27/11/2018

Q-Step Methods Presentation on Complexity at Cardiff University


I have posted the following information in support of my 27 November 2018 presentation on complexity methods for the Q-Step Centre, Cardiff University.

Much thanks to Professor Malcolm Williams for the opportunity to present.
 
As my colleagues and I have argued extensively
over the past decade, in response to the empirical crisis of the social sciences, scholars need to follow the growing trend amongst scholars and make the 'complexity turn,' as described by John Urry.  This has to happen, in particular, in terms of methods, as current methods, while powerful, are not sufficient, particularly in the face of big data and the global social problems we, as a global civil society, presently face.

Hence the purpose of the current presentation.

CLICK HERE to download the PDF of my powerpoint presentation.

CLICK HERE for a map of the complexity sciences and computational methods.

CLICK HERE to download a beta version of our computational modelling software App, called, appropritately enough, COMPLEX-IT

CLICK HERE for the Welsh Deprivation Index, which provided the data for my presentation.


24/11/2018

Resilience, Complexity and Health and the Importance of Allostatic Load


The latest edition of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (Volume 24, Issue 6, December 2018) is rather exciting for me, as it is devoted to the topic of resilience and its related complexities.  It also contains the recent paper my colleagues and I published on the complex dynamics of comorbid depression and physical health.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESILIENCE

As Carmel Martin, the editor of this special edition states:
This special forum on resilience explores particular worldviews of resilience—clinical, psychosocial, sociological, complexity science, organizational, and political economy through eight papers. This forum aims to open up the wealth of understandings and implications in health care by taking a transdisciplinary overview (CLICK FOR MORE).
As Martin also points out:
Interest in resilience in relation to overcoming adversity is growing exponentially in health‐related literature.... (See Figure 1 from Martin) Resilience is now recognized as an important phenomenon for understanding how ecosystems, coral reefs, and individuals overcome stressors and challenges. Resilience is sometimes seen as an individual human trait, other times as a process, and yet other times as an outcome, moving from static models to a dynamic models over time. Interest has broadened to groups, teams, organizations, communities, and political and economic systems.


RESILIENCE AND ALLOSTATIC LOAD

At the level of individuals, resilience is a rather complex phenomenon that has presented a number of theoretical and methodological challenges, given that it emerges out of a complex interaction between people (including health behaviors, genetics, and family health history) and the wider socio-ecological settings in which they live.

It is for this reason, as we explain in a recent 2015 publication, Allostatic load as a complex clinical construct, that simultaneous with the rise in the study of reslience has been a turn to the concept of allostatic load.  And for good reason.  As we explain:
Allostatic load (AL) is a highly useful framework—introduced by McEwen and colleagues 1-5, 7for understanding the cumulative health costs (“wear and tear”) associated with stress, particularly short‐term‐intense or chronic distress.
The theoretical framework for AL follows a complex, multidimensional and multilevel trajectory: situated within a wider set of intersecting socioecological systems (i.e., poverty traps, high‐stress workplaces, combat, etc), an individual's perceived distress (i.e., stress overload, lack of control, etc) causes many of the body's key allostatic systems—a complex, nonlinear network of interactive and adaptive mediators (e.g., blood pressure, cardiovascular, metabolic, etc)—to shift into a state of relative disequilibrium to maintain wellbeing 6.
Often times, particularly when distress is short‐term‐intense or chronic, this sustained disequilibrium can lead to dysregulation, which can cause significant dysfunction/damage to these allostatic systems; which, in turn, can lead to significant, negative health outcomes (e.g., heart disease, cancer, depression, alcoholism, PTSD) 1-7.
And, the key for us and, increasingly, an expanding network of researchers, is the realisation that:
Given its theoretical complexity, AL has shown great potential as an interdisciplinary tool for assessing cumulative health risk 7-11. For example, as Gallo et al. state, “In contrast to the common practice of examining risk factors within a single physiological system, the allostatic load framework provides an integrative approach that may better characterize the cumulative impact of dynamic and nonlinear influences across major biological regulatory systems.”12
In this way, AL links to a variety of fields (from medical sociology and medicine to human biology and public health) focused on the negative impact that stress events have on health and wellbeing; particularly across the life‐course and across different antecedent socioecological factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, mental status, psychological trauma, residence, occupation and—a current major focus—health disparities 8-11, 13-19.
In other words, similar to intersectionality theory, allostatic load does not assume that, for example, everyone in a poor urban community will be equally affected by their social conditions, or that they will all have the same negative health outcomes.  As we explain:
For example, regarding health disparities, Beckie 19 states, “The theoretical constructs of allostasis and allostatic load (AL) have contributed to our understanding of how constantly changing social and environmental factors impact physiological functioning and shape health and aging disparities, particularly along socioeconomic, gendered, racial, and ethnic lines” (p. 311).

METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGE

The methodological challenge, however, is to get to such a sophisticated understanding of resilience and allostatic load, one needs to embrace a wider set of methodological techniques that go far beyond the conventions of linear statistics and its bell-shaped curve view of the distribution of health and disease.  In short, one needs the computational methods of complexity science.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPLEXITY AND COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING

For example, in our study on allostatic load, we employed the computational modelling, mixed-methods framework of the SACS Toolkit, which draws upon a wide variety of computational and statistical techniques, for the current study, we used four: the Kohonen self‐organizing map (SOM), k‐means cluster analysis, principle components analysis (PCA), and logistic regression. (A brief overview of how we employed PCA, k‐means and the SOM is provided HERE.)

  • As a result -- as shown here in this topographical neural net -- we were able to arrive at a very sophisticated model of the multiple trends/profiles along which allostatic load manifests itself in people's lives.

 
  • And, in turn -- as shown here in these radar maps -- we could link these allostatic trends/profiles to the numerous and different ways in which it impact health outcomes later in life.

RESULTS:

Using our approach, we made four important results that could otherwise not had been attained: (1) we developed a multisystem, 7‐factor (20 biomarker) model of AL's network of allostatic systems; (2) used it to create a catalog of nine different clinical AL profiles (causal pathways); (3) linked each clinical profile to a typology of 23 health outcomes; and (4) explored our results (post hoc) as a function of gender, a key socioecological factor.

In terms of highlights, (a) the Healthy clinical profile had few health risks; (b) the pro‐inflammatory profile linked to high blood pressure and diabetes; (c) Low Stress Hormones linked to heart disease, TIA/Stroke, diabetes, and circulation problems; and (d) high stress hormones linked to heart disease and high blood pressure. Post hoc analyses also found that males were overrepresented on the High Blood Pressure (61.2%), Metabolic Syndrome (63.2%), High Stress Hormones (66.4%), and High Blood Sugar (57.1%); while females were overrepresented on the Healthy (81.9%), Low Stress Hormones (66.3%), and Low Stress Antagonists (stress buffers) (95.4%) profiles.


REPRISAL: THE IMPORTANCE OF RESILIENCE AND ALLOSTATIC LOAD 

And so, to repeat, the combined conceptual framework of reslience and allostatic load, along with the methodological capacities of complexity and computational modelling, offer a highly innovative and powerful way to advance our understanding of not only stress and coping, relative to the complex socio-ecological settings in which people live, but also its differential impact on subsequent health and well-being, including understanding better why some people thrive even in the toughest of situations -- which is a very good thing for those of us in community and public health (as well as primary care) to know.


13/11/2018

Joined the Sociology Department Durham University, UK

For those who may not have noticed from Twitter and others postings, I switched academic locations over the summer, and I am happy to say I am now in the Sociology Department at Durham University, UK

Living in the UK and Europe has been a dream of mine and my wife's since our undergraduate days. And so we are very fortunate to be here, as it is a rare and exciting chance to live abroad.  Plus I am now closer to the majority of my colleagues and friends, which makes traveling to see them a lot easier!  LOL!

Relative to this blog, I am also very much interested in how full-time life abroad will influence my work on globalisation and complexity and health, both in terms of my evolving substantive focus and, in turn, my theoretical and methodological concerns.

Case in point.  I am now working on the follow-up to my book, The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology -- which recently received an excellent endorsement from Sylvia Walby, who has been a major influence on my work and has done some of the most cutting-edge work in the field on intersecting inequality, gender, globalisation and complexity theory.  So, much thanks! 

