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
• describe and discuss complexity as a scientific approach
• describe and discuss dualism as a philosophical perspective, and the problems with dualism in applied settings
• describe concepts from complexity science such as reductionism; emergence; critical mass; consilience, and the unity of science
• give examples of analyses of the same phenomenon at different levels of reduction
• describe and discuss differences in antagonistic and complementary professional approaches to the same phenomenon
• 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
• identify nodes and hubs, assessing the robustness and vulnerability of Networks
• identify category mistakes and discuss mentalism and evolutionary approaches
• cite sources and arrange a reference list according to the current standard from APA
• use a digital reference manager for citations and references in written assignments

In the BSCA specialisation, campus-based lectures and seminars are the main teaching methods. 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. In the BSII specialisation, the main teaching method is digital course sequences, and feedback on details of course content, and supervised discussion groups will be available during pre-determined time periods. Feedback on written assignments is used in both specialisations.

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

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

Individual home examination, 5 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

All

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.