What is gained by quantifying complex social science research?
This is the second of nine one-day seminars. In this seminar, we will consider the pros and cons involved in quantifying complex social systems. We will consider what is gained and lost by quantifying complex social systems. There are a number of quantitative methods available aside from traditional statistical analysis and this seminar will consider the pros and cons of a small of the many which complex social systems might be explored quantitatively. The idea is to not only to explore the pros and cons of the various methods a bit more in order to learn from each other. We are start from the assumption that each methodological approach will bring its own strengths and weaknesses. So the question isn’t so much ‘Which method is best?’ but rather ‘What else can we do based on what we already know does and/or doesn’t work?’ We are especially concerned with the extent to which quantitative methods are sufficient and/or necessary to model and know complex social systems for policy planning purposes.
Please see full Agenda here, links to talks below, and photos here. [spacer height=”20px”]
PROF. PETER ALLEN[spacer height=”12px”]Emeritus Professor, School of Management, Cranfield University; Former Director and founder of the Complex Systems Research Centre; Editor in Chief of the Journal Emergence: Complexity and Organization.[spacer height=”12px”]Title: Unending Inductive / Deductive Methods in Complex Social Systems[spacer height=”40px”]PROF. BRIAN CASTELLANI [spacer height=”12px”](Sociology, Kent State Univeristy, USA, University;Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Northeast Ohio Medical University; Director of Complexity and Health Group, Kent State)[spacer height=”12px”]Title: Modelling Complex Systems: A Case-Based Computational Approach[spacer height=”40px”]DR RAJEEV RAJARAM (Mathematical Sciences, Kent State, US)[spacer height=”12px”]Title: Modelling Trajectories and Densities across Time: A Computational Approach using Differential Equations [spacer height=”40px”]PROF. NIGEL GILBERT [spacer height=”12px”](Sociology, Surrey, Director Centre for Research in Social Simulation; Editor Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation) [spacer height=”12px”]Title: Simulating Societies: A Computational Approach to Social Science [spacer height=”40px”]PROF. ROBERT MACKAY [spacer height=”12px”] (Mathematics, Warwick, Director Mathematical Interdisciplinary Research, Director of Centre for Complexity Science) [spacer height=”12px”] Title: Understanding, Prediction, Control and Design