The follow-up book, which I am hoping to complete by summer 2019, is called Is the World a Better Place?  In the meantime, I am enjoying working with my new colleagues in developing the health research theme in the Sociology Department at Durham and with regional universities and organisations such as FUSE (The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health) and the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing; and, wider, the UK, particularly CECAN (Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus).

01/06/2018

The Defiance of Global Commitment. An Interview with Brian Castellani

The following interview was between Phil Haynes (Professor of Public Policy, Brighton University) and Brian Castellani (Professor of Sociology, Kent State University) regarding Professor Castellani’s latest book, The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology, which is part of the series he edits, complexity in social science at Routledge.   It took place at the CECAN blog.


Thank you Professor Castellani for agreeing to be interviewed about your new Routledge book, The Defiance of Global Commitment. By drawing on Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (as well as the latest advances in cognitive science, evolutionary biology, social psychology and the complexity sciences) it certainly makes for an innovative, highly original and challenging read. You certainly got me thinking and digging deep into my social science memory and the hidden corners of my bookshelves.

1. As human beings, we are not very good at saving ourselves and the planet… give us a quick summary of your argument about why this is the case.

Freud’s big point in Civilization and Its Discontents, which I develop in regards to globalization, is that our best chance at even the smallest degree of happiness in life comes from the advances of civil society; but all such advances – particularly in terms of social justice – require people to make sacrifices to get along; and people don’t like doing that, as they think they are somehow giving up more than they are getting (which they often are), and so they rebel against their global social commitments; which, ironically enough, threatens the very chance most people have at happiness.  In other words, the success of global civil society, it seems, is built on a social psychological conundrum: a sort of psychic catch-22 if you will.

And, vis-à-vis globalization today (circa 2018), this Freudian catch-22 appears to have crossed a negative tipping point, with many segments of the world (albeit not everyone!) falling prey to one type of unhealthy social psychology or another – and all of it helping to adversely reinforce, worldwide, the escalating fears, conflicts, resentments, inequalities, cruelties, and aggressions brought on by the current phase of globalization.

The result, to go to your point, and which we see almost daily in the news, is a rise in the number of people who are willing to raze their respective communities to the ground in order to satisfy their contempt for the global success and wellbeing of others.  Or, alternatively, how this contempt is emboldening people to actively resist their role in (or the reality of) the global social problems we presently face.  And, what is particularly disturbing is that, while much of this contempt comes from those feeling left behind by globalization (which is understandable); it is equally embraced by those who have benefitted the most – namely, those privileged few living in the most technologically and economically advanced parts of the world.  And it does not stop there, as it seems this contempt for others and the planet (a sort of culture of cruelty, if you will) is becoming a model for living for many, leading to a worldwide backlash against the establishment of a more just and equitable civil society.  But, as with all such stories, these negative social psychologies aren’t the only thing going.


2. Which takes me to my next question.  Like Freud, many sociologists are quite deterministic and fatalistic about the path humanity is taking. While you challenge the optimism of writers like Steven Pinker (i.e., The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now), do you think a complexity theory analysis still leaves the global fate in our own hands? – so lots of different possibilities?

As complexity science teaches us, in any complex system (such as our global society) there is always the adjacent possible – that is, the chance that the system is traveling in multiple and different directions, and all at the same time!

And, in fact, that is what is happening today.  Our globalized world is a very complex place; with different groups the world-over (i.e., communities, countries, companies, etc) carving out all sorts of different but simultaneous social psychological paths.  In my book, for example, I chart the trajectory of several of them – from eco-primitivism and affluent resentment to patriarchal nostalgia and ethnic nationalism to globalism and global civil service.  And for each of these social psychologies, it is important to note, I also explore its counter-force: its opposing social psychology of globalization, if you will.  It is also for this reason that I developed, in the third part of my book, a basic model of global power relations and resistance, based on the work of Freud, Foucault and Sylvia Walby.

