Sociology and Complexity Science blog

that sounds great!

2012-05-07T07:48:26.630-04:00

that sounds great!

Hi Thanks, sure. That is my honor to share my id...

2012-05-07T06:21:24.124-04:00

Hi
Thanks, sure.
That is my honor to share my ideas with you.
further, I am not sure since I was sleepy last night. I think I had a very long comment about your SACS toolkit.

Best
Vahid

Hi Timo That is very nice you are here. I couldn&#...

2012-05-07T06:18:45.101-04:00

Hi
Timo
That is very nice you are here. I couldn't expect it. :)
Because, exactly I have open your papers in my computer these days.
These days, I am reading and thinking about texts as qualitative data without any specific assumptions for representation of the objects of interests. and then, we can find your groups' projects there, including websom.
But, for the case of this dynamic SOM, which I mentioned I think it could be a different interpretation for SOM, with some more constraints relaxation.
Best
Vahid

2012-05-07T06:11:56.625-04:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

This is very interesting. I am interested in being...

2012-05-07T06:01:07.575-04:00

This is very interesting. I am interested in being in the loop and could share with you (Vahid and Brian) a couple recent articles.

that would be very cool. email me at my academic ...

2012-05-06T21:00:20.325-04:00

that would be very cool. email me at my academic address: bcastel3 (at) kent (dot) edu

Hi Thanks for sharing more information. This comb...

2012-05-03T12:12:52.766-04:00

Hi
Thanks for sharing more information.
This combination sounds very interesting, while I assume it could be somehow a dynamic SOM for classification with dynamic labels.
Currently, I am developing a new SOM, in which a neuron is an index for connecting two independent, but interactive spaces, which one is informational and the other is physical space, while two spaces are dynamic. I think it could be an instance of cartesian dualism.
If you were interested, I would like to share my results with you.
Best
Vahid

Hi Vahid Thanks so much for the posting. I am gl...

2012-05-01T19:24:02.229-04:00

Hi Vahid

Thanks so much for the posting. I am glad the book and article are useful. I have other articles, if you are interested, at my academic website:
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~bcastel3/SACS-Toolkit.html

In fact, we just finished a mathematical outline of our approach to case-based computational modeling using the SOM in combination with a set of other techniques.

Hi That was amazing for me to first find your 2003...

2012-04-28T12:17:14.486-04:00

Hi
That was amazing for me to first find your 2003 paper and then your post here. :)
I am a PhD student at ETHZ, with background in computer science and modeling and now doing research in the field of Architecture and Urban Design.
I am deeply interested in SOM, not just as a data mining tool, but as an environment for doing a lot of things, and just today, came across the idea of Grounded Theory, and found out that the "concepts" there should be mathematically equal to eigen-vector of observations (clusters) and then since we have a vectorial representation, we could easily use SOM for modeling.
Then it could be a process from "rough observations or a lot of descriptions to a quantitative design and modeling (e.g. in Urban design problems with people expressions of a place), and this approach is potentially so different than existing "reductionistic and limited" models of the socio-economic environments.

Then, I found your post here, and just wanted to say a Hello and say that after 9 years, one person is interested in this cross disciplinary use of SOM and GT.

Best
Vahid

thanks!

2012-04-24T20:55:38.020-04:00

thanks!

http://www.icss.soton.ac.uk/ University of Southa...

2012-04-24T05:12:47.346-04:00

http://www.icss.soton.ac.uk/

University of Southampton runs a degree in complexity science.

Psychology
Psychology” is the scientific study of mind and of consciousness. Psychology attempts to explain, predict, modify and ultimately improve the lives of people and the world in which they live. Psychology as the behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science, which needs introspection as little as do the sciences of physics and chemistry.

boner !

2012-04-03T22:37:21.227-04:00

boner !

Hey Dominik, Your comments are excellent. You ar...

2012-03-13T19:29:16.355-04:00

Hey Dominik,

Your comments are excellent. You are right that my last questions move away from my original case-based argument. So, thanks for that point.

I also really like how you re-framed the questions at the end to more of a comparative sociology or anthropology.

Finally, your point about moving from the general to the particulars reminded me of something a historian friend of mine said: "if a mathematical or philosophical statement contradicts itself, you've got trouble; but, it a historical account is without contradiction, you have a lie." or, something like that... anyway, thanks for the comments.

Again, not the most timely of comments. I'm a ...

2012-03-10T15:07:09.060-05:00

Again, not the most timely of comments. I'm a bit worried about the examples you give at the end, like "Which forms of government or social organization in which particular contexts lead to less micro-level, face-to-face violence?"

They seem to me really questions about variables but just differently defined ones. I would hope a case-based view of complexity would look at cases more like attractors (in the metaphorical rather than technical sense). Collections of shapes that make sense and within which certain regularities can be discerned but which ultimately just predict what is possible but not what is probable. And most importantly you cannot derive the exact nature of the shape once you zoom in. It is seductively similar but its own - and may even exhibit non-complex properties.

And that's what history shows us. You cannot really predict the particulars from the generalities. Ghengis Khan is cited by Pinker as the great killer but unlike those he conquered he (and Mongols in general) rejected torture. The death of a child was an incredibly common occurrence in most cultures until recently. But seems to have been no less stressful as things like elaborate funerary rites and written accounts suggest. Fear of death is a universal emotion. Yet, at the same time, death may be culturally celebrated in many different contexts. Smile is a universal signal of happiness. Yet, there seems to be no predictable reaction to smiling in public across different cultures. Many revolutionary movements contain a strong element of gender equality or even sexual liberation. Yet most regimes based on their ideas are decidedly puritanical (from Augustus to Mao). These are all interesting patterns, shapes, cases. They are strongly predictive in that only certain kinds of cases happen. But not at all predictive in that it's never exactly possible to predict which particular case follows.

