British sociologists John Urry and his wife Sylvia Walby, are one of the founders of a transdisciplinary approach known as „complexity theory“. Complexity theory is a theory that unifies natural and social sciences to understand the properties of complex adaptive systems that are characterized by emergent properties that are irreducible to the sum of the systems’ parts. These properties are not evident on the level of elements that comprise the system, but only at the systemic level. Complexity theory studies the relationship between general theory and specific phenomena; the relationship between micro- and macro-levels of analysis; and theorizes the concept of a system. Complexity theory removes the barriers between the “natural” and “social” sciences. Complexity theory rejects reductionist explanations of natural and social phenomena and builds a dynamic and holistic approach, where structures and processes are inseparable. Scientists apply complexity theory to a wide number of areas of study:  chaos and catastrophe theory, the study of artificial life, the theory of small-world networks, business management, cyberspace, globalization, and global civil society. Walby applied complexity theory in her analysis of globalization.

Authors:  Walby. Byrne, David; Chesters, Graeme; Ian, Welsh; Cilliers, Paul; Kauffman, Stuart; Urry, John.

Books:

Byrne, David. Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences (1998);

Chesters, Graeme and Ian Welsh. Complexity and Social Movements: Protest at the Edge of Chaos (2004);

Cilliers, Paul. Complexity and Postmodernism (1998);

Kauffman, Stuart. At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Complexity (1993);

Urry, John. Global Complexity (2003);

Walby. Gendering the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives (2007);

     -     The Future of Feminism (2011);

     -     Crisis (2015).