SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND MODELS OF COMPLEXITY

Module FROM THEORIES TO MODELS: THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY

Frontal lessons

sociological knowledges

Strongly recommended

The teaching concerns the relationship between the Epistemology of Complexity and Sociology. Specifically, it aims to stimulate in the student a reading of the processes of change and innovation of social systems in the light of the analytical categories of contemporary Systems Thinking from an epistemological, sociological and methodological point of view, providing orientation criteria with respect to the critical notes matured on this theme in recent decades. To this end, the analytical categories with which the Science of Complexity has innovated the conceptualization of the processes of operation and evolution of systems and intervention procedures will be explained  with respect to the classical scientific approach. In this regard, the following themes will be developed: from classical science to the science of complexity; distinctive features of complex systems: self-organization, co-determination relationship between micro and macro and co-essentiality between order and disorder, non-linearity and emergence, irreversibility, uncertainty and unpredictability, autopoiesis and operative closure; Prigogine and the Theory of Dissipative Systems, Theory of Adaptive Complex Systems, Theory of Autopoiesis, Theory of Synergetics; chaotic systems: deterministic chaos. These cognitive tools will be applied to the theoretical and methodological analysis of social systems, with regard to the use of methodologies based on non-linearity for the study of the processes of change and innovation / intervention of social systems. The following themes will be developed: social systems as dissipative structures or complex adaptive systems; the conceptualization of the social emergency; analysis of the non-equilibrium of complex social systems: Bailey, the Theory of Social Entropy and the criticisms of Parsons; Luhmann's systemic approach; Morin : hypercomplexity and disorganization; Critical realism and post-vitalism; implication of complexity and chaos theory on social forecasting; possible critical findings to the epistemological approach of Complexity; Complexity in the study of organizations; Complexity and modernity; Complexity and social integration in the individualized and globalized modern society; Complexity and uncertainty of emotional relationships in modernity; Complexity and gender abuse; non-linear mathematical modeling of social processes; application of the logistic equation and the model of non-linear competitive interdependence in the social sciences (nonlinear analysis of suicide; nonlinear competitive analysis of social control processes, processes of international competition and electoral competition). At the end of the course, the student will have acquired awareness of the current, new, contemporary scientific landscape characterized by a process of unification of the Sciences, and will have acquired theoretical and methodological skills that enable him to interpret and properly analyze the modes of operation and dynamics of contemporary society in its present qualification as a complex society

Bertuglia C., Vaio F., Nonlinearità, caos, complessità. Le dinamiche dei sistemi naturali e sociali,

                 Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2003, pp. 261-349.

Bailey K., Beyond Functionalism:Towards a Nonequilibrium Analysis of Complex Social

                 Systems, British Journal of Sociology, 35, 1984, pp.1-18.

Horgan J., La fine della scienza, Adelphi, Milano 2015, Cap.8. La fine della Complessità, pp.293-

             244.

Condorelli R., Le opposizioni di senso in dissolvenza nella cultura contemporanea.

                  L’evanescenza dell’idea di normalità e la destrutturazione dell’ordine tradizionale, in

                 Aleo S. (a cura di), Codificazione e Decodificazione, Vol. II, Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre,

                 Milano, 2019.

Condorelli R., Complessità e controllo sociale, Bonanno Editore, Catania, 2007, pp.53-90; pp.

                  91-124.

Condorelli, R.,Complex Systems Theory. Some Considerations for Sociology. Open Journal of

                  Applied Sciences, 2016, 6, 422.

Condorelli R., Social Complexity, Modernity and Suicide: An Assessment of Durkheim’s Suicide

                  from the Perspective of a Non-linear Analysis of Complex Social Systems.

                  SpringerPlus, 2016, 5,374.

Condorelli, R., Gender Abuse in Intimate Relationships: From Structural Coupling Theory to

                   Emergence of Couple System. Sociology Mind, 7, 2017, 197-256.

                    https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2017.74013

Condorelli R. Social Discontinuity and Systems Thinking. Cultural differentiation and social

                 integration in times of globalization, Special Issue di Cambio Journal- RivIsta sulle

                 trasformazioni sociali “Intercepting and Modeling Global Change”, Vol. 10, n.19,

                 2020, pp. 9-30. doi: 10.13128/cam bio-8487.

 

 Suggested lectures 

De Toni A., Comello L., Prede o ragni? Uomini e organizzazioni nella ragnatela della

                   complessità. Utet, Torino, 2005.

Prigogine I., La fine delle certezze, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, edizione 2009

Bocchi H., Ceruti M., La sfida della complessità, Bruno Mondadori, Milanio, 2007

.Mitleton-Kelly E., Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations: The

                    Application of Complexity Theory to Organisations, Elsevier, London, Cap 2,   

                    2003.