Complexity Science and Public Administration: A Scoping Review

In the past two decades, interest in the concept of complexity science and its research has increased in public administration. Complexity science (CS) is the interdisciplinary investigation of, and attempt to explain and understand, complex systems. Public Administration (PA) as administrating complex systems in the public sector has been the focus of several studies. However, scoping reviews of CS research in PA have not been conducted to guide further research in this area. The purpose of this scoping review is to describe and analyze studies focusing on CS in PA to elicit an overall picture of the research in this field. A scoping review methodology guided by Arksey and O'Malley and Levac et al. was used. Studies were identified by conducting electronic searches on 5 Research Databases. Of 32 articles matched the inclusion criteria. CS is a topical research area that has been explored with different methods and outcomes, in different environments, and has mainly been perceived positively. Novel perspectives and more diverse methodological approaches paying attention to issues affecting the generalizability of the findings could expand our knowledge in this area.

In the last two decades, complexity theory has become more of a theory-in-use in PA although it remains some way from the mainstream or fully accepted. Despite, there is neither a comprehensive image of the functionality of CS nor its application in PA. However, there were some efforts to show the contribution of CS in PA and to enumerate useful key concepts of it in public management.
This study aims to describe and analyze studies focusing on CS in PA to elicit an overall picture of the research in this field. There is no review study in this scope of PA to conduct scholars in their way of researches.

The statistical population of the study is all articles were published in 6 scientific databases between 1999 and 2019.

Since past decades progress has been made by adopting useful complexity concepts not previously used or well understood in PA such as adaptation, self-organization, coevolution, emergence. Other scholars have pursued a path of comparing extant theories with complexity theory, for example, network governance and institutions, to show how complexity theory might work in concert with the better-established theory. A third path also appears to have merit and could work alongside both the former. It aims to identify implicit or explicit use of complexity concepts in extant theories and show how complexity theory concepts can provide some coherence across these theories at a metalevel. In this vein, complexity theory offers new insights into areas commonly focused on by PA scholars: the roles of actors, policy processes, and decisions. In addition to theoretical usage of CS studies, there are various efforts to provide some practical tools for extending the domain of CS scope in PA.
This scoping review was conducted to provide an estimation of the breadth and scope of available research literature and to gain main findings and foci of done studies to guide further researches in the scope of CS and PA and to increase our knowledge in this area.

A scoping review methodology guided by Arksey and O’Malley and Levac et al. was used. Scoping reviews can be undertaken to examine the extent, range, and nature of research activity by mapping all relevant research literature. Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework outlines a five-stage approach for conducting scoping reviews as 1. identifying the research question, 2. identifying relevant studies, 3. Study selection, 4. charting the data, and 5. collating, summarizing, and reporting the results.

In the range of 20 years of study selection, there are 32 articles with 5566 citations that matched with research criteria. Britain and the U.S have the main contribution in article publication by publishing 30 articles. Public Management Review is the main journal by publishing 9 articles. Most of the studies are conducting by a qualitative research design.
Mainstreams of studies’ foci are the proximity of methodology of studying PA and complexity’s phenomena, application of complexity theory in terms of a practical and theoretical tool for modeling PA issues, studying nature and reasons of complexity in the process of decision making, codification, execution, and assessment of policymaking in PA.

CS has been explored in different environments with different methods and outcomes, but it has been perceived mainly positively. Mainly the focus of the studies was on finding associations between CS and PA in a practical and theoretical term. The strongest empirical evidence was in linking the CS with network governance, self-organizing in the public sector, coevoluting between social complex systems and external actors, and adapting in different layers on governance system.
Methodologically, more attention should be paid to issues that strongly affect the generalizability of the findings. In this respect, also the systematic use of power analysis in estimating required sample sizes is justified depending on the sampling method. Moving forward to more sophisticated research designs such as to cause–effect estimation would provide knowledge for targeted development projects in areas that need improvement. Simultaneous use of different instruments would provide a deeper understanding of concepts in CS and how these concepts relate to each other. Different qualitative approaches, such as ethnography, critical theory, case studies, or authors network analysis would provide new, deeper knowledge of experiences related to CS and PA which could contribute to the development of new instruments to measure CS in PA.