And, again to your point, using this model to organize my data, it seems to me that, contrary to writers like Steven Pinker, the negative social psychologies of the world are winning across many domains of global socio-ecological life today, particularly given how well they are “propped up” by the current strong-arms throughout the world – from the global east and north to south and west.

But, the current “wins” for these negative psychologies doesn’t mean things necessarily end there, as complex systems are not deterministic – for example, significant countervailing changes often go unseen until they reach a critical point, as in the #MeToo and BlackLivesMatter movements, for example.  Neither is it the case that these “negative psychologies” are everywhere or across everything, as negotiated progress is always simultaneously taking place around the world.

As such, the current global dominance of these “negative psychologies” only means that the capacity for global civil society and healthy resistance to move the world in the right direction is limited.  But, given the constant conflict on which our global system is tenuously and chaotically balanced, these dominating conditions can tip in a different direction – which is why I think, from a policy perspective, we need to keep pushing hard for various types of “engaged governance,” as in the case of global civil society.  Still, I must admit, at least on the ecological front, I am worried, as time is not on our side.


3. You are inspired a lot by Freud, who is central to your book and argument. Do you think he was actually a complexity theorist without knowing it?

No, I don’t.  Freud was very much part of the grand narrative tradition of industrialized modernity, seeking to create a single model that explained the full of human psychology.  And that goal, more than anything, blinded him to the complexities of human existence.
The same problem of embracing complexity seems true for a lot of public policy today – which is why applied research centres and networks, such as CECAN, are so important: they are advancing the field to improve its capacity to evaluate and, in turn, develop public policies that are more sensitive to initial conditions, path dependencies, the nexus of things, and the multiple and different trajectories along which the impact of a policy flows.


4. Relative to your point, do you see your work, then, as a normative turn in complexity theory, to assist its move from the sciences into the social sciences?
Yes I do.  For me, Byrne and Callaghan’s, Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences: The State of the Art, is the first real push to go beyond a sales pitch for complexity – which was very important! – to saying, “Okay, we’ve got all of this complexity science stuff, so what are we to make of it?  How does it actually help us get on with the job of doing social science?”

Of course, you had others, particularly during the late 1900s, seeking to establish a normative social complexity, such as Edgar Morin and his distinction between restrictive and general complexity – as well as, for example, the work of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann in sociology, and Paul Cilliers in philosophy, and Peter Checkland in managerial studies.  But all of these approaches, despite their brilliance, ignore three important issues that I have sought to bring forth in my work:

First, there is the role of power relations and conflict in complex systems.  There is little in complexity science today, for example, that addresses power, particularly its negative states, as in the case of domination, exploitation, oppression, cruelty, aggression, etc – which is why my work leans so heavily on Foucault.  The same is true of conflict: you do not see complexity scientists studying conflict in complex networks, for example, as it is not part of the vocabulary of physics and computer science. Which is why I turned to Immanuel Wallerstein and, more important, to Sylvia Walby, who does an absolutely brilliant job of integrating intersectionality theory and feminism with complexity science and globalization studies.

Second, there is the role of social psychology in complex systems.  For example, other than Manuel Castells, there is little work on identity and its links to complex systems, let alone the role of group conflict or in-group/out-group behaviour.  The only exception is agent-based modeling, which does an excellent job with swarm behaviour, predator-prey models, social segregation, economic competition, contagions in networks, and so forth.  But, still, a lot more could be done to incorporate the work of symbolic interactionism, for example, into complexity science models – all of which is why, in my work, I sought to develop (and argued for) a social psychology of globalization and, more specifically, a social psychology of policy research.  More specifically, I argued for a mental health model of globalization; which takes me to my next point.

Third is the role of psychology in complex systems.  Type in the words “complexity” and “psychology” in Google, for example, and you will get next to nothing.  It is as if the two fields don’t know that, presently, each the other exists.  The only exception, today, is in cognitive science and the embodied mind literature, given their strong links to the work of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela and the fields of distributed artificial intelligence and cybernetics.  And that is particularly upsetting, given that many of the systems science founders – such as Margaret Mead, Anatol Rapoport, Kurt Koffka, Murray Bown and Gregory Bateson – made such important advances in a “systems” approach to psychology, including the development of family systems theory and gestalt psychology.

