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Amerikanische Policy‐Forschung, Komplexität und die Krise des Regierens: Zur gesellschaftlichen Einbettung sozialwissenschaftlicher Begriffsbildung
Author(s) -
Leendertz Ariane
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
berichte zur wissenschaftsgeschichte
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1522-2365
pISSN - 0170-6233
DOI - 10.1002/bewi.201901879
Subject(s) - embeddedness , sociology , context (archaeology) , metaphor , social science , government (linguistics) , social theory , meaning (existential) , public policy , epistemology , political science , linguistics , law , philosophy , history , archaeology
The American Policy Sciences, Complexity and the Crisis of Government: On the Social Embeddedness of Concept Formation in the Social Sciences . By analyzing debates about social “complexity” in the American policy sciences and in intellectual discourse of the 1970s, this article draws attention to the social embeddedness of concept formation and theory building in the social sciences. In the 1970s, a new concept of social “complexity” emerged in the social sciences, when scholars transferred and adapted elements of complexity theory from mathematics, computer science, cybernetics, and general systems theory to refine social theory. The article analyzes the context and conditions in which this transfer occurred. It shows that the scholarly debates about social complexity were entwined with broader public‐political discourses, dealing in particular with the challenges of government and public policy in the advanced Western democracies. The discourse on complexity among social scientists had additional layers of meaning: even in academic discourse, “complexity” was also used as a buzzword and as a metaphor.