TY - JOUR
T1 - The Policy Sciences
T2 - The Challenge of Complexity
AU - Hendrick, Rebecca M.
AU - Nachmias, David
PY - 1992/9
Y1 - 1992/9
N2 - This essay reviews some of the recent criticisms of positivist science. It interprets this criticism, more generally, as directed towards the complexity of social science phenomena and the difficulty of dealing with complexity epistemologically and methodologically. Rather than ignoring complexity, changing the subject matter or explaining it away, we argue that complexity may be acknowledged and studied systematically withn the context of post‐positivist approaches. The essay than proposes several strategies for conceptualizing and researching complexity (at a “meta‐level” from substantive policy research) that are based in systems theory.
AB - This essay reviews some of the recent criticisms of positivist science. It interprets this criticism, more generally, as directed towards the complexity of social science phenomena and the difficulty of dealing with complexity epistemologically and methodologically. Rather than ignoring complexity, changing the subject matter or explaining it away, we argue that complexity may be acknowledged and studied systematically withn the context of post‐positivist approaches. The essay than proposes several strategies for conceptualizing and researching complexity (at a “meta‐level” from substantive policy research) that are based in systems theory.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984076321&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1992.tb00475.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1992.tb00475.x
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AN - SCOPUS:84984076321
SN - 1541-132X
VL - 11
SP - 310
EP - 328
JO - Review of Policy Research
JF - Review of Policy Research
IS - 3-4
ER -