As such, in terms of establishing a normative social complexity, I see my work as both an advance and a rapprochement, insomuch as I have tried to link a complex systems view of the world with the inner psychic life of humans, including their primitive paleomammalian emotions, cognitive biases, irrationalities, anxieties, aggressions, embodied minds, psychopathologies and personalities; as well as their social psychologies and power relations and group-based conflicts.


5. As you just demonstrated, your work spans many disciplines, but notably the domains of sociology and psychology. You have a dialogue with social psychology that is philosophical and macro social (in terms of the role of the individual).  Is there a place, then, for social psychology in policy?

Absolutely!  We don’t discuss it much, but the social psychology and mental health of a community is just as important as its economic and political wellbeing.  And, just like the psychology of an individual, the mental health (and healthy awareness) of a community can become dysfunctional, particularly in the face of widespread change – as we see with globalization today – and in the face of the escalating conflicts, fears, resentments and aggressions that often surround it, as I just mentioned.

Equally Important, when the mental health of a community becomes problematic, people fall prey to feel-good decisions and unhealthy choices – as well as the political strongarms of the world – which seem, on the face of it, self-preserving, but are often, in the long-run, not good.  We see this, for example, in the growing embraces of ethnic nationalism, global capitalism, the fight against ecological preservation, and the negative reactions against the civil rights of women, ethnic minorities, refugees, and the LGBT communities.

The challenge, then, is to counteract this pathology by improving the mental health (and healthy outlook) of communities – hence the role of global civil society and public policy.  And, it is important, to point out, we already have good models for doing this work.  They come from the fields of community and public health, which have always been in the business of developing (and evaluating) policies that seek to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of communities.  And, given such transformative goals, these fields have always had to deal with politics, power, and conflicts, as well as the emotional irrationalities and cognitive biases and social psychologies of people.  So, it has been and can be (and also very much needs to be) done.


6. I grew up in an age of cognitive social psychology and was inducted in applied social practice concepts like self-efficacy, self-esteem, locus of control, learned hopelessness, etc…  It did get very frustrating trying to make these concepts relevant in therapeutic practice. Is there any place left for such social psychology?

I was raised in the same era of thinking and, like you, found the clinical utility of these concepts problematic.  Still, I think that out of these ideas the social sciences have evolved significantly.
For example, cognitive science and the sociology of emotions have helped us make major strides in understanding the highly irrational and biased ways that the human mind and social groups work. 

And, in turn, identity theory has proven very useful in demonstrating the significant role that social support plays in self-efficacy and psychological development – particularly as linked with LGBT and gender studies.  The same is true of intersectionality theory, which has demonstrated how the mental health of individuals is significantly impacted by the larger organizational, geo-spatial and societal arrangements in which they are situated – as well as the corrosive impact that institutional racism and economic discrimination have on self-esteem, locus of control, etc.  And, finally, there is the stress and coping literature and the social psychology of healthy behaviours.  So, yeah, I think there is still a place for these ideas.


7. The philosophical conclusion of your research is that we need to communicate a clear and simple concept of global collectivism and commitment, ‘loving others as ourselves’. And that this needs to become a totalising, dominant logic.  Does this have implications for how we teach and communicate social science, in that there is no point in a hyperrational and empirical approach – if we have no normative guide for our student’s journey?

Being so heavily influenced by Foucault, I am not sure I would say my usage of the term “love” is a totalizing discourse or logic.  Instead, I think it points to the positive role that socialization, in all of its various cultural and political forms, has on the psychology of people, mainly through the inscription of morals and mores and values and beliefs.  And I think Freud’s point was similar: the psychological absurdity of loving others, including our enemies, is his therapeutic challenge to the catch-22 of our human existence – which I discussed earlier, in regards to your first question.  In other words, the only real counter-point to the defiance of our social commitments, at least at the psychological level, is to socialize people to better manage themselves and to see the value in it.

For Foucault, the word “love” is translated into “care” and, in turn, leads him to a meditation on how communities – historically speaking – have variously thought it best to care for ourselves and others; as in the great Delphic precept, “to take care of yourself; or to be concerned, to take care of yourself.”

