CSS Seminar
On Friday, October 13, Annetta Burger, CSS PhD Candidate, will speak on “Organizing Theories for Disaster Study in Computational Social Science.” Based on evolving understandings of the complex, interconnected characteristics of disasters and social adaptations we propose to organize disaster theories in the interdisciplinary context of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Within this context disasters can be understood to consist of three sets of interacting systems, the socio-ecological system, the system of collective, social behavior, and the individual actor’s cognitive system. Ongoing dynamic forces within each set periodically build to disrupt events and cause failures in the overall system. In this talk, we will explore the dominant theory and frameworks in disaster studies from the perspective of these sets, demonstrate how they explain disasters, and discuss how Computational Social Science methodologies can support theory-building. By identifying evolving understandings and research questions co-located in disaster theory and CAS we find that the CAS features of heterogeneity, flows, interacting subsystems, emergence from self-organization and bottom-up processes, and adaptation and learning are integral to disaster studies.
The talk will begin at 3:00 in the Center for Social Complexity Suite located on the 3rd floor of Research Hall, and be followed by a Q&A session along with light refreshments.
These sessions will be live-streamed on the newly created CSS program YouTube channel.
For announcements regarding these and future streams, please join the : CSS/CDS student and alumni Facebook group.
For a list of upcoming and previous seminars, please click here.