Modern Empirical Social Early Warning: Social Forecasting Studies · Volume 2

Author: Yan Yaojun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The reason why humans can be considered the pinnacle of creation may lie in their innate talent for measurement. As early as ancient times, humans could use methods like "counting on knots" and "hourglass timing" to measure things, while monkeys still fail to understand the difference between "three in the morning and four in the evening" and "four in the morning and three in the evening." Looking back at the history of human measurement, the wisdom demonstrated in "Cao Chong Weighing the Elephant" and "Archimedes Calculating the Crown" is truly astonishing. Even today, humans can measure the speed of light. Clearly, human wisdom in measuring material phenomena has reached its peak. However, can humans measure non-material phenomena, especially complex non-material social phenomena? Such as the degree of sustainable development, the degree of modernization, the degree of social stability, and so on. It should be said that this remains a puzzle for social scientists to this day. This book explores the measurement of social stability through a series of theories and methods, academically belonging to an attempt to measure complex non-material social phenomena, and practically serving as an attempt at modern empirical social early warning.