This book, which is better described as a monograph, but I shall use the term book for simplicity’s sake, adopts a pluridisciplinary approach drawing on fields such as linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, sociology and philosophy as well as mathematics and natural science in order to explore interaction with the help of complex systems theory.
It is divided into seven chapters: the first two chapters focus on explaining complex systems theory and applying it to the interaction supercomplex adaptive system. The theory is described and I show how it can be used not only in the traditional areas of mathematics, science and computing, but also in social sciences. Interaction will be defined and the current approaches to studying it will be discussed. Then a new idea, called the 4Es of interaction, will be introduced. The 4Es are Expression, Encounter, Education and Emotion. This concept offers a different way of thinking about interaction, which is in no way intended to limit interaction to an essentialist model, on the contrary, the 4Es are to be used in the most dynamic way to better grasp the supercomplexity of interaction.
The four subsequent chapters are each devoted to one of the 4Es: Expression, Encounter, Education and Emotion. Each one is described in a similar way focussing on their popular components, how they can be seen as a complex adaptive system and how they fit into the overall supercomplex adaptive system. My intention is to guide readers from the overarching interaction supercomplex adaptive system, to the four proposed complex adaptive systems, the 4Es, and then through some popular components with a discussion at each stage about how each of these layers includes characteristics of complex adaptive systems. At the end of each of these four chapters a clear example of how the system works in practice is given.
The final chapter is devoted to suggesting possibilities for teaching about supercomplexity in interaction. It takes a look at how complex systems theory is already being taught and mentions the challenges involved in this. In particular it requires learners to change their way of perceiving concepts, which can be quite difficult. Moreover, in order to have an impact on learners’ behaviour in interaction, teaching must have an impact on the affective level. For this to happen it is necessary to engage with learners’ emotions and in order to do this I propose the concept of heartfulness and adopting a heartful teaching approach. This is exemplified by a case study of my own attempts to put these concepts into practice. The initial results are encouraging but certainly require further testing and refinement on a larger and more in-depth scale, which is my intention.
It has been a complicated task for me to take my vision of interaction, which I can see very clearly and lucidly, and put it into words so that others can understand it in the same clear and lucid way. I admit that I have struggled with this and hope that readers will be indulgent enough to persevere at any times when I may have fallen short in this attempt.
Interaction can take place between animate beings and inanimate objects, such as computers, in various combinations, for instance human and animal, animal and animal, human and computer, computer and computer. For the purposes of this book, I shall focus on interaction involving at least one human interactant.
I have deliberately not gone too deep into certain discussions, for example when writing about reality in Chapter 2, the aim being to concentrate on the overarching view of interaction as a supercomplex adaptive system. Indeed, although each and every popular component and sub-component is an area of research in its own right, the intention here has been to avoid looking too closely at all the parts of the jigsaw in order to see the bigger picture. Nevertheless, the popular components have been discussed to a certain extent in order to help readers understand the sub-systems and for me to be able to explain and justify my reasons for including these components in them.
Readers, particularly those who are learning and teaching about interaction as a part of language and culture, may be surprised that many other components besides these two are included in the interaction supercomplex adaptive system. As you read about the 4Es of interaction, I hope you will come to appreciate the immensity of the system we are dealing with when we interact and that it goes beyond language and culture. Language and culture are often blamed as the reasons for misunderstandings between individuals and this has formed the basis for considerable research. Yet, again in my opinion and in my vision as presented in this book, language and culture are only parts, albeit important ones, as they all are, of the system and only parts of the reasons for misunderstandings or ineffective interaction. Discovering the 4Es should allow learners to reflect on language and culture as components of their interaction along with the many other ones forming the interaction supercomplex adaptive system. It will also allow them to consider which components are being most called on at given times and in given spaces. This is the way to effective interaction learning as put forward here.
It may also be surprising that I suggest not using some very well-known and traditional models for thinking about interaction. This suggestion is made with the utmost respect for the work of those who designed these models and should not be seen as a criticism of them per se, but rather as an attempt to offer an alternative approach that bypasses some of the pitfalls that the misuse of these models can lead to. This point is discussed in more detail in Chapter 8. As shall be seen, the alternative I suggest is by no means perfect, in that it requires time and a shift in perception to help learners truly grasp complex systems theory and its applications. Time is not something that in today’s classrooms is generally in abundant supply, which is perhaps why more digestible solutions to teaching about interaction have often been preferred. Rightly or wrongly, I have not taken classroom time concerns into consideration for developing my view of interaction and how it should be taught. Hopefully, educators and learners will see the benefits of investing the time needed in order to enjoy effective interaction.
The book is best read from beginning to end as each chapter builds on the previous one or ones. However, for those who prefer to skip to certain sections, each chapter has a similar structure and reiterates key points or directs readers to the relevant information contained in another chapter or section.
I hope my writing style will not offend any readers who may find it too familiar, I have found that my writing voice tends towards the collegial in an attempt, I think, to explain things as simply as possible and in an engaging way.
Finally, you are reading my attempt to interact with you about interaction; I appreciate your interest and hope it will provide food for thought.