Social Complexity An Introduction

In this module we will be giving a quick overview to the application of complexity theory to the social sciences what we call social complexity, we start off with a very broad discussion surrounding the scientific enterprise as we talk about paradigms in general and the Newtonian paradigm in particular. We will go on to talk about how the basic assumptions underpinning our traditional formal approaches, begin to fail when we start to deal with more complex systems consisting of a very many autonomous, diverse, components, that are highly interconnected and interdependent, as often is the case within the social sciences.

In this video we continue on from our previous video as we briefly introduce complexity theory as an alternative approach to modeling these complex systems, an approach that is based upon a paradigm inherited from systems theory. Finally we touch upon how complexity science is based upon a new set of computational methods and how big data is set to have a transformative effect on the social sciences in the coming decades

In this video we will be talking about self-organization as a process of pattern formation within social systems, one that requires dense distributed peer-to-peer interactions within an unregulated environment in order to take hold. We talk about the nature of organization and how positive feedback loops are the key engines behind self-organization working to amplify some small event into a large systemic phenomena, creating local attractors that then have to cooperate or compete to get global coordination

In this module we will be talking about attractors and the fundamental role they play within social dynamics, both with respect to self-organization and chaos, we firstly give an outline to the model of a state space, we talk about how systems typically only occupy a small subset of the overall space as they cycle through some set of states. We will go on to discuss bifurcations and see how the process of continuous doubling in bifurcations is a universal feature of systems as they move into a chaotic and complex regime consisting of multiple attractors and equilibria

In this module we will be talking about social networks on the micro level, looking at agents and their local community. We will quickly talk about the basics of social graphs, before going on to discuss a number of different metrics for trying to understand how significant an agent is within a network, we will discuss interpersonal ties as we talk about strong and weak connections, finally we will look at the so-called small world phenomena

In this video we will been talking about three of the major factors shaping the overall make up to a social network, we start by talking about density of connections as a primary factor, next we will discuss average path length as a second key overall metric one that will tell us a lot about the network's overall cohesion. Lastly we look at degree distribution as playing an important role in defining the level of equality, the dynamics of power and how something will flow through the whole system

The study of network diffusion tries to capture the underlying mechanism of how events propagate through a complex network, whether the subject of interest is a virus spreading through some population, the spreading of some social movement, some new fashion or innovation or it may be a marketing message through an online social network. In this video we will be covering some of the primary considerations when looking at the process of diffusion including; how will the structure of the network effect that process? How fast will it spread, for example will we get tipping points? how can we enable or constrain this process?

In this module we will be looking through the lens of adaptive systems theory to see what insight it can offer us on macro social phenomena. Firstly we talk about adaptation as a process through which an agent tries to change its state in response to some change within its environment. We will give an outline to the adaptive landscape, that can be used as a formal model for representing whole complex social systems consisting of many interacting agents.
We will then go on to talk about the degree of complexity to an adaptive landscape as a key parameter. Finally we look at how the agent's strategies need to change fundamentally in response to these changes in context, as they go from simple algorithms to adaptation and evolution

In this module we will be discussing adaptive capacity and resiliency within social systems. We talk about two different strategies for trying to manage change, resistance and adaptation. Where resistance involves developing, some static identity based upon a boundary condition and creating a regulatory system for monitoring and controlling the system's environment. Inversely we will then talk about adaptation as a second alternative strategy, one that is focused on the system's capacity to generate a wide set of responses, insuring its capacity to reconfigure itself given as wide a spectrum of input values as possible, in so doing ensuring its resilience and continued functionality. Finally we discuss the multidimensional nature to complex social systems being engaged in processes of change on various levels from the micro to the macro, giving us slow and fast variables

In this video we will be taking a brief overview to the process of evolution as it acts on macro scale socio-cultural systems. We describe evolution as a distributed process through which a complex adaptive system response to change within its environment without centralized coordination, and how through this process the system can develop over time to exhibit greater complexity. We will go on to talk about how evolution operates through a number of key strategies, that need to be performed successfully for the process to be effective

In this video we will be talking about institutions as performing social functions, we discuss a number of components to this process including the need for functional roles, some defined set of relations between these roles and their integration into some overall process that transforms an input to an output through a set of instructions either formal or informal. We will talk about how institutions may be dysfunctional, leading to the generation of social entropy a state of disintegration and decay that needs to be exported in some fashion from the social system in order to maintain its structure and functionality, finally we talk about the differences between formal and informal institutions