Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Collectivity, Complexity, Chaos, Control & Change

There's a tension in sociology between individual action and collective control. It is a basic question that anyone thinking about groups has to address. To what extent does the actions of others influence the lives of individuals?

The two extreme answers to this question is each person creates their own outcomes, singularly and by their own choices versus everyone is controlled by a system that is beyond their control whether that system is "big government," "big business," or some evil cartel that is controlling all of history. This is, of course, a false dichotomy. No amount of positive thinking is going to control the outcome of an individual's life 100%. We all have obstacles and limitations. AND the system is far from capable of creating the outcomes of all members of a group no matter how tight it tries to hold its grip.

I'm going to spend the next few entries in my blog examining five concepts that I think are pivotal in addressing this tension, this central question: collectivity, complexity, chaos, control and change.

Just to get us started, let us consider the definition of each of these words.

Collectivity

Involvement in an undertaking that is made by a number of people acting as a group; The people considered as a body or whole.


Complexity

A whole made up of interwoven, intricate parts; the characteristic of a structure that is interconnected and involved


Chaos

# A condition or place of great disorder or confusion; A disorderly mass; a jumble; The disordered state of unformed matter and infinite space supposed in some cosmogonic views to have existed before the ordered universe.


Control

To exercise authoritative or dominating influence over; direct: To adjust to a requirement; regulate; To hold in restraint; check; To reduce or prevent the spread of; To verify or regulate; To verify by using a duplicate for comparison.


Change

To become different or undergo alteration; To undergo transformation or transition; To go from one phase to another; To make an exchange; To transfer from one conveyance to another; To put on other clothing; To become deeper in tone:

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