Social Complexity, A Hidden World

Most of us would agree that our human social world is complex, but what does that mean? There is a rich literature and tradition around human social dynamics and also around complexity, but both are largely founded on Enlightenment thinking and are significantly influenced by positivistic or post-positivistic paradigms. Consequently, we consciously experience and explain our human world and particularly the organizations and institutions we work for and encounter as rational, logical and predictable. But offstage in the background a lot goes on that we are normally not conscious of and that significantly shapes what we do, how we do it, how we interrelate, and how we cooperate or not.

What this text sets out to do is to bring together fragments from various disciplines and connect them together into an explanation of what is hidden about our complex social world, which brings a new and different perspective to understanding what we do every day and why. The book is likely to be of interest to scholars who research and publish in the spheres of social and organizational studies.