Social Complexity

La ciutat ibèrica del Castellet de Banyoles: resultats de l'excavació del sector adjacent a les torres pentagonals (2008-2010)

by Rafel Jornet Niella

Asensio, D., Jornet, R., Miró. M. T., Sanmartí. J. (2011): Tribuna d'arqueologia 2009-2010, pp. 243-263.

El Castellet de Banyoles es troba situat en un punt estratègic de control del riu Ebre, al marge esquerre, des d'on es... more El Castellet de Banyoles es troba situat en un punt estratègic de control del riu Ebre, al marge esquerre, des d'on es domina l'anomenada Cubeta de Móra. En aquest punt es va establir un poblat ibèric d'unes 4,4 Ha i s'hi bastí un petit castell medieval. Els marges verticals sobre la vall del riu i els barrancs de Banyoles i de Molló fan que hi hagi un únic punt d'accés a aquesta península per l'est.
No és clar en quin moment es bastí el poblat ibèric. A partir dels materials ceràmics s’ha proposat una cronologia del segle IV aC, però podria haver existit ja al s.VI aC o abans. Es troba situat en el territori que els autors clàssics varen assignar a la tribu ibèrica dels ilercavons. El lloc respon a un enclavament de control de comerç entre la costa i l'interior a través del riu Ebre, on els colonitzadors grecs i fenicis navegaven a la recerca de cereals, fusta i metalls. L'arribada dels romans va portar a l'abandonament del poblat de manera sobtada a finals del s.III aC. Posteriorment hi hagué algun tipus d'ocupació durant el s.II aC, probablement residual.
Les recents excavacions realitzades pel MAC i la UB des del1998 en l’angle nord-oest del jaciment han posat de manifest l’existència d’una àmplia trama urbana, amb un desenvolupament arquitectònic molt complex, propi d’un nucli amb un inqüestionable caràcter urbà i unes estructures socioeconòmiques molt avançades. En les darreres campanyes s’ha incidit en l’estudi de la torre septentrional.

DOMINIO INKA, IDENTIDAD LOCAL Y COMPLEJIDAD SOCIAL EN LAS TIERRAS ALTAS DEL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA, NORTE GRANDE DE CHILE (1450-1541 d.C.)

by Carolina Aguero

Mauricio Uribe, Leonor Adán & Carolina Agüero

2002. In Identidad y Transformación en el Tahuantinsuyu y en los Andes Coloniales. Perspectivas Arqueológicas y Etnohistóricas (Primera parte), Peter Kaulicke, Gary Urton & Ian Farrington (Eds.), Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 6: 301-336, Lima, Perú

This paper presents our approach to the Tawantinsuyu expansionism at the highlands of Atacama Desert (Nothern Chile),... more This paper presents our approach to the Tawantinsuyu expansionism at the highlands of Atacama Desert (Nothern Chile), and we suggest an alternative view to the traditional idea of a weak or indirect Inka presence in the atacamenian territory. In this time, therefore, we show the evidences and arguments that seem best to represent the politics, economic and ethnic complexity development when the impire had contact with the populations from the chilean desert. Particullary, we study the case of San Pedro de Atacama, because it had been a point of reference to the archaeological understanding of groups that lived in its highlands, but yet it is very unknown the history from this moments. And, specially, because the study of convergence the “atacamenian” people and the incas in San Pedro, like in others parts of this space, we permit to appreciate best the elements that characterize this social complexity of the local development.

Sobre los orígenes de la civilización numida y su relación con la colonización fenicia

by Rafel Jornet Niella

VV.AA (2010) Mainake, XXXII (I), pp. 279-299

This paper describes the results of a research project on the economic and social processes that led to the rise of... more This paper describes the results of a research project on the economic and social processes that led to the rise of the Numidian kingdoms mentioned in the Greek and Latin sources. Several survey and excavation seasons at Althiburos (El Kef, Tunisia) have revealed the existence, at least from the 9th cent. B.C., of sedentary hamlet communities, as well as the existence of iron metallurgy from the 8th cent. B.C., maybe as an outcome of the first contacts with the Phoenician world. The available evidence for the 4th and later centuries indicates a full development of urban life, as well a close contact with Carthage and the existence of a well-developed institutional system.

