MALK4000-401 Complexity, Science and Society Course description

Complexity is a term frequently used to describe relations in a society where formal and institutional boundaries decrease in importance. The complexity of the challenges we face today demands collaborative initiatives across levels of governments and administration, and across different sectors. The need for cooperation between traditional scientific disciplines is now acknowledged as a basic requirement for development of new knowledge.

It is inherent in complexity thinking that different but complementary perspectives are adopted to illuminate and analyze problems requiring solution. Graduates of the master program can work and lead independently of discipline, professional turf, sector or level of administration. The students’ varied background education and work experience shall create and sustain a culture based on respect for different perspectives, the ability to change perspective if and when required, and of looking for optimal solutions by de-focusing differences and re-focusing on compatibility.

Admission to the study program

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge and skills:

Knowledge

The student

• can describe and discuss societal influences that support a complexity perspective
• can describe and discuss complexity as a scientific approach
• can describe and discuss dualism as a philosophical perspective, and the problems with dualism in applied settings
• can describe concepts from complexity science such as reductionism; emergence; critical mass; consilience, and the unity of science
• can give examples of analyses of the same phenomenon at different levels of reduction
• can describe and discuss differences in antagonistic and complementary professional approaches to the same phenomenon
• can describe and discuss the principle of selection at different levels of complexity

Skills

The student

• can analyze networks as the structure of complex adaptive systems
• can identify nodes and hubs, assessing the robustness and vulnerability of Networks
• can identify category mistakes and discuss mentalism and evolutionary approaches
• can cite sources and arrange a reference list according to the current standard from APA
• can use EndNote for citations and references in written assignments

Teaching and learning methods include lectures, discussions, individual reports and seminars. Students read selected texts in advance for each day of class, and everyone is expected to participate in class through questions and through joining in discussion.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• 4 individual written assignments, each with maximum 6000 keystrokes.

Individual written examination with invigilation, 4 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English. 

None

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.