Download Free Dialectical Social Science In The Age Of Complexity Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Dialectical Social Science In The Age Of Complexity and write the review.

This study places dialectical thinking, theory, and method on a solid scientific footing with respect to the contemporary sciences of holistic-relationism; and offers a competing, even superior, philosophy of social science to the mainstream version of positivistic-behaviourism. It also indicates ways in which a dialectical, holistic-relational social science will help to shape a more democratic, humane style of politics and public policy. It subjects mainstream social science to wholesale reorientation, and in doing so, offers a valid prescription for a post-positivistic, post-behaviourist social science that is scientifically grounded.
Many scholars agree that we are currently living in post-ideological times, and that the role of religion and social ideology has become increasingly limited as a means to organise society. Some even talk of a ‘post-truth’ era, as truth itself has become suspect, and public debate has become infected with terms such as ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative truths.’ In fact, in many scientific areas the notions of truth, objectivity and fact are being questioned, and are often even considered instruments that aim to perpetuate relationships of power of elites. This book aims to take a position in these debates by looking at the often-implicit associations behind truth, objectivity, and fact. By taking a complexity-informed, dialectical approach, a more encompassing understanding of these concepts can be developed, that both respects the formidable achievements of science, while being sensitive to the critique that has been raised, most notably by postmodern thought.
Examining creativity in Chinese societies from both a personal and contextual standpoint, this ground-breaking book offers readers a unique insight into the Chinese mind. It provides a review of the nature, origins, and consequences of creativity, deriving from empirical evidence in the Chinese context. Specifically, the book unravels the conceptualization of creativity and its relationships with various demographic and dispositional factors in Chinese societies. The book proceeds to give readers an understanding of how creativity maintains reciprocal relationships with various forms of well-being. The content of the book brings together empirical evidence and theory grounded on Chinese societies to offer researchers and students a unique realistic view of the nature of creativity there. This book will be a must read for any researcher or practitioner interested in this fascinating topic.
For the past two decades, ‘complexity’ has informed a range of work across the social sciences. There are diverse schools of complexity thinking, and authors have used these ideas in a multiplicity of ways, from health inequalities to the organization of large scale firms. Some understand complexity as emergence from the rule-based interactions of simple agents and explore it through agent-based modelling. Others argue against such ‘restricted complexity’ and for the development of case-based narratives deploying a much wider set of approaches and techniques. Major social theorists have been reinterpreted through a complexity lens and the whole methodological programme of the social sciences has been recast in complexity terms. In four parts, this book seeks to establish ‘the state of the art’ of complexity-informed social science as it stands now, examining: the key issues in complexity theory the implications of complexity theory for social theory the methodology and methods of complexity theory complexity within disciplines and fields. It also points ways forward towards a complexity-informed social science for the twenty-first century, investigating the argument for a post-disciplinary, ‘open’ social science. Byrne and Callaghan consider how this might be developed as a programme of teaching and research within social science. This book will be particularly relevant for, and interesting to, students and scholars of social research methods, social theory, business and organization studies, health, education, urban studies and development studies.
Vols. 8-10 of the 1965-1984 master cumulation constitute a title index.
This book introduces a new approach to environmental sociology, by integrating complexity-informed social science, Marxian ecological theory, and resilience-based human ecology. It argues that sociologists have largely ignored developments in ecology which move beyond functionalist approaches to systems analysis, and as a result, environmental sociology has failed to capitalise not only on the analytical promise of resilience ecology, but on complementary developments in complexity theory. By tracing the origins and discussing current developments in each of these areas, it offers several paths to interdisciplinary dialogue. Eoin Flaherty argues that complexity theory and Marxian ecology can enhance our understanding of the social aspect of social-ecological systems, whilst a resilience approach can sharpen the analytical power of environmental sociology.
What is nature? What is humanity's place in nature? And what is the relationship of society to the natural world? In an era of ecological breakdown, answering these questions has become of momentous importance for our everyday lives and for the future that we and other life-forms face. In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin confronts these questions head on: invoking the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever expanding freedom. Refreshingly polemical and deeply philosophical, they take issue with technocratic and mechanistic ways of understanding and relating to, and within, nature. More importantly, they develop a solid, historically and politically based ethical foundation for social ecology, the field that Bookchin himself created and that offers us hope in the midst of our climate catastrophe.
The concept of society sui generis – society as a level of reality which could be studied scientifically – crystallized in the middle of the nineteenth century in Europe, with the work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber and today, more than at any other period in history, the idea of the social has gained a foothold in philosophy, biology, and neuroscience. However, this idea has emerged into prominence not through the historical or contemporary efforts of sociologists, but mainly through the efforts of biologists and neuroscientists. This book seeks to re-establish the credentials of sociology as the science of society. While acknowledging the amalgamation of traditional disciplines into interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary networks of research and theory, and championing interdisciplinarity in recognising the capacity of converging perspectives to yield more interesting general theories of social life, the author defends disciplinarity in maintaining sociology’s achievements as a discipline. With chapters on the sociological world view, imagining society, the self, love, education, mathematics and religion, The Age of the Social re-states the importance of sociology as the source of robust ideas about the social in an age in which this notion has grown in importance. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences, with interests in method and philosophy in the social disciplines.