El jaciment ibèric i medieval de Sifons de l'Horta (Sant Martí de Maldà, l'Urgell), l'evidència d'un probable nucli rural ilergeta (s.III a.n.e.)

by Rafel Jornet Niella

R. Jornet (2010) Urtx: revista cultural de l'Urgell, 24, pp. 92-100.

The preventative excavation carried out at Sifons de l’Horta (Sant Martí de Maldà, l’Urgell) has brought to light a... more The preventative excavation carried out at Sifons de l’Horta (Sant Martí de Maldà, l’Urgell) has brought to light a site with various levels from the medieval and Iberian epochs. The medieval phase is illustrated by a silo dating from the10th-12th centuries AD. On the other hand, the Iberian occupation consists of various strata, related to a rectangular trench, in which abundant pottery from the 3rd century BC was found. The discovery of this structure could be that of the fossilised remains of a vineyard, like those documented in other contemporary sites in Western Europe. Moreover, the location and particular aspects of Sifons corroborate the complexity of the occupation of the Ilergete territory in the full Iberian period even further.

Residències aristocràtiques al món ibèric septentrional. El cas del Castellet de Banyoles (Tivissa, Ribera d'Ebre, Tarragona)

by Rafel Jornet Niella

Álvarez, R., Asensio, D., Jornet, R., Miró, M.T., Sanmartí, J. (2008). La cámara de Toya y la arquitectura monumental ibérica, Varia, 7, pp. 87-102.

The excavation works carried out since 1998 in the Iberian site of Castellet de Banyoles have allowed the recognition... more The excavation works carried out since 1998 in the Iberian site of Castellet de Banyoles have allowed the recognition of the existence of an urban structure of certain complexity, characterized by the presence of a compartmental wall, perhaps inspired by Punic models; by the structural and size diversity of the domestic constructions –some of which must be considered as aristocratic residences– and by the existence of a singular building that can reasonably be interpreted like a sanctuary, perhaps of initiatic character and related to the cult to the ancestors. These data are correlated with documents of the same nature recovered from other Catalonian sites in recent dates.

Advances, problems and perspectives in the study of social inequality in Iberian Late Prehistory

by Leonardo García Sanjuán

Leadership style and the management of the effects of complexity_Abstract

by Dimitris Antoniadis

To be published as a Chapter in the Book: 'Chaos and Complexity Theory for Management: Nonlinear Dynamics' (Ed. S.Banerjee) - Summer 2012

Within any organisation be that a project or a company department a number of people / ‘systems’ come together to... more Within any organisation be that a project or a company department a number of people / ‘systems’ come together to perform tasks and deliver the expected outcome. In the process of performing those tasks a number of interconnections are generated that reinforce one another and result in behaviours that are very different to the norm and cause complexity. The author presents results from a wider research in construction which investigated the effect(s) of socio-organo complexity on project performance and particularly through the attribute of leadership style adopted. The results proved the nonlinearity between performance and complexity and lack of actions that will manage the effects of complexity. A framework was developed, validated and presented in this chapter, which, by using the characteristics of complexity, allows the measurement of the current level of actions and provides a set of additional actions that will enable management of complexity through the leadership style.


Keywords
Complexity, Management Style, Performance, Project Management.

