Complexity Analytics and Public Policy : Cautions and Opportunities Going Forward
5 . Can spatial econometrics be modified to serve the purposes of the analysis of complexity ?
Conclusion
The power of a change in paradigm can get muted by the need that those involved in and committed to the old paradigm feel to keep things as they are . In complexity science terms , this is called “ lock-in ”. Lock-in can also occur when the conceptual barriers to implementing the new paradigm are too high . That is , that the changes required can create circumstances that are so radically different from the traditional patterns that the institution undergoing this change is in danger of becoming unrecognizable to its current adherents . Conferences like this can help social scientists avoid acting as barriers to embracing the new paradigm of complexity science ; they can help identify places to begin ; and they can suggest several paths forward that would add value without unduly destabilizing the field .
A big part of the effort here has been to expand the field ’ s definition of space to include social space , and to place the topology of social space at the center of the field ’ s research agenda . We have centered on the characteristic of adjacency as a defining feature of complex adaptive systems of all sizes and envisioned adjacency having a key role to play in problem solving in policy analysis . We currently have a kind of “ mean field ” approach to social space and it is not at all clear that it is correct . Because everything clusters , we do not seem to feel the need to question what it is about space that makes that so . At the scale of human communities , it ’ s the opposite problem from looking for high-energy particles . It could be that we are unable to perceive the effects on space of social relationships and interactions because the dimensions of our investigations are too crude . Think of scaling in the opposite direction in the search for high-energy particles . We build highly tuned accelerator to investigate quantum spaces . What if the relevant dimensions of social space are global and the relevant wavelengths are Leontief ( Kurz & Salvadori , 2000 ; Leontief , 1986 )? There is an interesting challenge for Big Data ! If we want to see these effects , we must build the right kind of accelerator . It could be something as simple as defining what kinds of networks are relevant , mapping them out , populating them with data , and tracing their interactions . Scaling and self-similarity work in both directions . Physics has quite a head start , so the action down-scale is quite well developed . The proposal embodied herein is that the social science disciplines go upscale in a disciplined fashion using what we have learned from complexity science and examine these effects disaggregated and at a larger scale . It could have interesting implications for world peace .
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