The Atlas of Social Complexity

Embark on a riveting journey through the study of social complexity with The Atlas of Social Complexity. Over three decades of scientific exploration unfold, unravelling the enigmatic threads that compose the fabric of society. From the dance of bacteria, to human-machine interactions, to the ever-shifting dynamics of power in social networks, this Atlas maps the evolution of our understanding of social complexity. Brian Castellani’s and Lasse Gerrits’ Atlas is not merely retrospective. It is a compass pointing to uncharted territories: new directions for research and intellectual debate. With wit and insight, they invite the reader to ponder unanswered questions, taking them on a quest for alternative ways to understand the intricate complexities of societies. The Atlas of Social Complexity is a thrilling expedition into the heart of what makes us human: from cognition, emotion, consciousness, the dynamics of human psychology, to social networks, collective behaviour, politics and governance, technology and planning, and the practice of social interventions. The Atlas also visits cross-cutting themes such as intersectionality, configurational complexity, and research methods. Organised around six transdisciplinary themes and twenty-four topics the Atlas is an invaluable resource for all social science and complexity science scholars and students interested in new ideas and new ways of working in social complexity. It paves the way for the next generation of research in the study of social complexity.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments vii 1 Theme 1: The Social Complexity Imagination 8 2 Origins of the Study of Social Complexity 23 3 Thirteen Situations 43 4 Cartography and Constructing the Atlas 63 5 Theme 2: Cognition, Emotion, and Consciousness 70 6 Autopoiesis and Cellular Cognition 77 7 Bacteria and the Brain 82 8 Immune System Cognition 88 9 Brain-based Cognition, Emotion and Consciousness 99 10 The Self 120 11 Human-machine 140 12 Theme 3: dynamics of human psychology 149 13 Human psychology as dynamical system 157 14 Psychopathology of Mental Disorders 173 15 Healing and the therapeutic process 192 16 Mindfulness, imagination, and creativity 205 17 Theme 4: living in global-ecological social systems 216 18 Complex social Psychology 232 19 Collective behaviour, social movements and mass psychology 243 20 Configurational Social Science 261 21 The local and the global: complexities of place 297 22 Socio-technological life 321 23 Governance, politics and technocracy 342 vi The atlas of social complexity 24 The challenges of applying complexity 358 25 Economics in an unstable world 372 26 Resilience and all that jazz 384 27 Theme 5: charting a new methods territory 396 28 Make love, not models 398 29 Revisiting complex causality 407 30 Mapping the new methodological terrain 425 31 Getting philosophically real 455 32 Theme 6: the unfinished space 464 Appendix 1: list of respondents 486 Appendix 2: speculative references 488