Climate Change, Human Response, and the Origins of Urbanism at Timbuktu: Archaeological Investigations into the Prehistoric Urbanism of the Timbuktu Region on the Niger Bend, Mali, West Africa

by Douglas Park 

Douglas P. Park (2011). Ph.D. Thesis, Yale University, Dept. Anthropology
574 Pages

Visit: more Visit: http://www.saharanresearch.org/www.douglaspostpark.org/SARA_Initiative/SARA_Initiative.html

This research explores human response to climate change and asks how this interaction may have helped to form the large-scale prehistoric urbanism in the Timbuktu region. New understandings on the nature of prehistoric urbanism on the Niger Bend have been laid out by employing various theories and working models that deal with the social relationship with the changing climate and seasonal environment. The archaeological data used to address these theories and models were obtained over three seasons of research between 2008 and 2010. Field research involved intensive excavation and survey at the Iron Age tell complex of Tombouze (9 kilometers southeast of modern Timbuktu). Additionally, a wide ranging reconnaissance of the larger Timbuktu region and various forms of paleo-climate studies were also undertaken.

My findings suggest that the roles of changing climate regimes, a highly variable seasonal environment, and the unique ways local populations interacted with a difficult and marginal landscape, were all important in the formation of a dense and expansive prehistoric urban landscape. Incipient and small-scale semi-sedentary groups which came to the Timbuktu region at approximately 500 BC gave rise to a fully permanent yet highly flexible form of urbanism circa AD 650. Abandonment of the large urban centers and their hinterlands occurred at approximately AD 1000, soon before the foundation of historic Timbuktu by the Tuareg.

Investigation and analysis into the unique character of the prehistoric settlements of the Timbuktu region has produced a new hypothetical model of urbanism which may have application to the rest of the Niger Bend region. Known as the "Tombouze Model", this hypothetical construct suggests that urbanism fluctuates on a seasonal basis in accordance with the high and low flood seasons. During the high flood season, when dry land is limited, the prehistoric urban populations coalesced onto numerous large focus tells reaching probable dimensions of up to 100 hectares. During the low flood season, when land is plentiful but water scarce, the prehistoric populations radiated out into the hinterlands of the focus tells establishing temporary yet specialized seasonal camps in the floodplains while a much reduced permanently inhabited settlement core remained at the focus tells.

Critical Connections between Participatory Evaluation, Organizational Learning and Intentional Change in Pluralistic Organizations

by José Carlos Suárez-Herrera

Suárez-Herrera, J. C., Springett, J., & Kagan, C. (2009). Critical Connections between Participatory Evaluation, Organizational Learning and Intentional Change in Pluralistic Contexts. Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice, 15(3), 321-342.

The current debate around the emergence of participatory approaches in evaluation practice suggests that participatory... more The current debate around the emergence of participatory approaches in evaluation practice suggests that participatory evaluation may be considered an organizational learning praxis, one which facilitates the development of a holistic process of intentional change. Through critical reflection on how participatory evaluation has been conceptualized, this article offers an overview of some of the contextual challenges encountered when using participatory evaluation to enable the creation of learning environments.

Given the pluralistic nature of modern organizations and some contextual constraints, evaluators appear to have largely developed a more instrumental type of learning, which may, paradoxically, result in a significant source of resistance to intentional change. This article proposes a process of capacity building for evaluative research (CBER). This process offers a collaborative way of overcoming unforeseen resistance to intentional change by overcoming the challenges found in the relationship between participatory evaluation and organizational learning.

The article concludes by suggesting some epistemological and organizational issues that evaluators should take into account when enabling the implementation of a process of CBER in pluralistic organizations.

La publicidad como sistema complejo y su incidencia en una semiótica productiva

by Antonio Caro

Texto de la ponencia al VII Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Internacional de Estudios Semióticos (IASS), Dresde, octubre de 1999.

Places of importance and social communication: studying the Pre-Roman cairn field of Viirikallio in Laihia, Finland

by Jari-Matti Kuusela

co-authored with Samuel Vaneeckhout and Jari Okkonen, published in Estonian Journal of Archaeoloy 14 (1), 22-39

This paper studies the cairn field of Viirikallio in Laihia, Finland. Burial sites are extremely complex being infused... more This paper studies the cairn field of Viirikallio in Laihia, Finland. Burial sites are extremely complex being infused with ideological reflections of the society that built them. In the present paper this complex nature is viewed by combining GIS-technology with social theory of Erving Goffman and Pierre Bourdieu.  It is suggested that the cairn field functioned, among other things, as a site reflecting the control of important resources as well as ideological and social distinction and stratification within the society.