And, as Foucault demonstrates throughout his writings, through such meditations society is constantly up against such key sociological questions such as: How does love or care translate into justice?  And, what is being just?  And, what is a just community or society?  For example, in the policy realm, these mediations lead to such questions as: What is a just social policy?  Or, what constitutes equity or parity on the part of a government or some piece of legislation?  And, should governments and policy makers even be in the business of being just?  Which, in turn, leads to the examination of such core sociological themes as domination and exploitation and inequality and so forth.

Related – and to the main point of your question – in our era, one such way we think it “best” to examine issues of care and social justice in social policy is through the lens of social science.  That is our normative approach; or at least the one in which I was trained.  For example, as colleagues, you and I both place emphasis on developing data-driven policies and procedures, which seek to procure the best possible results for the greatest good, etc; as well as identifying evidence-based outcomes and effective methods and measures of utility.  And, as applied researchers, we put equal emphasis on being reasonably objective or at least as true to the data as possible; as well as teaching our students to be up front about their methodological limitations and sharing results, etc.  In similar fashion, as social scientists I think we both place pride on being professional in our work.

However, we also know as sociologists, policies (including the normative social science upon which they are based) are often governed by deeply irrational, dysfunctional and non-therapeutic purposes and desires, and that relations of power are everywhere in policy; and that bad things can (and often do) come from good intentions.  We also know how patriarchy and racism and cruelty and economic aggression and fear and resentment, as well as emotional and psychological dysfunction, infiltrate the discursive fabric of our policies and procedures.  Alternatively, pace Durkheim and cultural anthropology, we also know that the socialization of our individual and cultural super-egos, along with teaching morality and social norms, can work to counteract these forces.  So, I think that, as a normative guide, social science give us the best tools for doing our work in a caring way.  And so I would continue to advocate for them….  Anyway, that gives a sense of it.


8. Your father was a big influence as a minister of religion, did you ever think about taking a similar path?

Not in terms of religion, as I have always been largely secular in my views.  But, in terms of social justice, absolutely!  I think all of my work – be it as a therapist, researcher or teacher – has had, as its primary theme, the issue of social justice, which was what my father was all about!


9. What is your next academic focus, any previews for your next book!

I am already working on a follow-up to my current book, as there are a number of questions that my book raised that I want to address.  First, how is social justice becoming hostage to identity politics, such that so many people struggle, today, to endorse the human rights of others and, more widely, people in general?  Second, and related, why are so many people embracing a culture of cruelty today; and how does that link to the social psychology of global fear, cultural resentment, nostalgic political retreat and economic aggression?  Third, while I discussed in detail the need for a social psychology of politics and policy, I never really outlined in detail what such an endeavor would look like.  So, I want to articulate what such a thing would entail, mainly by drawing on the literature in public and community health and education, which have given considerable time to addressing the social psychology of such health issues as smoking, obesity, safety, and so on.


24/05/2018

How Negative Social Psychologies Threaten Democractic Participation, Policy and Global Civil Society


See my recent CECAN interview with Professor Phil Haynes on the threatening role that negative and unhealthy social psychologies play in democratic participation, policy and global civil society.  The interview is based on my new book, The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology.

CLICK HERE FOR INTERVIEW



15/05/2018

The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology

-->My new book, The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology is out!

Focused on recent events at the global level -- from the Brexit vote and the election of Trump to the upsurge of European nationalism and the devolution of the Arab Spring to Chinese expansionism and the riotous instabilities of the world capitalist system -- in my new book (which is part of the Routledge complexity in social science series) I seek to do the following three things:

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFIANCE:

First, I seek to outline a social psychology of how and why people are defying their global commitments to one another.  More specifically, I seek to:

  • Make sense of the growing rebellion we see, the world-over, against the hard-won advances in global civil society -- particularly in terms of the rights of women, minorities, the poor, refugees, and the LGBTQI communities, as well as the ecological rights of all life on planet earth.
  • Explore, in turn, the simultaneous nostalgic desire that people, increasingly, have to turn away from each "other" and toward their own, all in a desperate effort to reclaim the things they believe globalization (in the form of "others") has taken away from them -- be this view of things right or wrong.
  • Go deep into the human psyche -- by drawing on the work of Freud and recent advances in affective neuroscience and cognitive and social psychology -- to examine how this widespread defiance and nostalgic withdrawal is being driven by a social psychology of resentment, fear, hatred, irrational sentiments, xenophobia, cognitive distortions, kin-selection, and a lust for power and death.
  • And, finally, how this social psychology -- a culture of cruelty, if you will -- is quickly becoming en vogue today as it is fed by an endless stream of social media, identity politics, populist rhetoric, and the strong-arms of the world.

