Handling Complex Societal Problems Research Articles

Lessons from the 'Dark' Side

Collaboration across disciplines and stakeholders is important in handling complex societal problems. Even if collaborating is acknowledged as contributing towards societal change and innovation, collaborators’ emotional experiences during development, consolidation and completion of a given project are underexplored. This article discusses emotional labour in three cross-sectoral collaborations using participatory observations and interviews. It analyses the potentials and pitfalls of focusing on emotional labour that foregrounds collaboration as a dynamic that changes with the development phases of a project trajectory. The study finds that rendering interpersonal dynamics visible may both be a way to gain authority and legitimization in the collaboration but can also be used as a strategy to marginalise others. On the other hand, maintaining the invisibility of emotional labour can also be an expression of power. The obscurity of these complex dynamics makes it difficult to navigate and propose what makes a good collaboration. The paper aims to contribute, from a practitioner-oriented and theoretical vantage point to a more reflexive and sustainable practice and nuanced understandings of collaborative practices in research and at an institutional level, particularly in the field of social change and innovation.

The COMPRAM Methodology and Complex Societal Problems-an Analysis of the Case of Children Born of War

The COMPRAM Methodology and Complex Societal Problems-an Analysis of the Case of Children Born of War During and after wars children are born where the father is a member of an occupation or peacekeeping force and the mother a local citizen. Securing the human rights of children born of war is often highly complex and involves researchers and practitioners from different disciplines. The Compram methodology on handling complex societal problems will be applied to analyse whether the methodology is suitable on this group of war-affected children. The Compram methodology is a multi disciplined, multi level, multi actor methodology based on the theory of societal complexity. The methodology gives guidelines to handle real life complex societal problems.

Editorial: Special issue on methodology of societal complexity

This is a special issue on the field of societal complexity. The field of societal complexity is an upcoming field combining the knowledge from alpha, beta and gamma sciences in reflecting on real-life problems. The main focus of this special issue is on methodology: how to handle real-life complex problems. The field societal complexity is established in 1994 by DeTombe. Since that time, on modest scale, international conferences are organized on this topic and small research groups are established all over the world. Scientists from the field of social sciences, methodology, psychology, sociology, economy, mathematics, operational research, philosophy, systems theory, chaos theory and from applied fields like transportation, agriculture, risk management, safety, flood and healthcare focus together on handling complex societal problems. Reflecting on real-life problems, scientists are confronted with the limitations of their own field. Real-life problems are not restricted to the academic definitions of knowledge. Fast progress in science will be found in combining the knowledge of different fields. Handling complex societal problems needs a multi-disciplinary approach. Handling societal problems in a multi-disciplinary way has become a must for our society. The challenge is to combine the knowledge of the social sciences, technological sciences and natural sciences in such a way that new knowledge and insights are created. The problems that the society is confronted with are difficult to handle. There is a growing gap between the complexity of these problems, the need for interdisciplinarity and the way the knowledge is organized. There is a need for better methods and tools, more knowledge and imagination. Complex societal problems are seldom completely defined, change during their development, and involve many actors, each with a different view on the problem, with different interests and with different ‘solutions’ in mind. These kinds of problems have a large impact on society and involve often large amounts of money. Each complex societal problem has knowledge, power and emotional elements. The claim of this field is that complex societal real-life problems should be handled in according to the theory, methods and tools of the field of societal complexity. More information about this field is available on: http://www.geocities.com/doriendetombe/ detomberesearchgroupsall.html.

Changing methodologies for research

AbstractThe methodology of the social sciences has developed in the 21st century to a sub-optimal state and in this way research programs for handling complex societal problems are frustrated. To manage this deadlock the author returns to the original aims of the social sciences. He shows that in the past, concepts and aims were developed that goes beyond this regression. Those original starting points are connected to modern ideas of advanced interdisciplinary research, such as practiced in action science, system dynamics and computer simulation. With this exploration a more advanced methodology for social change and organisational transformation is outlined.

Compram, a method for handling complex societal problems

The article starts with an introduction to complex societal problems, and the aspects and causes of such problems are described. The phases in the problem handling process are discussed. Then the main aspects of Compram method are discussed. The Compram method is developed to support handling complex societal problems. The method is developed by DeTombe (cf. DeTombe, D.J., 1994. Defining complex interdisciplinary societal problems, A theoretical study for constructing a co-operative problem analyzing method: the method COMPRAM. Thesis Publishers, Amsterdam). The method is based on the idea that societal problems must be handled cooperatively and must be guided by a facilitator. Knowledge, power and emotions are the basic elements in the problem handling process of these problems. Central in the problem handling process is the communication between members of the problem handling team via the seven-layer model. The Compram method is a prescriptive framework method to which all kind of sub-methods can be applied. A moment in the problem handling process is described in detail. The article ends with descriptions of some of the pitfalls of the problem handling process, and how to avoid them. The Compram method has been used as a theoretical basis for handling over 60 real life cases in the field of technical societal policy making and reorganization.

Introduction to the field of methodology for handling complex societal problems

The interdisciplinary demands for handling complex societal problems require a combination of knowledge coming from different disciplines. In order to establish this a new field of science is created.