Editing Social complexity (section)

{{Short description|Conceptual framework}}
[[File:Clapham Junction - 49317028078.jpg|alt=The complex mass of train tracks through Clapham Junction, UK as an analogy of the complex society its infrastructure supports. |thumb|350x350px|'''Social complexity:''' The infrastructure of train tracks through the [[Clapham Junction railway station]], UK, is analogous to the complexity of the society served by the railroad.]]

In sociology, '''social complexity''' is a [[conceptual framework]] used in the [[analysis]] of society. In the sciences, contemporary definitions of [[complexity]] are found in [[systems theory]], wherein the [[phenomenon]] being studied has many parts and many possible arrangements of the parts; simultaneously, what is complex and what is simple are relative and change in time.<ref>Waldrop, M. Mitchell (1992.) ''Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos.'' New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.</ref>

Contemporary usage of the term ''complexity'' specifically refers to sociologic theories of society as a [[complex adaptive system]], however, social complexity and its [[emergence|emergent]] properties are recurring subjects throughout the historical development of [[social philosophy]] and the study of [[social change]].<ref name="CCS-MMT">Eve, Raymond, Sara Horsfall and Mary E. Lee (eds.) (1997). ''Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories.'' Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.</ref> 

Early [[sociological theory|theoreticians of sociology]], such as [[Ferdinand Tönnies]], [[Émile Durkheim]], and [[Max Weber]], [[Vilfredo Pareto]] and [[Georg Simmel]], examined the exponential growth and interrelatedness of social encounters and [[Social exchange theory|social exchanges]]. The emphases on the [[interconnectivity]] among social relationships, and the emergence of new properties within society, is found in the [[social theory]] produced in the [[subfields of sociology]].<ref name="AGid-79">Giddens, Anthony (1979). ''Central problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis.'' London: Macmillan.</ref> Social complexity is a basis for the connection of the phenomena reported in [[microsociology]] and [[macrosociology]], and thus provides an intellectual [[Middle range theory (sociology)|middle-range]] for sociologists to formulate and develop hypotheses.<ref>Freese, Lee (1980). "Formal Theorizing." ''Annual Review of Sociology'', 6: 187–212 (August 1980).</ref><ref>Cohen, B. P. (1989). ''Developing sociological knowledge: theory and method'' (2nd ed.). Chicago: Nelson–Hall.</ref> [[Research methods#Research methods|Methodologically]], social complexity is theory-neutral, and includes the phenomena studied in microsociology and the phenomena studied in macrosociology.<ref name="CCS-MMT" />