Contentious Politics as Complex Dynamical System: Turbulence and Emergence

• In Event: 20861 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: Interactions between Movement Actors and Institutional Players

Abstract

Why do sociopolitical processes appear, transform, and produce outcomes? We use theory to answer this question. Due to process complexity, diverse theories can find supporting evidence. To find out which theory was correct, I conducted lengthy (2.5 year) fieldwork in a rural prefecture in Japan on a case of political contention over environmental pollution. I found many to be partially correct. My (500) interviews focused on the power relations among organizational actors (such as government versus movement). Each theory (of 24) operates through a distinct mode of power (24) at the micro level. I coded the micro power relations in hundreds of dyads (two actor pairs) to find the relative proportion of 24 modes. This data showed that the mix of validated theories changed constantly over the (27 year) duration of the case.

Integrated Structurational Analysis (ISA) posits that a given theory centers on a core causal factor which operates through a specific micro mode of power. The 24 theory-factor-mode sets each assume two basic sociopolitical axioms. Axioms differ along two dimensions: tangibility (the medium of power transmission: material, social, cultural) and malleability (the flexibility of power relations: structural, interactive, agentic). These axiomatic dimensions encompass (at an abstract, categorical level) the enduring theoretical debates in the social sciences. In expanded form, the two dimensions define an analytical framework of 24 cells holding the different theory sets.

Published findings show the mixtures and weights of valid causal theories (just in their 6 tangibility aspects) at critical phases and for the causal flow of the entire case. The present paper analyzes the same for the complete 24 types of theories, plus examining their synergies and emergent factors, for phases, phase transitions, and the entire causal flow. I found that the concept of complex dynamical system best described the turbulent, emergent, multidimensional process.

Author

• Jeffrey Broadbent, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities