Complexity, Ethics, Values and Policy

As is now commonly recognised, the world is becoming increasingly connected and complex. Just as policy and socio-political actors can no longer view the state, market and society as distinct and separate entities, we can no longer see the global as neatly divided between powerful and distinct nation-states. Global interaction via economics, the media and the internet overwhelm these earlier rigid barriers. But how do we understand this new world and, equally important, how do we act within. To try to answer that question we will explore complexity theory its applications to politics, policy and society. The module will begin with an introduction to the development of the earlier ‘orderly/Newtonian’ framework played in shaping 19th and 20th century social science and public policy. It will then go on to examine the paradigm shift in the natural sciences beyond the limits of that framework and towards a more complexity oriented paradigm. Following this the module will begin to explore how complexity has spilled over into the social sciences in the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. It will then explore how complexity overlaps with some of the main concepts from pragmatist philosophy and its implications for ethics and values