Social complexity
Human behaviours and opinions are affected by factors which can be either external, individual or social, which are continually evolving as we age. These factors include marriage, racism or even violent conduct and can be caused by either politics, historical events or behaviours of other people. These factors that affect human behaviours and opinions are referred to as social phenomena. Social phenomena have very discrete nature, thus its complexity.
Contrary to natural phenomena, social phenomena are very disorderly, thus bringing its complex nature. Social phenomena do not take any pattern or order but rather are non-repetitive and unique. This means that social phenomena are very unpredictable. The unpredictability of social phenomena is by the mere fact that controlled experiments in sociological research are almost impossible. This has been due to the inability to devise instruments of precision like those in physics and biology; thus, sociology has been rendered helpless.
The fact that social phenomena are factors means that they are naturally intangible. Therefore it is something that can only be observed; thus, its analysis can only be done through reasoning and not controlled experiments like in the natural phenomena—these complex social phenomena that are intangible include; marriages and world wars. For example, in marriage, it affects our way of life, but it’s something not physical, thus making it impossible to deduce implications like in the natural phenomena.
The instability of social phenomena also makes them more complex. From time immemorial, we have seen the rise and fall of empires.Other social institutions such as marriages have also collapsed in the past and have not ceased to up to date. This means that whenever an activity involving social phenomena, it is problematic and precarious in nature and hence the instability. There, however, are similarities because even in natural phenomena, there has been the rise and also fading away of coastlines.
In conclusion, the indeterminate nature of social phenomena is due to its complexity characterized by its non-linearity, non-uniformity, unpredictability and high dimensionality. The discrete nature of the factors affecting human behaviours makes them hard to investigate narrowing it down to mere postulations through which one can predict the future. To have a system in the universe that is stable regardless of its nature, whether natural or social, has proved impossible because of the indeterminate nature of the energy systems comprising the world.
References
Barile, S., & Saviano, M. (2018). Complexity and sustainability in management: insights from a systems perspective. In Social dynamics in a systems perspective (pp. 39-63). Springer, Cham.
Marcon, M., Herrmann, A. P., Mocelin, R., Rambo, C. L., Koakoski, G., Abreu, M. S., … & Barcellos, L. J. (2016). Prevention of unpredictable chronic stress-related phenomena in zebrafish exposed to bromazepam, fluoxetine and nortriptyline. Psychopharmacology, 233(21-22), 3815-3824.
Cecconi, F. (Ed.). (2016). New Frontiers in the Study of Social Phenomena: Cognition, Complexity, Adaptation. Springer.