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).
