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Interdisciplinary Research |
In the past decades, interdisciplinary research has proved a fruitful source of inspiration and innovation. It counteracts the division of science into subfields by combining concepts from different areas and achieving progress by opening new points of view.
The natural sciences are rich with successful models of large generality that are potentially useful for sociology, politics, and economics. Even though mathematical concepts and statistics are frequently used in sociology, the application of the variety of concepts to social science has largely remained an untapped potential. For example, the analysis of processes and development of models in physics has a broad range of potential application, and is relevant for the study of complex systems, phase-transitions, networks, graphs, collective dynamics, emergent properties, equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes, just to mention a few.
The scientific revolution is unfinished. The stunning progress the natural sciences have experienced from the 16th century on has so far not extended to the social sciences. In the 21st century we have the knowledge and the computational power to finish the scientific revolution, and given the problems we are facing on a global scale the governance of our society can no longer be done in a trial and error process.
When developing models, may it be in physics, psychology or politics, it is especially important to understand the limits of these models and the range in which they can be applied. Simplification is appropriate and powerful in certain circumstances, but naively expecting such descriptions to work when extended beyond their range is a crucial source for failure.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 27 July 2008 )
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