Language Choice in a Multilingual Society: A View from Complexity Science

Abstract

Complexity Science, which can be defined as the science which studies complex systems and emergent phenomena through the construction of computational models, has for decades proved to be useful in the understanding and description of quite diverse scientific phenomena, such as flocks of birds or fish, behaviour of the brain as a aggregate of neurons and traffic jams (Mitchell 2009). Those working in the social sciences, from Thomas Hobbes (17th c.) onwards (Ball 2004), have felt attracted to the shaping of a statistical view of social phenomena. Yet despite these early attempts, it is only recently that Complexity Science has begun to be used as a framework for the study of social phenomena. Indeed, its relevance is now sometimes said to be greater than any other scientific perspective, given that the boundaries between disciplines are fuzzier than ever (Ball 2012: VII “The major challenges of the twenty-first century are not ones that can be understood, let alone solved, from a particular academic perspective”).