How to Handle Societal Complexity

Abstract

In the intertwined and global world of today there are many complex societal problems such as climate change and the credit crisis, and there are local complex societal problems like traffic, energy problems and pollution. Policymakers handle these problems globally or locally depending on the scale of the problem. However, most policymakers are neither educated nor capable, and often unwilling to handle these problems in the most optimal way in order to reach sustainable changes. To improve this situation, policymakers should be aware of the complexity of the problem and learn how to handle complex societal problems. Therefore, they need a good scientific education at the academic level. When policymakers have not been trained during their academic education they should ask for scientific support on handling complex societal problems or attend special courses for learning how to handle societal complexity. A scientific methodology for handling complex societal problems has been developed in the field of Methodology of Societal Complexity: the methodology Compram (complex problem handling method) by DeTombe (1994-2011).Applying this methodology leads to more stable and sustainable changes in situations caused by complex societal problems.