Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > A critical discussion of complexity theory

Electronic data

  • Cairney_Geyer_Complexity_revised_1

    Accepted author manuscript, 438 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-SA: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

A critical discussion of complexity theory: how does 'complexity thinking' improve our understanding of politics and policymaking?

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Article number56
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/01/2017
<mark>Journal</mark>Complexity, Governance and Networks
Issue number2
Volume3
Number of pages11
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this article, we present a critical discussion of complexity theory. We ask: what does it really offer policy studies? We suggest that its stated advantages-- interdisciplinarity, theoretical novelty, and empirical advance--are generally exaggerated and based more on hope than experience. In that context, we identify a cautiously positive role for complexity theory, primarily as a way to bridge academic and policymaker discussions by identifying the role of pragmatic responses to complexity in policymaking.

Bibliographic note

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.