Imagine a world where humans aren't the only meaningful actors. Where social phenomena emerge not just from human intentions but from the complex interplay of organisms, technologies, environments, and ideas. This isn't science fiction—it's the compelling vision of post-humanist social theory explored in John Smith and Chris Jenks' Qualitative Complexity: Ecology, Cognitive Processes and the Re-Emergence of Structures in Post-Humanist Social Theory.
As our world becomes increasingly defined by complex challenges like climate change, artificial intelligence, and global pandemics, traditional social theory centered solely on human agency appears increasingly inadequate. This article explores how Smith and Jenks make the case for a sophisticated theoretical framework that can account for the breathtaking complexity of today's more-than-human societies.
The Post-Humanist Revolution: A Copernican Shift in Social Theory
Copernican Revolution
Posthumanism displaces the human from the center of social analysis, just as Copernicus displaced Earth from the center of the universe4 .
Dual Shift
Convergence of posthumanism (rejecting humanist ideals) and post-anthropocentrism (rejecting human exceptionalism)4 .
Cultural Anxiety
Popular culture often depicts posthuman bodies as sites of fear, satirizing and demonizing the mechanical Other4 .
Posthumanism represents nothing less than a Copernican revolution in social thought4 . Just as Copernicus displaced Earth from the center of the universe, posthumanist theory displaces the human from the center of social analysis. This movement converges two critical shifts: posthumanism, which rejects the humanist ideal of 'Man' as the universal measure of all things, and post-anthropocentrism, which rejects species hierarchy and human exceptionalism4 .
In practice, this means recognizing what Smith and Jenks call the "re-emergence of structures"—the ways in which patterns and organizations arise from the bottom up through the interactions of multiple elements, both human and non-human. Their project is committed to understanding the polycentric and immanent assemblages that produce social phenomena4 .
Cultural anxiety about technological advancement often depicts posthuman bodies as sites of fear, a tension Smith and Jenks acknowledge4 . From dystopian YA novels to warnings about artificial intelligence, popular culture often satirizes and demonizes the mechanical Other as freakish and unnatural4 . Qualitative Complexity moves beyond these apocalyptic visions to explore the generative potential of posthuman frameworks.
Key Concepts: The Building Blocks of a New Social Theory
Qualitative vs Quantitative Complexity
Smith and Jenks draw a crucial distinction between quantitative and qualitative complexity. While quantitative complexity deals with measurable, computable systems, qualitative complexity addresses the emergent, unpredictable, and meaning-laden aspects of social and ecological systems. This distinction is vital for social theory, which must account for consciousness, meaning, and culture—phenomena that resist purely mathematical modeling8 .
Autopoiesis and Self-Organization
The book explores autopoiesis (self-creation) as developed by cognitive biologists Maturana and Varela1 . This concept explains how living systems continuously produce and maintain their own organization. Smith and Jenks extend this concept beyond biology to social systems, which also display self-organizing properties that cannot be reduced to individual human actions8 .
Emergentism and the Re-Emergence of Structure
Against postmodernism's tendency toward deconstruction and fragmentation, Smith and Jenks track the "re-emergence of structures" in social theory. These aren't the deterministic structures of classical sociology but complex, adaptive patterns that emerge from bottom-up interactions without central coordination. The book examines how these structures arise across different domains—from cognitive processes to ecological systems8 .
The Methodology: How to Study Qualitative Complexity
Qualitative Complexity presents its approach through an innovative methodological framework that the authors apply throughout the book. While not a laboratory experiment in the conventional sense, their analytical process represents a systematic investigation into social complexity.
Research Design and Procedure
Interdisciplinary Sourcing
The authors gather key concepts from complexity theory, fuzzy logic, systems theory, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and sociology8 . This creates a rich conceptual toolkit that transcends traditional academic boundaries.
Historical Analysis
They trace the development of these ideas from Descartes' conjecture through Kant's subject to contemporary complexity theory8 . This historical perspective helps explain why humanist assumptions have been so persistent in Western thought.
Conceptual Integration
Rather than simply applying natural scientific concepts to social phenomena, Smith and Jenks develop specifically social-theoretical applications of complexity principles. They adapt concepts like autopoiesis and emergence to explain the distinctive features of social systems8 .
Critical Application
The final phase involves using this integrated framework to critique both modernism's linear determinism and postmodernism's rejection of structure, while offering an alternative perspective that acknowledges both pattern and unpredictability in social life8 .
