Journal on Policy & Complex Systems Volume 5, Number 2, Fall 2019 | Page 134

Planning for Social Environments : Social Capital in the Context of Critical Realism and the Dynamics of Complex Systems
sions or logical formalisms ( Henkin , 1967 ; Mir & Watson , 2001 ). By collecting data about movement patterns and calculating the distinct features of each participant , the Social Imaging Project explores how these generalizations relate to social capital levels gleaned from a newly developed social capital survey instrument ( Friesen , 2018a ).
As noted earlier , critical realism affirms the possibility of acquiring real knowledge of the external world , including other human beings , through observation and experience ( Acemoglu , Johnson , & Robinson , 2004 ; Bhaskar , 1978 ). This does not require formal comparison in the sense of logical deduction , but may proceed through induction , whereby signals ( data ) can be identified , collected , and analyzed in a regular way ( Abarbanel et al ., 1993 ; Assad , 1999 ). Collecting spatial data is a valid means of affirming that something might be known about a mind-independent reality : “ While science is indeed a social production process , it is also knowledge ‘ of ’ things which exist and act independently of science ” ( Steinmetz , 1998 , p . 175 ). This process includes the comparison of lesser-known phenomena to better-known phenomena , which allows the scaffolding of hard-won and incomplete provisional knowledge to increase .
Social capital in particular requires integration and synthesis , in this case comparing survey and spatial data so that new knowledge , a ‘ third way ’ is possible : “[ W ] isdom requires us to invent a third curriculum , which will weave the warp of the rediscovered humanities to the woof of expert exactitude ” ( Serres , 1995 , p . 184 ). This third way is consistent with the practice of scientific progress and the approach I have outlined :
We don ’ t select theories based on deduction , having seen them all and then deciding on the best — the options would quickly run a greater number than all the atoms of the universe . I would suggest that we choose theories based on coherence , whether intuited or consciously identified , between sets of problems and sets of possible solutions spaces . Our inquiry is aimed at correlations or probable causations rather than mechanistic certainty ( whatever that is ). ( H . Putnam , 1988 , p . 128 )
8 . Critical Realism and Complex Systems for Planning Policy

The foregoing discussion of the

progression of critical realism , complex systems , networks , social capital , and spatial data leads logically to a consideration of the implications for planning , municipal policy , and civil society development . Social structures arising from relationship networks and spatial use comprise and may even give rise to the physical form of our cities and communities . Planning faces an increasingly fragmented theoretical and practical working space due to the fading of rational comprehensive assumptions ; this difficulty is
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