Social Complexity Theory

Cannibal Ox

Its driving me crazy trying to figure out what it is, what parts of it are actually relevant (i.e, do I really need to know about the size of peoples neo-cortexs....) and what the questions could be like. Has anyone got any ideas what they could ask us?

ShaneU

do you definitely have to answer a question on this? can you not just do elias and habermas?

Cannibal Ox

Longish answer: There's a section A and a section B. One theory/theorist in Section A, two in Section B. Answer two questions, one from A, and one from B.

Short answer: If its Section A, then yes.

stardust_dublin

ive just been trying to learn what it is in general...havent been going over anything too specific. but if theres 3 questions then i suppose some of them will be specific...what about the topic of governance? that might be a question. i cant believe we werent even given sample questions! lets hope it just doesnt come up for section A

ShaneU

Just looked over my lecture notes and this entire subject makes no sense to me, it's all jargon.

FledNanders

im actually not dreading this one at all. Pure easy waffley question for sure, no theorists to learn or anything.

"society has become more complex because....." and away you go!

Way more worried about Habermas. Praying for Elias in sec A.

Chakar

Yeah I've learned Social Complexity Theory in general as well. I've also covered Habermas and Elias. Perhaps the question on Social Complexity could be a general one.

P.S. Answers.com is your friend.

Cannibal Ox

stardust_dublin wrote:

ve just been trying to learn what it is in general...havent been going over anything too specific. but if theres 3 questions then i suppose some of them will be specific...what about the topic of governance?

Governance is a good one, I'll try and get a bit of that in. I'm starting to cram in some of the stuff about increased information technology leading to increased networks which leads to...er...complexity? Not really sure if thats actually social complexity theory.

FledNanders wrote:

im actually not dreading this one at all. Pure easy waffley question for sure, no theorists to learn or anything.

Thats why I'd like some kind of past paper, or even a couple of sample questions just to know what kind of themes it covers. If its something like "what is Social Complexity theory" I think I could make a waffled attempt at it, but if it goes anyway in depth....I'm pretty screwed....

Chakar wrote:

P.S. Answers.com is your friend.

Its refusing to work for my browser, is it just the wiki article?

Chakar

Cannibal Ox wrote: »

Its refusing to work for my browser, is it just the wiki article?

That's all. It was helpful in encapsulating the concepts and cutting out the rubbish in the Habermas readings as well.

stardust_dublin

Cannibal Ox wrote: »

I'm starting to cram in some of the stuff about increased information technology leading to increased networks which leads to...er...complexity? Not really sure if thats actually social complexity theory.

yeah def talk about information technology, its leads to the complexity of society, apparently.. wow, i have learned something

Cannibal Ox

Chakar wrote:

cutting out the rubbish in the Habermas readings as well.

Glad you mentioned that, its cleared a couple of things up for me. Cheers.

stardust_dublin wrote:

wow, i have learned something

Good luck tomorrow.

FledNanders

so what did everyone think of the paper?
I thought section B was a bitch.

ShaneU

yeah section B was a complete bastard, they couldn't have picked more annoying questions, somehow I said that the French Court was a form of control (answered first question on section did better than i thought i would though, considering I only started studying last night

FledNanders

I studied the french court loads coz lecturer gave us a question on it in the lecture and basically said it would be on exam but instead he throws in 'winston parva' into the court question which I didnt have a ****ing clue about so couldnt answer the question! :mad:

Just made up some drivvle about social complexity in the end.

ShaneU

he had that winston parva bit in it last year also, i only studied the french court and communicative action so I had to squeeze the french court into one of the questions, screw it anyway.

Cannibal Ox

I did the Validity Claims/Univeral Pragmatics/Communicative Action question and the Winston Parva/French Court question. I'm not really sure if I was right with my Section B answer, I said that power created the dynamics in both situations but the outcome was different. Overall I'm happy enough, but I think I was a bit light on detail in both questions. Reckon I passed though, which is nice.

Also, was I imagining things, or were there four questions on Elias?

ShaneU

yeah there was.

stardust_dublin

did ye not go through the past exam papers? stokes asks the question on the french court & winston parva every year!

FledNanders

but it didn't come up in any reading i did at all so I presumed they had just covered it in previous years and we didn't

ShaneU

it was in a lecture

Chakar

In Section A. I did Question 2 on Validity Claims and how Habermas uses them in Universal Pragmatics/Communicative Action. I gave all the relevant information with the models of action and speech acts etc.

In Section B. I did Question 10 on Social Complexity. This was about governance crisis in modern society with entropficationin the control capacity of society etc.

Overall it was a good paper for me.

FledNanders

ShaneU wrote: »

it was in a lecture

you do remember the lectures being on at 9 ***A.M**** yes? Bed, far more attractive at that hour.

ShaneU

FledNanders wrote: »

you do remember the lectures being on at 9 ***A.M**** yes? Bed, far more attractive at that hour.

the notes are on the web.