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Complexity and Relevance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

William E. Connolly
William E. Connolly*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
*
E-mail: Pluma@jhu.edu
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Abstract

If you examine the changing contexts in which the issue of ‘relevance’ has been posed in the profession, it becomes clear how earlier calls for relevance need to be reconfigured today. After reviewing arguments that show how explanatory/normative activity is intercoded, this essay explores how the accelerated pace of life, new densities of interdependence and a growing fragility of things supports the case for forging alliances between political science and recent developments in complexity theory in a number of allied fields.

Keywords

complexitycausalityfragilityagency

Information

Type
Debate
Information
European Political Science , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 2011, pp. 210 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 European Consortium for Political Research

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