Social Change And Complex Systems

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Systems Thinking For Social Change

Author : David Peter Stroh
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2015-09-24
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781603585811

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Systems Thinking For Social Change by David Peter Stroh Pdf

Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation. How do these unintended consequences come about and how can we avoid them? By applying conventional thinking to complex social problems, we often perpetuate the very problems we try so hard to solve, but it is possible to think differently, and get different results. Systems Thinking for Social Change enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it is so important in their work. It also gives concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning without becoming a technical expert. Systems thinking leader David Stroh walks readers through techniques he has used to help people improve their efforts to end homelessness, improve public health, strengthen education, design a system for early childhood development, protect child welfare, develop rural economies, facilitate the reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society, resolve identity-based conflicts, and more. The result is a highly readable, effective guide to understanding systems and using that knowledge to get the results you want.

The Systems Work of Social Change

Author : Cynthia Rayner,François Bonnici
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2021-10-12
Category : Social change
ISBN : 9780198857457

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The Systems Work of Social Change by Cynthia Rayner,François Bonnici Pdf

The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to 'solve' social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only beentrenching the status quo.Systemic social challenges produce bewildering results when we try to solve them due to their complexity, scale, and depth. While strategies to tackle complexity and scale have received significant attention and investment, challenges that arise from deeply-held beliefs, values, and assumptions thatno longer serve us well have been largely overlooked. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Rather than delivering solutions or being lured by grander visionsof 'systems change', these principles and practices focus on the process of change itself. Simple yet profound, these stories distil a timely set of lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers on how connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agencyfor people and communities while building social systems that are responsive in a rapidly-changing world.

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology

Author : Dries Daems
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2021-02-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781000344738

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Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology by Dries Daems Pdf

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology. Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of archaeology. This book provides an in-depth conceptualisation of social complexity as the core concept in archaeological and interdisciplinary studies of the past, integrating approaches from complex systems thinking, archaeological theory, social practice theory, and sustainability and resilience science. The book covers a long-term perspective of social change and stability, tracing the full cycle of complexity trajectories, from emergence and development to collapse, regeneration and transformation of communities and societies. It offers a broad vision on social complexity as a core concept for the present and future development of archaeology. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field of archaeology and related disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, as well as the natural sciences studying human-environment interactions in the past.

Social Sustainability, Past and Future

Author : Sander van der Leeuw
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 533 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108498692

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Social Sustainability, Past and Future by Sander van der Leeuw Pdf

A novel, integrated approach to understanding long-term human history, viewing it as the long-term evolution of human information-processing. This title is also available as Open Access.

Complex Systems and Social Practices in Energy Transitions

Author : Nicola Labanca
Publisher : Springer
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2017-05-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783319337531

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Complex Systems and Social Practices in Energy Transitions by Nicola Labanca Pdf

This book offers an interdisciplinary discussion of the fundamental issues concerning policies for sustainable transition to renewable energies from the perspectives of sociologists, physicists, engineers, economists, anthropologists, biologists, ecologists and policy analysts. Adopting a combined approach, these are analysed taking both complex systems and social practice theories into consideration to provide deeper insights into the evolution of energy systems. The book then draws a series of important conclusions and makes recommendations for the research community and policy makers involved in the design and implementation of policies for sustainable energy transitions.

Systems Thinking For Social Change

Author : David Peter Stroh
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
ISBN : 9781603585804

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Systems Thinking For Social Change by David Peter Stroh Pdf

Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation. How do these unintended consequences come about and how can we avoid them? By applying conventional thinking to complex social problems, we often perpetuate the very problems we try so hard to solve, but it is possible to think differently, and get different results. Systems Thinking for Social Change enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it is so important in their work. It also gives concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning without becoming a technical expert. Systems thinking leader David Stroh walks readers through techniques he has used to help people improve their efforts to end homelessness, improve public health, strengthen education, design a system for early childhood development, protect child welfare, develop rural economies, facilitate the reentry of formerly incarcerated people into society, resolve identity-based conflicts, and more. The result is a highly readable, effective guide to understanding systems and using that knowledge to get the results you want.

