Abstract
There is an abundance of community-based research literature that incorporates complex system science concepts and techniques. However, currently there is a gap in how these concepts and techniques are being used, and, more broadly, how these two fields complement one another. The debate on how complex systems science meaningfully bolsters the deployment of community-based research has not yet reached consensus, therefore, we present a protocol for a new scoping review that will identify characteristics at the intersection of community-based research and complex systems science. This knowledge will enhance the understanding of how complex systems science, a quickly evolving field, is being utilized in community-based research and practice.
Highlights
Complex systems science (CSS) is a field focused on describing how elements with heterogeneous properties dynamically interact with each other and their environments to produce patterns of phenomenon over time
CSS is a diverse phenomenology comprised of concepts and analytical techniques that, relative to the field or fields it is deployed in, attempts to explore the rich variation of structure and behavior of actors at multiple scales with differing individual motivations and priorities (Hammond, 2009; Williams & Hummelbrunner, 2010)
Given these general properties’ utility in exploring the nature of complex systems, many fields have deployed this phenomenology in effort to explain intractable issues
Summary
Complex systems science (CSS) is a field focused on describing how elements with heterogeneous properties dynamically interact with each other and their environments to produce patterns of phenomenon over time. Given these general properties’ utility in exploring the nature of complex systems, many fields have deployed this phenomenology in effort to explain intractable issues One such field is community-based research (CBR). These researchers combined complex systems science concepts and analytical techniques with community-based participatory research methods to more effectively evaluate a program geared toward addressing a complex social issue like obesity While this example is in the field of public health, many examples can be found in other fields such as environmental science (Gaydos, Petrasova, Cobb, & Meentemeyer, 2019; Pagano, Pluchinotta, Pengal, Cokan, & Giordano, 2019), healthcare (Laycock, Bailie, Matthews, & Bailie, 2019), medicine (Cholewicki et al, 2019), and food systems (Ebhuoma, Simatele, Tantoh, & Donkor, 2019) among others. In this scoping review we ask, “how are researchers using CSS and CBR to construct and inform their research?”
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