particular discipline, but it is important to encourage the participants to progress for coping with the changes in society. Cognitive misfits between individual and organizational levels result in a decrement of quality of service which actually leads to the decrement of business performance. Conceptual frameworks of whole systems of human society, namely conceptual frameworks of human cognition and action in individual and collective levels are introduced for discussing the alignment of cognitive misfits and transformation of organizational culture. Classifications and categorizations are also introduced for further analysis of human cognition-action coupling process in individual and collective levels. Typology of the methodologies for intervening into complex social systems is discussed in the latter part of this chapter for pursuing the assessment and control of various method biases and also for determining the axes in mapping cognition-action in the actual fields. Continuous inquiry into the good and intervention to complex social systems play crucial roles in the approaches toward effective organizational transformation.

The Welfare State : A Sociological Interpretation

1961 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Prime Numbers ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Intermediate Area ◽  
Affluent Society ◽  
Complex Social Systems ◽  
Sociological Interpretation ◽  
The Welfare State

It is the business of sociologists to classify social phenomena and arrange them in categories. They base their operations on concepts which have been rigorously denned and purified to the point at which they resemble prime numbers. The practice has not unnaturally spread into that intermediate area of literature which can be called either popular sociology or intellectual journalism according to taste. But there it is used for tying labels round the necks of highly complex social systems—like “Welfare State”, “Affluent Society” and “Meritocracy”. This is likely to make the purist shrink and shudder. All generalizations are dangerous, and those cunningly expressed in tabloid form are the most dangerous of all. They pass into the language of common speech as familiar truths, instead of being quoted as propositions offered for discussion. One can hardly avoid using a term like the “Welfare State”, and one cannot, when using it, introduce a qualifying parenthesis, since there is no room for parentheses in a catchword. One must either accept it or discard it.

scholarly journals Structure and Superstructures in Complex Social Systems

Systems ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josué Antonio Nescolarde-Selva ◽  
José Luis Usó-Doménech ◽  
Hugh Gash
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Complex Social Systems

scholarly journals Dynamic calibration of agent-based models using data assimilation

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 150703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Ward ◽  
Andrew J. Evans ◽  
Nicolas S. Malleson
Keyword(s):  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Ensemble Kalman Filter ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Dynamical Behaviour ◽  
Agent Based Models ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
Complex Social Systems ◽  
Using Data

A widespread approach to investigating the dynamical behaviour of complex social systems is via agent-based models (ABMs). In this paper, we describe how such models can be dynamically calibrated using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), a standard method of data assimilation. Our goal is twofold. First, we want to present the EnKF in a simple setting for the benefit of ABM practitioners who are unfamiliar with it. Second, we want to illustrate to data assimilation experts the value of using such methods in the context of ABMs of complex social systems and the new challenges these types of model present. We work towards these goals within the context of a simple question of practical value: how many people are there in Leeds (or any other major city) right now? We build a hierarchy of exemplar models that we use to demonstrate how to apply the EnKF and calibrate these using open data of footfall counts in Leeds.

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