Planning for Social Environments : Social Capital in the Context of Critical Realism and the Dynamics of Complex Systems
of motion or the function space of a smaller or lower order system of interactions .
From a social systems vantage point , individuals are constrained by various expressions of the group as seen in rules , formal laws , cultural norms , and expectations . Norms are the result of countless preceding individual decisions and interactions , foundational mechanisms that lead to cultural practice . These collective properties supervene on individuals and limit their range of options ( Trofimova , 2000 ). From a network perspective , the topology of larger structures plays a significant role in determining the range of motion possible for the lower order systems ( Sekara , Stopczynski , & Lehmann , 2016 ). Emergence , as described earlier , is an important feature of complex systems ( Kim , 1999 ). Complex systems are comprised of networks . Entities or actors plus the relations between them lead to phenomena , such as social capital . Social capital is not possible where there are only individuals with no connections at all :
[ A ] fter three hundred years of dissecting everything into molecules and atoms and nuclei and quarks , [ scientists ] finally seemed to be turning the process inside out . Instead of looking for the simplest pieces possible , they were starting to look at how those pieces go together into complex wholes . ( Waldrop , 1993 , p . 16 )
Complex systems are the result of dynamic interactions among elements . The tightly coupled nature of these systems means that at given times , any variation within the network of relations can cause a cascading set of influences to occur in all the connected sub- and super-systems . When a system becomes linked in this way , it is said to be at a critical state : any perturbance can lead the system toward a chaotic state before moving to a new state of equilibrium . This can be seen experimentally in , for example , the phase change of water and mathematically through computer-enabled iterations of simple equations with tunable variables ( May , 1976 ). These dynamics enable the various orders of interacting systems to adapt to both internal and external signals , to receive feedback not only in a loop , but as novel information or influence from the environment ( external variables ). Historical reflections on social systems affirm that they appear to reflect this phenomena of criticality ( Buckley , 1968 ; Collins , 2000 ; G . Thomas , 1997 ). If we are going to increase our understanding of and possible agency within social systems , we will need to account for complex systems dynamics in research design , models , and interpretive frameworks ( Byrne , 1998 ). Policy is just such a form of intervention .
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