Masters of the burial grounds: elites, power and ritual during the middle Iron Age in Vähäkyrö

by Jari-Matti Kuusela

Published in Fennoscandia Archaeologica 26

In this article I argue that burials, from a social point of view, are dualistic entities that at the same time... more In this article I argue that burials, from a social point of view, are dualistic entities that at the same time reflect both the power structures and the ideology of the society and that these two aspects may often be contradictory. As complex entities it is important to approach the subject with the aid of social theory to avoid oversimplification of a complex issue. I focus on the social and power elites of the Middle Iron Age and interpret changes in burials in Vähäkyrö, Ostrobothnia, from the perspective of changing power structures. It is suggested that the Mi­gration Period in the area was characterised by ideological changes and power struggles that begun to be resolved during the Merovingian Period when power was centralised.

Keywords: Iron Age, power, ritual, elites, burials, Vähäkyrö, Ostrobothnia

1988 An Alternative View of Sedentary Period Hohokam Shell Ornament Production. American Antiquity 53(4):812-829.

by Deni Seymour

Language, complexity and narrative emergence: Lessons from Solution Focused practice

by Mark McKergow

Published as a chapter in Andrew Tait and Kurt Richardson (2011), Moving Forward with Complexity, Litchfield Park AZ: Emergent Publications, ISBN 978-0984216598

This paper examines the case for viewing conversations as emergent phenomena, and the practical consequences for... more This paper examines the case for viewing conversations as emergent phenomena, and the practical consequences for complexity practitioners and others engaged in ‘talking cures’.  Post-structural thinking from Wittgenstein onwards is connected to the school of Solution-Focused practice, which has made explicit use of these ideas in a practical, pragmatic and effective form of psychotherapy and coaching.  These fields can be connected by the idea of ‘narrative emergence’, which casts light on the ways in which new narratives are formed within apparently everyday conversations.   

Matters of State? Contextual Derivations of Cultural Complexity

by Michael Sugerman

Early Helladic III - Late Helladic I house architecture and social relations

by Corien Wiersma

Published in: K. Huijben, S.J.A.G. van de Liefvoort and T.J.S.M. van der Weyden (eds.), 2011. SOJA. Symposium Onderzoek Jonge Archeologen. Nijmegen - 19 maart 2010, pp. 65-71.

The EH III and MH periods are considered of little interest, and they are not as developed – architecturally and... more The EH III and MH periods are considered of little interest, and they are not as developed – architecturally and socially speaking - as the preceding EH II and LH periods. However, the EH III and MH provide enough data to explore issues such as social relations and the development towards more complex social relations, eventually resulting in social differentiation as reflected in LH I elite graves. Analysis of house architecture and house assemblages sheds more light on the expression and negotiation of these relations, as well as the relations between built space and burial space.

Primates, niche construction, and social complexity: The roles of social cooperation and altruism.

by Katherine C. MacKinnon

Co-authored with Agustín Fuentes. In: R. W. Sussman and R. C. Cloninger (eds): Origins of Altruism and Cooperation. 2011. New York: Springer Press (Developments in Primatology Series), pp. 121-143.

The explication of altruistic behavior in primates remains complex. Gregarious, socially complex primates are... more The explication of altruistic behavior in primates remains complex. Gregarious, socially complex primates are characterized by a diverse array of social behavior patterns with seemingly altruistic behavior being relatively commonplace. Human societies are a form of primate society but with much higher levels of social complexity and extremely high levels of cooperative and apparently altruistic behavior. It is likely that there are elements of primate (at least anthropoid) sociality that act as baseline for subsequent expansion and elaboration during human evolution. Can understanding patterns and contexts of primate social complexity and cooperation help us understand human altruism? In this chapter we have two primary objectives: to examine three non-human primate genera to show how social cooperation, social bonding, and niche construction can affect our understandings of altruism, and to illustrate where we think that such non-human primate information is a good model for humans, and where it is not.

