Have you ever…
Have you ever been to a reception where there is a large and very sluggish queue at the buffet table? Your frustration turns into anger in the realisation that if the queue were to split into two operating on each side of the table, things would speed up considerably? Alternatively, I am sure you will have experienced being stuck at traffic lights on red when there was no traffic flowing the other way? Your urge to jump the lights is tempered by the fear that some camera might just record your transgression. Five years ago, the traffic lights were removed at the junction of Cox Street and Jordan Well at the top end of James Starley building. Initially people thought it was a crazy idea! However, not only did it reduce - drastically - the number of accidents at the junction, but traffic jams appeared to magically disappear!
What’s going on, I hear you ask? With both above examples we are seeing the strange phenomena of complexity theory in action. The proposition is simple; the absence of regulation or rules on queuing, be they implicit, as in the case of cultural norms – we British love to queue – or explicit in the form of road signs, forces diners and drivers to take more responsibility for their actions. Or stated in more general terms, if you leave nature to its own device, it magically evolves/develops its own systems associated with self-organization and self-adaption.
‘Chaos’ and Complexity Theory
Chaos theory developed within mathematics but has since been applied to various disciplines within both the natural and social sciences. Essentially, it is concerned with understanding how dynamic systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions behave and operate. Since slight changes or differences in dynamic systems can result in significantly diverging outcomes, it is difficult to predict outcomes or behaviour based on traditional linear cause and effect models. The paradox is that, left to their own devices, natural systems can evolve their own deterministic behaviour, almost by magic. Though, it is worth noting that the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them easily predictable. In short, we have what is terms termed ‘deterministic chaos’ or just simply ‘chaos’. A bit like my work/life balance! But, out of this chaos can emerge order.
Apologies, if this is giving you a headache! I’m just trying to give some theoretical backing to my rantings. If it helps, you can think of it in some senses, this is as akin to evolutionary and adaptive processes that can be observed almost in real time. This behaviour is known as ‘deterministic chaos’ or simply ‘chaos’ – a bit like my work/life balance! It is so beautifully displayed in swarming behaviour that we see all around us in nature, be there a flock of birds or a shoal of fish.
Chaos theory, based on nonlinear dynamical systems, is closely associated with systems and complexity theory. Within the social sciences complexity theory can be utilised to understand complex dynamic social systems and human behaviour. What the systems complex A system’s complexity is not necessarily the degree of diversification within it, but the nature of the interactions between the connecting components that, as Hood (2018) suggests can ‘generate a constant flux of interactions and feedback that generated instability’ (Hood, 2018). One way to understand complexity is to contrast it with its opposite, ‘simplicity’ but also with the notion of something being ‘complicated’. A simple system allows us to follow a pattern of repeated mechanical tasks according to a set of instructions, such as for example building an IKEA flat pack book shelf. A complicated system or problem, such as fixing a broken iPhone or harnessing solar energy, is dependent on developing standard formulae and expertise. In contrast, a complex problem, such as raising a child is one that may benefit from some expertise, generates a unique and dynamic set of circumstances that means outcomes are never certain. (See Glouberman and Zimmerman, cited in Snyer, (2013).
But how does this relate to a research degree?
The implications of complexity theory for social science researchers is to be that it highlights the need to develop critical awareness of the limitations of solely positivistic approaches that seek to minimise subjectivity. A complex systems approach would orientate the researchers towards an approach, where for example, cause, effects and, associations are not something that one seeks out to prove. In contrast, because of the lack of predictability, significant ‘causes and effects may only be evident with hindsight’ (Hood, 2018:10). This is something qualitative researchers realise and help provide the basis for future quantitative work – This hindsight approach requires the acceptance that we are looking at a complex system.
Indeed, the chaotic nature of dynamic systems means that it is unintended consequences that one is looking for, which may not be registered in more traditional, laboratory research designs. And so, the complexity approached sits comfortably with novel, creative grounded approaches to data generation, where interaction, feedback and freedom rather than control become important. One way to look at this is to try to envisage research where the equivalent of traffic lights or queuing have been eradicated – what kind of research design would that produce? The answer perhaps lies somewhere between the order that research methods text books offer and the creative chaotic disruptive imagination that you bring to your research topic/problem/phenomena. As the great English Philosopher Bertrand Russell famously noted:
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid … Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world…” (Russell, 2004:178)
References: Hood, R. (2018) Complexity in Social Work. Sage, London (Available as an ebook)
Russell, B (2004) Why Men Fight.
Snyder, S. (2013), The Simple, the Complicated, and the: Complex: Educational Reform Through the Lens of Complexity Theory, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 96, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k3txnpt1lnr-en
Dr. Gurnam Singh is a Principal Lecturer in Social Work and Post-Graduate Research Lead for the Health and Life Sciences.