Analytical Framework
| Conceptual Source | Key Concepts | Application to Social Theory |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity Theory | Emergence, Self-organization, Nonlinearity | Explains how social patterns arise without central control |
| Cognitive Biology | Autopoiesis, Structural coupling | Models how social systems maintain identity while adapting |
| Fuzzy Logic | Qualitative gradations, Partial truths | Captures nuance in social categories and identities |
| Systems Theory | Interconnectedness, Feedback loops | Maps relationships across human and non-human elements |
| Evolutionary Biology | Adaptation, Co-evolution | Understands long-term social and ecological change |
Results and Analysis: The Theoretical Payoffs
Bridging Disciplines
The book successfully bridges the gap between natural scientific concepts of complexity and social theoretical concerns with meaning, power, and values8 .
Critique of Existing Frameworks
Reveals how both modernist determinism and postmodernist fragmentation fail to account for patterned yet unpredictable social systems8 .
Ethical & Political Tools
Provides frameworks for rethinking ethics and politics in a more-than-human world8 .
Smith and Jenks' interdisciplinary approach yields several significant insights that reshape our understanding of social theory:
The book successfully bridges the gap between natural scientific concepts of complexity and social theoretical concerns with meaning, power, and values. Rather than reducing social phenomena to biological or physical principles, they develop a framework that honors the distinctive aspects of human social life while recognizing our embeddedness in broader ecological and technological systems8 .
Their critique reveals how both modernist determinism and postmodernist fragmentation fail to account for the patterned yet unpredictable nature of social systems. Against modernity's linear expectations and postmodernity's celebration of randomness, Smith and Jenks offer a third way: qualitative complexity that acknowledges both structure and emergence8 .
Perhaps most importantly, the framework provides tools for rethinking ethics and politics in a more-than-human world. The final chapters explore an "ethics of pragmatism" and politics after the "complexity turn," suggesting new ways to approach responsibility and action in complex systems that include non-human actors8 .
Social Theoretical Frameworks Comparison
| Framework | View of Structure | Concept of Human Agency | Approach to Non-Human Elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modernist Humanism | Determinate, predictable | Autonomous, rational | Background or resources for human use |
| Postmodernism | Illusory, oppressive | Fragmented, discursive | Largely irrelevant to textual analysis |
| Posthuman Complexity | Emergent, adaptive | Relational, distributed | Active participants in social systems |
The Scientist's Toolkit: Key Conceptual Resources
Smith and Jenks draw from an diverse conceptual toolkit to build their framework. Here are some of the most important resources and their functions in their analysis:
| Conceptual Tool | Source Discipline | Function in Social Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Autopoiesis | Cognitive Biology | Models how social systems self-maintain |
| Emergence | Complexity Theory | Explains pattern formation without blueprints |
| Fuzzy Logic | Mathematics/Computer Science | Handles gradations in social categories |
| Nonlinear Dynamics | Physics/Mathematics | Accounts for disproportionate effects |
| Structural Coupling | Biology/Systems Theory | Describes system-environment adaptation |
| Pragmatist Ethics | Philosophy | Guides action in complex, uncertain contexts |
Conclusion: Why Qualitative Complexity Matters Today
Qualitative Complexity arrives at a crucial historical moment. As noted in the research, we are witnessing a convergence of empirical conditions that make posthumanist perspectives increasingly necessary: developments in technoscience, crises in the food system and public health, and the overwhelming evidence of human impact on global climate systems4 . These phenomena demonstrate the impossibility of separating nature from society and demand new theoretical frameworks.
Smith and Jenks make a compelling case that understanding our contemporary condition requires moving beyond humanist assumptions that place humans at the center of the social universe. Their project exemplifies what leading posthumanist scholar Rosi Braidotti describes as critical posthumanism's dual commitment: providing both critical and productive ways to study our "posthuman era" characterized by the Anthropocene, technological advancement, and persistent social inequities4 .
The book represents neither a wholesale rejection of humanism's ethical concerns nor an uncritical embrace of technological transformation. Instead, it offers something more valuable: a sophisticated set of conceptual tools for navigating a world where the human is no longer the only meaningful social actor. For anyone seeking to understand the complex interdependencies that characterize 21st-century social life, Qualitative Complexity provides an essential theoretical compass.
As we face increasingly complex global challenges—from climate change to artificial intelligence—the frameworks developed in this book may prove vital not just for understanding our world, but for shaping it in more ethical, sustainable, and intelligent ways.