A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF RESISTANCE:

Not stopping there, however, I also seek to explore how this negative psychology is being challenged and fought against by the therapeutic forces of global civil society and the healthy social psychologies of resistance -- from the United Nations to the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements.
As complexity science teaches us, in any complex system (such as our global society) there is always the adjacent possible – that is, the chance that the system is traveling in multiple and different directions, and all at the same time!
And, in fact, that is what is happening today.  Our globalized world is a very complex place; with different groups the world-over (i.e., communities, countries, companies, etc) carving out all sorts of different but healthy and therapeutic social psychological paths.
It is also for this reason that I develop, in the third part of my book, a basic model of global power relations and resistance, based on the work of Freud, Foucault and Sylvia Walby.

DEVELOPING THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE: 

Finally, based on my model of global power relations, I seek to offer some useful ways to address the problem.  My focus is on two key areas: a social psychology of public policy and a psychology of love and care of others.

A NEW SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC POLICY:

We don’t discuss it much, but the social psychology and mental health of a community is just as important as its economic and political well-being.  And, just like the psychology of an individual, the mental health (and healthy awareness) of a community can become dysfunctional, particularly in the face of widespread change – as we see with globalization today – and in the face of the escalating conflicts, fears, resentments and aggressions that often surround it, as I just mentioned.

Equally Important, when the mental health of a community becomes problematic, people fall prey to feel-good decisions and unhealthy choices – as well as the political strong-arms of the world – which seem, on the face of it, self-preserving, but are often, in the long-run, not good.  We see this, for example, in the growing embraces of ethnic nationalism, global capitalism, the fight against ecological preservation, and the negative reactions against the civil rights of women, ethnic minorities, refugees, and the LGBT communities.

The challenge, then, is to counteract this pathology by improving the mental health (and healthy outlook) of communities – hence the role of global civil society and public policy.  And, it is important, to point out, we already have good models for doing this work.  They come from the fields of community and public health, which have always been in the business of developing (and evaluating) policies that seek to improve the mental and physical well-being of communities.  And, given such transformative goals, these fields have always had to deal with politics, power, and conflicts, as well as the emotional irrationalities and cognitive biases and social psychologies of people.  So, it has been and can be (and also very much needs to be) done.

A RENEWED PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE AND CARE:

Finally, I argue for a renewed psychology of love and care.  Freud’s big point in Civilization and Its Discontents – upon which my current books is based -- is that our best chance at even the smallest degree of happiness in life comes from the advances of civil society; but all such advances – particularly in terms of social justice – require people to make sacrifices to get along; and people don’t like doing that, as they think they are somehow giving up more than they are getting (which they often are), and so they rebel against their global social commitments; which, ironically enough, threatens the very chance most people have at happiness.  In other words, the success of global civil society, it seems, is built on a social psychological conundrum: a sort of psychic catch-22 if you will.

As such, for Freud (and for me), the best counterpoint to this negative state of affairs is the absurdity of the commandment to love others as ourselves, including our enemies.  Being so heavily influenced by Foucault, I am not sure, however, that I would say my usage of the term “love” is a totalizing discourse or logic.  Instead, I think it points to the positive role that socialization, in all of its various cultural and political forms, has on the psychology of people, mainly through the inscription of morals and mores and values and beliefs.  And I think Freud’s point was similar: the psychological absurdity of loving others, including our enemies, is his therapeutic challenge to the catch-22 of our human existence.  In other words, the only real counter-point to the defiance of our social commitments, at least at the psychological level, is to socialize people to better manage themselves and to see the value in it. 

