Table Of ContentComplexity Theory and the Social Sciences
This expanded and updated edition of Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences: The State
of the Art revisits the use of complexity theory across the social sciences and demonstrates
how complexity informs approaches to various contemporary issues in the context of the
COVID-19 pandemic, widening social inequality, and impending social and ecological
catastrophe wrought by global warming.
The book reviews complexity theory in the practice of the social sciences and at
their interface with ecological science. It outlines how social theory can be reconciled
with complexity thinking and presents a review of the way research can be done using
complexity theory. The book suggests how complexity theory can be used to understand
and evaluate governance processes, particularly with regard to social inequality and
the climate crisis. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is also examined through a
complexity lens, reviewing how complexity thinking has been employed in relation to
the pandemic and how implementing a complexity framework can transform health and
social care. The book concludes with a call to action and the use of complexity theory to
inform critical thinking in the education system.
This textbook will be immensely useful to students and researchers interested in social
research methods, social theory, business and organization studies, health, education, urban
studies, and development studies.
David Byrne is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Applied Social Science at Durham
University, UK. His research interests include complexity theory, post-industrial social
structures, urban systems, taxation policy, the privatization of welfare systems, quantitative
methods, and case-based methods. He is the author of Applying Social Science: The Role of
Social Research in Politics, Policy and Practice (Policy Press, 2011), Class after Industry (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2018), and Inequality in a Context of Climate Crisis after COVID: A Complex
Realist Approach (Routledge, 2021) and co-author of Complexity Theory and the Social
Sciences: The State of the Art (First Edition, Routledge, 2013) and Paying for the Welfare State
in the 21st Century (Policy Press, 2017).
Gillian Callaghan is a teacher of social theory and qualitative methods and an
experienced evaluator of social and health interventions. Her research interests include
complexity theory, deindustrialization and post-industrial social structure, class, social
capital and community, and issues of power, participation, and governance. She is the
author of numerous journal articles and co-author of Complexity Theory and the Social
Sciences: The State of the Art (First Edition, Routledge, 2013).
Complexity Theory and the
Social Sciences
The State of the Art
Second Edition
David Byrne and Gillian Callaghan
Cover image: © Gillian Callaghan
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2023 David Byrne and Gillian Callaghan
The right of David Byrne and Gillian Callaghan to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2013
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-10085-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-10086-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21357-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003213574
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To our respective children and grandchildren who
will have to live through the coming crises.
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 A manifesto for interdisciplinarity founded on the complexity frame of
reference 7
2 The complexity frame of reference and action 21
3 Doing complexity science 35
4 Evolutionary social theory 47
5 Structure and agency 64
6 Time and place 80
7 Social theory and macro system transformation 98
8 Complexity theory and the qualitative research programme 114
9 Quantitative methods for exploring, understanding, and possibly
predicting complex social systems and their intersection with
natural systems 129
10 Complexity and mixed methods 144
11 Modes of governance 159
12 Evaluation in a complexity frame 174
viii Contents
13 Explicit complexity evaluation 190
14 Shaping research and policy 204
15 Beyond disciplines and fields: COVID and a world in crisis 218
Conclusion 233
Index 240
Acknowledgements
A lot of people have helped us through discussion and engagement with complexity. In
particular, Brian Castellani, Lasse Gerrits, and Emma Uprichard have been of enormous
support over a long time. We also want to thank the people we worked with on CECAN
– Centre for Evaluating Complexity Across the Nexus. That team was both a great bunch
of people to work with and the source of a lot of interesting ideas. CECAN gave us the
opportunity to engage with practitioner social researchers interested in applying com-
plexity ideas, and conversations with them were always a source of new ways of thinking
about how complexity can be put to work. The late and much missed Paul Cilliers not
only greatly improved David Byrne’s knowledge of wine in general and South African
wines in particular, but continues to be a key thinker for us in carrying forward the com-
plexity programme.
