Document Type
Book
Publication Date
January 2005
Abstract
Ambitiously identifying fresh issues in the study of complex systems, Peter J. Taylor, in a model of interdisciplinary exploration, makes these concerns accessible to scholars in the fields of ecology, environmental science, and science studies. Unruly Complexity explores concepts used to deal with complexity in three realms: ecology and socio-environmental change; the collective constitution of knowledge; and the interpretations of science as they influence subsequent research.
For each realm Taylor shows that unruly complexity-situations that lack definite boundaries, where what goes on "outside" continually restructures what is "inside," and where diverse processes come together to produce change-should not be suppressed by partitioning complexity into well-bounded systems that can be studied or managed from an outside vantage point. Using case studies from Australia, North America, and Africa, he encourages readers to be troubled by conventional boundaries-especially between science and the interpretation of science-and to reflect more self-consciously on the conceptual and practical choices researchers make.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Peter, "Unruly Complexity: Ecology, Interpretation, Engagement" (2005). Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publication Series. 2.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/curriculum_faculty_pubs/2
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Included in
Earth Sciences Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons
Comments
Attached is the pre-publication prologue to Unruly Complexity.
For the full publication, visit the University of Chicago Press or WorldCat.