Complexity, Difference and Identity PDF Download

Author: Paul Cilliers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048191874
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
"Complexity" has been part of the academic discourse for a decade or two. Texts on Complexity fall mainly in two categories: fairly technical and mathematical on the one hand, and fairly broad, vague and general on the other. Paul Cilliers’ book Complexity and Postmodernism. Understanding Complex Systems (Routledge 1998) constituted an attempt to bridge this divide by reflecting more rigorously on the philosophical implications of complexity, and by making it accessible to the social sciences. This edited volume is a continuation of this project, with specific reference to the ethical implications of acknowledging complexity. These issues are pertinent to our understanding of organisations and institutions and could contribute significantly to the development of a richer understanding of ethics in business and would be a useful tool for teachers, researchers and post-graduate students with ethical concerns in disciplines ranging from Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Sociology, Organisational Studies, Political Science, Anthropology and Cultural Studies. The central theme which binds all the contributions together is: the inevitability of normative and ethical issues when dealing with complex phenomena. The book should thus be useful in the development of Business Ethics on two levels: in the first place on the level of developing a strong theoretical foundation, in the second place in providing specific examples of this theory in action in the real world.

Author: Rika Preiser
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 150150259X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This book is a collection of all the single authored essays by Paul Cilliers, published between 1990-2011. Being one of few authors who approached the study of complexity from a philosophical perspective, the main themes in these papers explore: - Qualitative characterization of complexity and the normative implications of studying complex adaptive systems, - the philosophical and conceptual similarity to post-structural approaches - how any engagement with complexity leads to a critical engagement with how we do science and design interventions - critical and normative implications for how to engage with complex socio-political concerns in the world. What makes this book unique is that it consolidates a body of work that is distributed over a wide range of academic journals. Although his book "Complexity and Postmodernism" (Routledge, 1998) remains a cornerstone in the field of complexity studies, Cilliers’ journal essays really explore the application of the theoretical concepts in more depth. His ground-breaking ideas conceptualized in these essays have served as a continual source of novelty and inspiration in the process of applying complexity thinking to other fields of study.

Author: Jamie Murray
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351658174
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This collection of essays explores the different ways the insights from complexity theory can be applied to law. Complexity theory – a variant of systems theory – views law as an emergent, complex, self-organising system comprised of an interactive network of actors and systems that operate with no overall guiding hand, giving rise to complex, collective behaviour in law communications and actions. Addressing such issues as the unpredictability of legal systems, the ability of legal systems to adapt to changes in society, the importance of context, and the nature of law, the essays look to the implications of a complexity theory analysis for the study of public policy and administrative law, international law and human rights, regulatory practices in business and finance, and the practice of law and legal ethics. These are areas where law, which craves certainty, encounters unending, irresolvable complexity. This collection shows the many ways complexity theory thinking can reshape and clarify our understanding of the various problems relating to the theory and practice of law.

Author: Minka Woermann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319390473
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This work addresses the topic of philosophical complexity, which shares certain assumptions with scientific complexity, cybernetics, and General Systems Theory, but which is also developing as a subject field in its own right. Specifically, the post-structural reading of philosophical complexity that was pioneered by Paul Cilliers is further developed in this study. To this end, the ideas of a number of contemporary French post-structural theorists and their predecessors - including Derrida, Nancy, Bataille, Levinas, Foucault, Saussure, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Hegel - are introduced. The implications that their various insights hold for our understanding of complex human systems are teased out at the hand of the themes of economy, (social) ontology, subjectivity, epistemology, and ethics. The analyses are also illuminated at the hand of the problematic of the foreigner and the related challenges of showing hospitality to foreigners. The study presents a sophisticated account of both philosophical complexity and philosophies of difference. By relating these subject fields, the study also extends our understanding of philosophical complexity, and offers an original characterisation of the aforementioned philosophers as complex thinkers.

Author: Robert Geyer
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1782549528
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
'Over recent years Complexity Science has revealed to us new limits to our possible knowledge and control in social, cultural and economic systems. Instead of supposing that past statistics and patterns will give us predictable outcomes for possible actions, we now know the world is, and will always be, creative and surprising. Continuous structural evolution within such systems may change the mechanisms, descriptors, problems and opportunities, often negating policy aims. We therefore need to redevelop our thinking about interventions, policies and policy making, moving perhaps to a humbler, more 'learning' approach. In this Handbook, leading thinkers in multiple domains set out these new ideas and allow us to understand how these new ideas are changing policymaking and policies in this new era.' - Peter M Allen, Cranfield University, UK

