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Understanding Social Systems Research

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Advances in Complex Societal, Environmental and Engineered Systems

Part of the book series: Nonlinear Systems and Complexity ((NSCH,volume 18))

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Abstract

Social complexity seems to be the number one critical success factor not only for project management or organisational development but for any attempt to govern the Anthropocene and bring about successful systemic change to meet climate change, poverty and political conflict to name but a few.

Social systems research seems to be unnecessarily underrated since it developed into a discipline which has more to offer than metaphors of swarm intelligence and self-organisation. On the contrary, constructivism facilitated the epistemological turn shifting from objectivity to functional adequacy as the central research criterion, and the digital transformation as well as gamification paved the path for a convincing new generation of systems analytics enlightening the political and cultural aspects of social complexity in an amazing fashion.

Systemic inquiry based on a praxeological understanding of action research opens new possibilities for social design impact evaluation and social innovation assessment. The next society needs to be systems savvy. Social systems research already shows how the next society could successfully meet its own social complexity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Systemic Excellence Group, Berlin, Germany

    Louis Klein

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  1. Louis Klein
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Correspondence to Louis Klein .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco

    Mohamed Nemiche

  2. ENSIAS College of Engineering, Mohamed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

    Mohammad Essaaidi

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Klein, L. (2017). Understanding Social Systems Research. In: Nemiche, M., Essaaidi, M. (eds) Advances in Complex Societal, Environmental and Engineered Systems. Nonlinear Systems and Complexity, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46164-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46164-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46163-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46164-9

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