Sociology and Complexity Science Blog

A big thank you to curator Bowen Wu and the wider Return 02 team — Directors of Curatorial Affairs Ning Hu and Yaney Tang, Assistant Curators Ivy Wei and Jiahui Huang, and publication designer Sirui Zhang — for including my moving-image work Displaced Mem…

Over the last couple of years, I have been developing the idea of entanglement as part of a book I am currently writing, appropriately called Entanglement.

Much thanks to Dave Snowden and the Cynefin team for inviting me to be one of the Eagles at the Cynefin Exploratory, Balancing Human & AI Reasoning in a Complex World, held at Trinity College Dublin on 1–2 July.

I would like to thank Tomas Zapata, Cris Scotter, and their team in the Unit of Health Workforce and Health Services in the WHO Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) for the opportunity to engage colleagues from different countries for our two-day event:

Many thanks to Mike Lees, Vítor Vasconcelos, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), and the POLDER Center for the invitation to speak at today’s 'Unravelling Complexity session at the IAS Festival -- as part of the IAS's week of celebrations for its 10th…

On 12 May 2026 the DRMC hosted a Visual Methods and Media Panel, appropriately titled, 'How can scholars harness visual arts, media, and methods?'

People ask me why I love traveling to Japan, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands so much.

I would like to thank Anna Matheson and the rest of the team for the opportunity to deliver one of the keynotes at this year’s Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026— 24-25 February 2026, Wellington, New Zealand.

Brits love to walk.

Does AI prove the possibility of a personal God?

Undated photo of Jeffrey Epstein, right, speaking to academic and linguist Noam Chomsky.

Across countries and at the global level, the social fabric is fraying, and our standard explanations are missing the root of the problem.

I would like to thank the WHO and NHS for the opportunity to be part of this panel and to present on the value of the complexity sciences for healthcare workforce strengthening.

We’ve just published a new paper that advances our longer-running programme on inequality, entropy, and structure.

I would like to thank Patrik Nordin, Ville-Pekka Niskanen, and the rest of my colleagues/friends at Vaasa University, Finland for the chance to provide the Keynote for this year’s Hallinnon ja kuntatutkimuksen tiedepäivät HKTP 2025 Vaasassa (Administration

I would like to thank Patrik Nordin and colleagues at Vaasa University, Finland for the chance to run a pre-conference workshop, based on the Atlas of Social Complexity.

On 17 September 2025, I gave a public lecture at Nelson Mandela University, reflecting on three decades of experimentation in visual complexity — from early assemblages and the OneBigMob cartoon world to entangled portraitures and AI art.

On 17 September 2025 we held our second Social Complexity Retreat, this time at Nelson Mandela University – hosted through the Chair in Identities and Social Cohesion, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

Resilience Reframed: Notes from the JSPS–AMS Policy Workshop In October 2024, I joined a UK–Japan policy workshop hosted by JSPS and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.

On 22 August 2025 I gave a seminar on my art project, Entangled, for the ISCIA Seminar series, which is hosted through the Chair in Identities and Social Cohesion, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

QUICK OVERVIEW AND LINKS TO THE OTHER THEMES AND CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK We come, finally, to the last chapter of the Atlas, and with it, the initial series of blog posts covering the entire book.

QUICK OVERVIEW AND LINKS TO THE OTHER THEMES AND CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK The first major content theme in The Atlas of Social Complexity is Cognition, Emotion and Consciousness.

I am super excited to be part of the writing team for the Royal College of Physicians’ report, A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution.

On the 12th and 13th of June, the Durham Research Methods Centre (DRMC) held its first Social Complexity Retreat based on The Atlas of Social Complexity.

We would like to thank Péter Érdi for taking the time to conduct a two-part video interview with us about our new book, The Atlas of Social Complexity.

QUICK OVERVIEW AND LINKS TO THE OTHER THEMES AND CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK The first major content theme in The Atlas of Social Complexity is Cognition, Emotion and Consciousness.

I was recently interviewed by a Sciene Magazine and asked to respond to the following nine questions on the impact of air pollution on mental health and brain health, from early-life to later-life, including dementia.