For Foucault, the word “love” is translated into “care” and, in turn, leads him to a meditation on how communities – historically speaking – have variously thought it best to care for ourselves and others; as in the great Delphic precept, “to take care of yourself; or to be concerned, to take care of yourself.”

And, as Foucault demonstrates throughout his writings, through such meditations society is constantly up against such key sociological questions such as: How does love or care translate into justice?  And, what is being just?  And, what is a just community or society?  For example, in the policy realm, these meditations lead to such questions as: What is a just social policy?  Or, what constitutes equity or parity on the part of a government or some piece of legislation?  And, should governments and policy makers even be in the business of being just?  Which, in turn, leads to the examination of such core sociological themes as domination and exploitation and inequality and so forth.

Anyway, that gives a sense of it. 




16/02/2018

Our "Power Grid as a Complex System" Chapter in the Reliaiblity First Newsletter!

Our new chapter in the HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH METHODS IN COMPLEXITY SCIENCE Theory and Applications made it into the RelabilityFirst newsletter.


For those who are new to grid management in the States, here is how ReliabilityFirst defines its mission on its website:
The electric grid is the backbone of our economy, critical for our national security, and necessary to support the public welfare. A reliable and secure electric grid is fundamental to our most basic daily routines and needs.
Our mission is to ensure that the electric grid is reliable and secure -- not only for today but also for tomorrow. To achieve this mission, our team identifies and prioritizes risks facing our electric grid; determines mitigation strategies to address these risks; and develops and deploys communication and outreach strategies to drive awareness and further ensure risk resolution.

Carl, the lead author on our paper, was interviewed for the Newsletter.  Here is a JPG of the interview:


05/02/2018

HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH METHODS IN COMPLEXITY SCIENCE Theory and Applications

I am happy to announce that the HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH METHODS IN COMPLEXITY SCIENCE Theory and Applications is finally out for reading!  Thanks to the Editors -- Eve Mitleton-Kelly, Alexandros Paraskevas, and Christopher Day -- for the opportunity to be part of the project!

For those interested, you can explore the book (similar to Google Books)! CLICK HERE. As stated on the book's website:
This comprehensive Handbook is aimed at both academic researchers and practitioners in the field of complexity science. The book’s 26 chapters, specially written by leading experts, provide in-depth coverage of research methods based on the sciences of complexity. The research methods presented are illustratively applied to practical cases and are readily accessible to researchers and decision makers alike.

Yes, Infrastructures are Socially Complex!

We have a chapter in the book, which I am rather proud of, as it really pushes the utility of complex systems thinking and case-based complexity for making sense of the role social factors play in grid reliability. As we state in the first paragraph of our chapter:
We wrote this chapter to address a major limitation in the current literature: the continued and significant failure to address the profound but oft-hidden role that complexity and, more specifically ‘social complexity’ play in the reliability and resiliency of various infrastructures. In doing so, we follow a ‘small but growing trend’ in several interconnected literature, ranging from systems engineering and engineering infrastructures to globalization studies and urban design to green architecture and social policy to ecology and sustainability, which seek to understand infrastructures from a complex social systems perspective (e.g., Braha et al., 2006; Byrne 2013; Byrne and Callaghan 2015; Capra and Luisi 2015; Gerrits 2012; Gerrits & Marks 2015; Haynes 2015; Pagani & Aiello, 2013, 2015; Teisman, Buuren & Gerrits 2009).




01/02/2018

The Ontology of Big Data: A Complex Realist Perspective


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Many thanks to everyone at the ODYCCEUS Project for the opportunity to present my ideas in Venice, January 29-30, 2018 -- in particular, Eckehard Olbrich, Massimo Warglien, and Petter Törnberg.  It was a great symposium!

09/01/2018

2018 Map of the Complexity Sciences

Just released the new 2018 version of the map of the complexity sciences.  


Lots of updates, with new areas of study and new scholars.  The big advances in the field seem to be about integration and application, with such new areas as mixed-methods, interdisciplinary research, policy and applied complexity. 





Also, in response to numerous requests, I have also updated the HOW TO READ MAP section.