Race and Social Change

Author : Max Klau
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2017-02-02
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781119359432

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Race and Social Change by Max Klau Pdf

A powerful study illuminates our nation's collective civic fault lines Recent events have turned the spotlight on the issue of race in modern America, and the current cultural climate calls out for more research, education, dialogue, and understanding. Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action focuses on a provocative social science experiment with the potential to address these needs. Through an analysis grounded in the perspectives of developmental psychology, adaptive leadership and complex systems theory, the inquiry at the heart of this book illuminates dynamics of race and social change in surprising and important ways. Author Max Klau explains how his own quest for insight into these matters led to the empirical study at the heart of this book, and he presents the results of years of research that integrate findings at the individual, group, and whole system levels of analysis. It's an effort to explore one of the most controversial and deeply divisive subject's in American civic life using the tools of social science and empiricism. Readers will: Review a long tradition of classic, provocative social science experiments and learn how the study presented here extends that tradition into new and unexplored territory Engage with findings from years of research that reveal insights into dynamics of race and social change unfolding simultaneously at the individual, group, and whole systems levels Encounter a call to action with implications for our own personal journeys and for national policy at this critical moment in American civic life At a moment when our nation is once again bitterly divided around matters at the heart of American civic life, Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action seeks to push our collective journey forward with insights that promise to promote insight, understanding, and healing.

Small Groups as Complex Systems

Author : Holly Arrow,Joseph E. McGrath,Jennifer L. Berdahl
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2000-03-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781452238500

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Small Groups as Complex Systems by Holly Arrow,Joseph E. McGrath,Jennifer L. Berdahl Pdf

What are groups? How do they behave? Arrow, McGrath, and Berdahl answer these questions by developing a general theory of small groups as complex systems. Basing their theory on concepts distilled from general systems theory, dynamical systems theory, and complexity and chaos theory, they explore groups as adaptive, dynamic systems that are driven by interactions among group members as well as between the group and its embedding contexts. In addition, they consider not only the group's members and their distribution of attributes, but also the group's tasks and technology in order to understand how those members, tasks, and tools are intertwined, coordinated, and adjusted. Throughout the book, the authors focus our attention on relationships among people, tools, and tasks that are activated by a combination of individual and collective purposes and goals that change and evolve as the group interacts over time.

Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social Change

Author : David Lane,Denise Pumain,Sander Ernst van der Leeuw,Geoffrey West
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2009-02-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781402096631

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Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social Change by David Lane,Denise Pumain,Sander Ernst van der Leeuw,Geoffrey West Pdf

Innovation is nowadays a question of life and death for many of the economies of the western world. Yet, due to our generally reductionist scientific paradigm, invention and innovation are rarely studied scientifically. Most work prefers to study its context and its consequences. As a result, we are as a society, lacking the scientific tools to understand, improve or otherwise impact on the processes of invention and innovation. This book delves deeply into that topic, taking the position that the complex systems approach, with its emphasis on ‘emergence’, is better suited than our traditional approach to the phenomenon. In a collection of very coherent papers, which are the result of an EU-funded four year international research team’s effort, it addresses various aspect of the topic from different disciplinary angles. One of the main emphases is the need, in the social sciences, to move away from neo-darwinist ‘population thinking’ to ‘organization thinking’ if we want to understand social evolution. Another main emphasis is on developing a generative approach to invention and innovation, looking in detail at the contexts within which invention and innovation occur, and how these contexts impact on the chances for success or failure. Throughout, the book is infused with interesting new insights, but also presents several well-elaborated case studies that connect the ideas with a substantive body of ‘real world’ information.

Qualitative Research and Social Change

Author : P. Cox,T. Geisen,R. Green
Publisher : Springer
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2008-11-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780230583962

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Qualitative Research and Social Change by P. Cox,T. Geisen,R. Green Pdf

Exploring the relationships between qualitative research and social change, this bookasks how social change is informed and influenced by research. Examples discussed are from research practice and experiences in the fields of sociology, social work, professional practice, education, criminal justice and anthropology."

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology

Author : Dries Daems
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781000344677

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Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology by Dries Daems Pdf

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology. Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of archaeology. This book provides an in-depth conceptualisation of social complexity as the core concept in archaeological and interdisciplinary studies of the past, integrating approaches from complex systems thinking, archaeological theory, social practice theory, and sustainability and resilience science. The book covers a long-term perspective of social change and stability, tracing the full cycle of complexity trajectories, from emergence and development to collapse, regeneration and transformation of communities and societies. It offers a broad vision on social complexity as a core concept for the present and future development of archaeology. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field of archaeology and related disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, as well as the natural sciences studying human-environment interactions in the past.

Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Complex Systems

Author : Franz-Josef Kahlen,Shannon Flumerfelt,Anabela Alves
Publisher : Springer
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2016-08-16
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783319387567

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Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Complex Systems by Franz-Josef Kahlen,Shannon Flumerfelt,Anabela Alves Pdf

This book presents an internationally comprehensive perspective into the field of complex systems. It explores the challenges of and approaches to complexity from a broad range of disciplines, including big data, health care, medicine, mathematics, mechanical and systems engineering, air traffic control and finance. The book’s interdisciplinary character allows readers to identify transferable and mutually exclusive lessons learned among these disciplines and beyond. As such, it is well suited to the transfer of applications and methodologies between ostensibly incompatible disciplines. This book provides fresh perspectives on comparable issues of complexity from the top minds on systems thinking.

Communication for Social Change Anthology

Author : Alfonso Gumucio Dagron,Thomas Tufte
Publisher : CFSC Consortium, Inc.
Page : 1409 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Communication in social action
ISBN : 9780977035793

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Communication for Social Change Anthology by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron,Thomas Tufte Pdf

Contains nearly 200 readings published between 1927 and 2005, in English or translated from other languages, on the historical roots and pioneering thinking regarding communication for social change. Covers a variety of topics, including the radio, tv and other mass communication, information and communication technology, the digital gap, the formation of an information society, national information policies, participatory decision making, communication of development, pedagogy and entertainment education, HIV/AIDS communication for prevention, etc.

Why Society is a Complex Matter

Author : Philip Ball
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 71 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2012-06-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783642290008

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Why Society is a Complex Matter by Philip Ball Pdf

Society is complicated. But this book argues that this does not place it beyond the reach of a science that can help to explain and perhaps even to predict social behaviour. As a system made up of many interacting agents – people, groups, institutions and governments, as well as physical and technological structures such as roads and computer networks – society can be regarded as a complex system. In recent years, scientists have made great progress in understanding how such complex systems operate, ranging from animal populations to earthquakes and weather. These systems show behaviours that cannot be predicted or intuited by focusing on the individual components, but which emerge spontaneously as a consequence of their interactions: they are said to be ‘self-organized’. Attempts to direct or manage such emergent properties generally reveal that ‘top-down’ approaches, which try to dictate a particular outcome, are ineffectual, and that what is needed instead is a ‘bottom-up’ approach that aims to guide self-organization towards desirable states. This book shows how some of these ideas from the science of complexity can be applied to the study and management of social phenomena, including traffic flow, economic markets, opinion formation and the growth and structure of cities. Building on these successes, the book argues that the complex-systems view of the social sciences has now matured sufficiently for it to be possible, desirable and perhaps essential to attempt a grander objective: to integrate these efforts into a unified scheme for studying, understanding and ultimately predicting what happens in the world we have made. Such a scheme would require the mobilization and collaboration of many different research communities, and would allow society and its interactions with the physical environment to be explored through realistic models and large-scale data collection and analysis. It should enable us to find new and effective solutions to major global problems such as conflict, disease, financial instability, environmental despoliation and poverty, while avoiding unintended policy consequences. It could give us the foresight to anticipate and ameliorate crises, and to begin tackling some of the most intractable problems of the twenty-first century.

Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems

Author : Paul K. Davis,Angela O'Mahony,Jonathan Pfautz
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 881 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2019-03-18
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781119484974

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Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems by Paul K. Davis,Angela O'Mahony,Jonathan Pfautz Pdf

This volume describes frontiers in social-behavioral modeling for contexts as diverse as national security, health, and on-line social gaming. Recent scientific and technological advances have created exciting opportunities for such improvements. However, the book also identifies crucial scientific, ethical, and cultural challenges to be met if social-behavioral modeling is to achieve its potential. Doing so will require new methods, data sources, and technology. The volume discusses these, including those needed to achieve and maintain high standards of ethics and privacy. The result should be a new generation of modeling that will advance science and, separately, aid decision-making on major social and security-related subjects despite the myriad uncertainties and complexities of social phenomena. Intended to be relatively comprehensive in scope, the volume balances theory-driven, data-driven, and hybrid approaches. The latter may be rapidly iterative, as when artificial-intelligence methods are coupled with theory-driven insights to build models that are sound, comprehensible and usable in new situations. With the intent of being a milestone document that sketches a research agenda for the next decade, the volume draws on the wisdom, ideas and suggestions of many noted researchers who draw in turn from anthropology, communications, complexity science, computer science, defense planning, economics, engineering, health systems, medicine, neuroscience, physics, political science, psychology, public policy and sociology. In brief, the volume discusses: Cutting-edge challenges and opportunities in modeling for social and behavioral science Special requirements for achieving high standards of privacy and ethics New approaches for developing theory while exploiting both empirical and computational data Issues of reproducibility, communication, explanation, and validation Special requirements for models intended to inform decision making about complex social systems