I consider that the strength of case-based complexity as you describe it. So I would suggest an alternative formulations of the questions you ask: what are the different configurations of individual, group and violence and what are the patterns of change among them over time (but being careful to offer an inventory rather than a taxonomy). The next question would then be, how are the particular cases within these configurations similar or different from each other. In many ways, this sounds like normal history or anthropology but one liberated of universalist aspirations.

Wow what a nice post.I am felling glad about this ...

2012-02-26T17:53:38.330-05:00

Wow what a nice post.I am felling glad about this post.can you more share with me.I have many ideas about it.I will come back as soon.

Thanks for more info.........

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Excellent! thanks for taking the time to explain ...

2012-02-20T09:52:50.432-05:00

Excellent! thanks for taking the time to explain that and for the readings. I have some reading to do.

I agree. the disciplinary divisions often rigidly...

2012-02-20T09:51:53.522-05:00

I agree. the disciplinary divisions often rigidly adhered to by faculty can be mind numbing.

This contextualisation doesn't happen enough i...

2012-02-18T10:30:59.480-05:00

This contextualisation doesn't happen enough in introductory teaching I think; all too often, human 'social' history begins from a discrete 'break' whether Wallerstein's 'crisis of feudalism', the industrial revolution (or worse yet, the beginnings of formal sociology).

I enjoyed the passage in Waldrop where he recounts Brian Arthur's reading of 'The Eighth Day of Creation' which spurs him into thinking about the relation of complexity to empirical order

Thanks, I've found it useful for making sense ...

2012-02-18T09:08:33.909-05:00

Thanks, I've found it useful for making sense of agrarian systems - particularly those managed through common property arrangements, as most discussion tends to focus on rational actor models, or resource maximisation assumptions (i.e. classical homeostasis or methodological individualism).

Resilience ecology emerged from a similar dissatisfaction with 'optimal state' assumptions in sociology - instead of assessing a systems' return time to base-state parameter values following disturbance, it examines (both qualitatively and quantitatively) the amount of disturbance a system may undergo before shifting state into a new regime. Its definition of system is not spatial, as it relies on defining the parameters of a systems 'identity' (i.e. common property arragements, high fertility, extent of commodity production).

A new regime is entered when disturbance of sufficient magnitude alters the systems identity, which may occur through any number of factors or interactions of multiple ontological levels. I find it fits well within your own case-oriented approach, as it allows data-reduction techniques such as cluster analysis to discern the presence of attractors in the n-dimensional spaces such systems occupy (i.e. aggregate data at country/regional level may reveal certain clusters of areas occupied by the individual agrarian systems of interest as exhibiting certain macro-characteristics), and the concept of identity permits a form of ideal-typical modelling from multiple data sources at local level.

I've found it retains much of the promise of complexity as informed by sociology by directing the researcher to examine adaptive capacity at local level (agency), whilst permitting certain judgements about qualitative differences of state, and structural similarity (i.e. avoiding the excesses of ANT inductivism).

Apologies for the long comment (really enjoying reading through the articles and posts).

These are a good representation of current thinking on resilience - many refer explicitly to the complexity paradigm (if such a thing may even be defined);

Cumming, G.S.; Barnes, G; Perz, S; Schmink, M; Sieving, K.E.; Southworth, J; Binford, M; Holt, R.D.; Stickler, C and Van Holt, T. 2005. “An Exploratory Gramework for the Empirical Measurement of Resilience.” Ecosystems 8: 975-987

Cumming, Graeme S. 2011. Spatial Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems. Springer Science

Gunderson, Lance. 2000. “Ecological Resilience – in Theory and Application.” Annual Review of Ecological Systems 32: 425-39

Gunderson, Lance. 2003. “Adaptive dancing: interactions between social resilience and ecological crises.” Pp. 33-52 in Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resiliennce for Complexity and Change edited by Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding and Carl Folke. Cambridge University Press.

Holling, C.S. 1973. “Resiliance and Stability of Ecological Systems.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4: 1-23

Taylor, Peter. 2011. “Conceptualizing the Heterogeneity, Embeddedness, and Ongoing Restructuring that Make Ecological Complexity ‘Unruly.” Pp. 87-96 in Ecology Revisited: Reflecting on Concepts, Advancing Science edited by Schwarz, Astrid and Jax, Kurt. London: Springer

Walker, Brian; Gunderson, Lance; Kinzig, Annn; Folke, Carl; Carpenter, Steve and Schultz, Lisen. 2006. “A Handful of Heuristics and Soemm Propositions for Understanding Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems.” Ecology and Society 11(1): 13-28

your comments are excellent and most interesting. ...

2012-02-17T21:21:03.284-05:00

your comments are excellent and most interesting. i am not familiar with resilience ecology. any recommended readings?

I cant help but notice the close affinity many of ...

2012-02-17T16:52:22.438-05:00

I cant help but notice the close affinity many of these concepts and methodological approaches share with the field of resilience ecology - conceptualising systems as assemblages of identity components (which fits well with a critical realist notion of ontological stratification), rejection of normative stability measures, retention of agency, methodological pluralism etc. Seems like an ideal route for productive dialogue

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I agree! if you have any ideas when you finish th...

2012-01-29T15:37:47.046-05:00

I agree! if you have any ideas when you finish the book, let me know.

Belated thanks for this post. I'm reading the ...

2012-01-29T05:30:24.657-05:00

Belated thanks for this post. I'm reading the book now and am grappling with exactly these issues. For instance, can we even talk about rates of murder per 100,000 in populations limited to 1000s?

I think Pinker makes an important point - there is less violence now than the rhetoric implies but is so ham-fisted about it, his credibility is undermined. So I would definitely welcome more exploration of the data along the lines you suggest.