Social networks in (slow) motion. A complexity perspective on network change in the context of educational reform.

by Nienke Moolenaar

This paper highlights the main elements of the research proposal for which I received a Rubicon grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). With this grant, I will be conducting a 2-year study at the University of California, San Diego. The study is aimed at exploring how changes in teachers' social networks support or constrain the implementation of educational reform.

Social networks change over time. In schools, social networks among teachers reflect a web of relationships through... more Social networks change over time. In schools, social networks among teachers reflect a web of relationships through which teachers exchange valuable resources, such as instructional materials, information, knowledge, and social support. Availability of these resources, or a lack thereof, can support or hinder both teachers’ instructional practice and student achievement, especially in times of educational reform (for instance, the implementation of a new reading curriculum). However, empirical knowledge on social network change during educational reform and its association with educational outcomes is limited.

Drawing on complexity theory, and using a mixed method longitudinal design, this study aims to understand how teachers’ social networks change during educational reform and how this network change enhances school improvement in terms of teachers’ instructional practice and student achievement. Understanding the dynamics of social networks in the context of educational reform promises valuable insights for educational theory and practice as these networks may be leveraged to better create, use, and diffuse resources in support of school improvement.

Intersectional prioritisation of projects

by Bojan Radej

Slovenian Evaluation Society, Working paper vol. 4, no. 1 (august 2011), 45 pp.

There is a need for rethinking the current economic (neoliberal) model of development which proved to be inefficient,... more There is a need for rethinking the current economic (neoliberal) model of development which proved to be inefficient, unbalanced and unsuccessful both on the global level and on regional levels. The vision of welfare progression, which is primarily focused on
economic and profit growth, harms the cohesion of societies, social welfare and environmental sustainability.
To counterbalance negative consequences of global unsustainability, a complementary model of regional development is proposed for the Slovenian region of Pomurje. The
model is based on social economy and its purpose is to activate marginalised and inactive local resources to contribute in meeting the unsatisfied needs of local communities.
Conventionally, social economy is defined as an overlap between economic and social motives. Here we abandon this dualistic definition in favour of a three-part (or pluralistic) definition, which perceives a social economy as an overlap between its economic, social and autonomist aspects. The new definition enables to develop a new approach to the evaluation of project alternatives. The approach is innovative in its
overlapping logic and in its mesoscopic (soft) perspective. The approach can be applied as a framework in prioritisation of complex and plurally constructed alternatives.
In our paper, this new approach is applied in the prioritisation of ten alternative project proposals on social economy in the Pomurje region. The most successful alternative is the one with the most overlapping impacts. The same approach to prioritisation can be applied in any other field of public policy-making. Our suggestion is that the implementation of the proposed mesoscopic approach could essentially contribute to
establishing a cooperative model of community governance and management (cogovernance).

Public management of social complexity

by Bojan Radej

Slovenian Evaluation Society, Working papers, vol. 4, no. 1 (august 2011).

Recognising that the society has become complex, means that the truth about social matters such as about... more Recognising that the society has become complex, means that the truth about social matters such as about identification of public interest or common good is not a single one, but there are a variety of well-founded and equally valid truths. The public management is complex. Therefore different truths do not share common denominator and so they must be regarded as incommensurable. This will result in modified approach to social (policy) research. As complex, social matter needs to be coped with (evaluated, organised, managed…) in the golden ratio of its intrinsic duality. Evaluation of a given complex social matter ought to be stretched between (a) the explanation of its primary meanings - which are constitutive for the matter under consideration, but only in an incommensurable and deeply dividing way and (a) the explanation of its secondary meanings that are the only ones that lead to a holistic view, but merely in contents that are not of primary importance to anyone. A new intersectional approach to social (policy) research arises from the perspective of social complexity.