Understanding Change: Models, Methodologies and Metaphors

Front Matter....Pages i-xiv
Models, Methodologies, and Metaphors on the Move....Pages 1-33
Front Matter....Pages 35-35
Climate Change: Complexity, Chaos and Order....Pages 37-50
Chaos in Social Systems: Assessment and Relevance....Pages 51-58
Economics, Chaos and Environmental Complexity....Pages 59-63
Front Matter....Pages 65-65
The Topology of the Possible....Pages 67-84
Neutrality as a Paradigm of Change....Pages 85-88
Using Evolutionary Analogies in Social Science: Two Case Studies....Pages 89-95
Front Matter....Pages 97-97
The Grip of History and the Scope for Novelty: Some Results and Open Questions on Path Dependence in Economic Processes....Pages 99-128
Analyzing Path Dependence: Lessons from the Social Sciences....Pages 129-139
Path Dependence and Historical Contingency in Biology....Pages 140-157
Front Matter....Pages 159-159
The New Institutional Economics: Can It Deliver for Change and Development?....Pages 161-176
Institutions, Politics and Culture: A Case for ‘Old’ Institutionalism in the Study of Historical Change....Pages 177-186
Exporting Metaphors, Concepts and Methods from the Natural Sciences to the Social Sciences and vice versa....Pages 187-195
Front Matter....Pages 197-197
Multiple Modernities in the Framework of a Comparative Evolutionary Perspective....Pages 199-218
On Modernity and Wellbeing....Pages 219-221
Multiplicity in Non-Linear Systems....Pages 222-234
Front Matter....Pages 235-235
Historical-Institutionalism in Political Science and the Problem of Change....Pages 237-259
Social Science and History: How Predictable Is Political Behavior?....Pages 260-269
Reconstructing Change in Historical Systems: Are There Commonalties Between Evolutionary Biology and the Humanities?....Pages 270-284
History, Uncertainty, and Disciplinary Difference: Concluding Observations by a Social Scientist....Pages 285-302
Back Matter....Pages 303-314