Towards a complex conception of progress

Abstract

For many decades, scholars working within the broad paradigm of complexity studies/theory have explored the nonlinear dynamics that contour physical and social systems. In doing so, radical theories that contest both Newtonian and neo-Darwinian understandings of reality have been posited, augmenting how we think about processes of change. But throughout these developments, the modern idea of progress has arguably remained insufficiently contested. This article seeks to show how the framework of complexity can offer conceptual resources for rethinking progress. Key characteristics of complexity are articulated and critically examined with the aim of pinpointing how they might contribute to a conception of progress that is worthy of the name yet divergent from its dominant ‘modern’ form.

Making Progress Work: A New Life for the Old Idea

“…It is vital that the critique and deconstruction of progress goes on, even if the effects that we seek from it remain elusive, but perhaps what demands even more attention are constructive attempts to engender alternatives by which I mean both alternatives to progress and alternative notions of progress. 85 Taking her cues from Cass Sunstein, Amy Bert sees the formulation of an incomplete theory of progress as the solution in the method of "incomplete theorizing of progress." 86 As has been pointed out earlier, the process of creation plays the singularly important role in human progress.…”