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Areas of interest

  • Engineering of Social Systems
  • Computer Modeling and Simulation
  • Evolutionary Thought
  • Philosophy of Engineering
  • Domains of application: Social systems, Latin American public sector (public management, public policy design), in particular security and justice administration and policy making.

Summary

My research area is the engineering of social systems. The term "engineering" denotes the operational design and redesign of complex artifacts (policies, rules, programs, plans, whole organizations, etc.) aimed at specific situations. In this sense, engineering is a design and task oriented activity, different from science since instead of searching for explanations of phenomena, it aims at transforming problematic situations through the design and creation of purpose-oriented, value-laden artifacts.

Engineering can deal with the most complex type of system: social systems (e.g. firms, organizations, public and private systems in general), that is, pluralistic arrangements of free, unpredictable, innovative decision-makers that, therefore can be addressed neither by law-like statements nor from induction from past data. I consider that the Humean problem of induction cannot be ignored in any knowledge inquiry that intends to transform non-uniform systems. Thus, I use Donald Campbell and Karl Popper's selection theory as a framework to design, redesign and transform social systems. Selection theory demarcates abstract, designing processes of fit through continuous combinations of Variation (random, blind, biased) and Selection (external, internal, artificial, natural). This selectionism can be instantiated in any domain, social systems in particular. I understand selection theory as a type of distinctive, anti-physicalist (Mayr's sense), naturalistic explanation that delivers a proper recognition of change and diversity---quintessential characteristics of social systems.

As a result, I use computer modeling and simulation as drivers of knowledge through series of Popperian blind conjectures and refutations. Social systems adapt and evolve through such selectionist trial-and-error processes that produce adaptive designs (policies, organizations, plans, etc.). Such evolutionary processes can be engineered for achieving specific goals. I call this designing process "engineering of social systems".


Lines of research

- The recognition of social systems as open, complex, evolving rule systems of inter-acting agents which brings the identification of the growth of knowledge with life-like processes. Selection Theory is elusive in current science. Few fields have been benefited from this type of theory since most of evolutionary conceptions in most of domains are still rooted in the influential instructionist view. Some examples of this position of "learning by instruction" are related to the dependance on observation (e.g. science by observation, induction, confirmation, etc.), and the misleading notion of adaptation as a process of correction to the changes of the environment. My goal is to develop selectionist meta-models for explaining and designing diverse social systems. "Metamodeling" refers to the elaboration of abstract metadesigns that feed back the level of "normal" science which should serve as platforms for the generation of theories, models, and methodologies. The final products should drive interventions (policies, redesign) in social systems. I am currently exploring this natural link with what is called Artificial Life. More specifically, a meta-model uses the language of dynamic graph theory and it should use bottom-up simulation approaches for addressing this concern. The ideas of evolutionary economics as proposed by Prof. Kurt Dopfer are central to this endeavour.

- The epistemic implications of selectionism for fields that aspire to transform social systems but that are rooted in instructional positions. I have explored some of the consequences of a selectionist revision to fields rooted in instructionism, e.g. regarding organizational cybernetics see a criticism in the paper entitled The End of Control. Likewise, my doctoral dissertation makes a revision of research methodologies, in particular in management science. Finally I am exploring (with David Salas) the implications for education, e.g. we presented our first results entitled as No More “Learning”: Selectionist Education for the Classroom at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. Furthermore, the implication of blind-variation as the key step for enhancing autonomy and increasing choices, brings connections with development, moral and ethics.

- The use of computer modeling and simulation to support both the generation of variation and the selection of knowledge conjectures (hypotheses, designs, solutions, etc.) in social systems. In the paper Heuristic-Based Management (I): Variation, blind variation of models is proposed as the management option to face complex environments. A particular and related field of interest for me is System Dynamics, including its relationships with the evolution of knowledge. Currently my research interests in this area have to do with the very underpinnings of System Dynamics---in particular methodological concerns; there is a summary in my contribution to the Encyclopedia of Complexity and System Science. This line of research interests also include the relation of SD with (and possible exclusion of) evolutionary thought, in particular selectionist thought.

- The previous point delineates ways for engineering social systems, that is, the design and redesign of social systems supported by computer modeling and simulation. Here a social system is understood as the result of the interconnected and continuous operations among actors (free decision makers that do not obey "discoverable" laws). Consequently, such engineering requires the intervention in the arrangement of inter-actions and operations of decision-makers, and with decision-makers. I apply these ideas in security and justice systems design, e.g.:
Environmental management is another example:

Further information

  • Regarding selection theory (what, how, what for), there is a wiki site (Spanish) focused on the master course "Evolutionary Theory and Application in Organizations".
  • In publications & talks there is a list of related works.
  • I belong to TESO research group at Universidad de los Andes.