Author: Jan Bogg
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1315347032
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
'The following sections are a very good representation of the core developments of complexity thinking in a number of major fields. Our intention is to provide an accessible interdisciplinary introduction to the wonderful intellectual breadth that complexity can offer.' - Jan Bogg and Robert Geyer in the Introduction. Complexity is a new and exciting interdisciplinary approach to science and society that challenges traditional academic divisions, frameworks and paradigms. This book helps the expert, student or policy practitioner have a better understanding of the enormous potential of complexity, and how it relates to their particular area of interest or expertise. It provides excellent representations of the core developments of complexity thinking in a number of major fields. "Complexity, Science and Society" brings together an unrivalled selection of new applications of complexity from leading experts across subjects including medicine and healthcare, education, public policy and social theory, ecology, philosophy, international politics, the arts, modelling and design, and others. Together they offer an unprecedented review of the latest developments. This book is an accessible interdisciplinary introduction to the wonderful intellectual breadth that complexity can offer.

Author: David Byrne
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134084919
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
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.

Author: Dagmara Gałajda
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331931954X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This edited collection explores the processes of second language learning and teaching from a psycholinguistic perspective. Authored by leading experts in the field, the book includes studies focusing on theoretical, empirical and practical aspects of second and foreign language education. Part One offers contributions devoted to a range of learner-related factors, dealing with affective and cognitive variables, the process of reading and the acquisition of lexis. Part Two brings together papers related to teacher awareness of second language instruction that focus on conversational styles, fostering intercultural pragmatics, teacher job satisfaction, the development of instructional materials and challenges of teacher training in different contexts. It is of interest to researchers as well as graduate and postgraduate students seeking fresh inspirations for their own empirical investigations of the ways in which second and foreign languages are taught and learned.

Author: Harry Kunneman
Publisher: Uitgeverij SWP
ISBN: 9088504180
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Building on Richard Sennetts recent work this books tries to clarify the ethical significance of craftsmanship. According to Sennett, `learning to work well is a deep source of personal meaning and of fruitful cooperation. Moreover provides the foundation of citizenship. Learning to master a craft is learning to be curious and patient, to focus on relationships and learn the skills of anticipation and revision, in a continual dialogue with material that resists `quick fixes and turns the craftsman `outward. In the contemporary search for practically relevant perspectives that point beyond the moral poverty of a market driven society, `the ethics of craftsmanship thus offers an intriguing and fruitful perspective, worth of in depth exploration. This book contains the following chapters: Introduction: Craftsmanship and Normative Professionalization, Harry Kunneman (ed.) PART I: CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 1. The Corrosion of Character and Society. Sennett's Quest for morality, Joseph Dohmen 2. Parenthood and professional Work with Parents in Neoliberal Times: The Need for a subjunctive and Dialogical Approach, Katie-Lee Weille 3. Parenting as Craftsmanship. Moving between an Awareness of Being Responsible and `Good Parent-Experiences, Margreth Hoek 4. The Challenge of Organizing Social Work in the Episode of the Civil Society, Gerdien Blom 5. Local Welfare and the Rise of the Crafting Community, Willem Trommel 6. The `Workshop of social Work: Towards an Ethnography of Social Professionalism, Martijn van Lanen 7. The Art of E-care: Virtuous Care Work, Skills ad Information Technology, Mark Coeckelbergh 8. Good Work in a University Hospital. Professional Responsibility Revisited, Yolande Witman 9. Cynical Free Speech and Righteous Change, Rob Hundman PART II METHODOLOGICAL QUESTIONS 10. Handling Domestic Violence. The Power and Fragility of Tacit Knowing, Sietske Dijkstra 11. Between an `Undoable Science and a `New Kind of Research:Life Course Methods to Study Turnings Points and Landmarks, Magda Nico & Wander van der Vaart 12. Do Proxies Know as Much as their Partners? Similarities and Differences of personal Event Ratings, Ales Neusar & Wander van der Vaart 13. Application of Mixed Methods and Third party Help in a Hard-to-Reach Population, Melissa Quetulio-Navarra, Wander van der Vaart & Anke Niehof

Author: Mary Uhl-Bien
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 160752628X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This book introduces leadership and organizational scholars to the potenial of complexity science for broadening leadership study beyond its traditional focus on leaders’ actions and influence, to a consideration of leadership as a broader, dynamically and interactive organizing process. The book offers a primer on complexity science and its applications to organization studies, and compares the logics of complexity science with those underlying traditional leadership approaches. It describes methodological approaches for studying leadership from a complexity perspective, and offers examples of applications of complexity science to leadership theory. Chapters are written by top scholars in complexity and leadership theory.