036 – Understanding Complex Social Phenomena: More Theories of the Causes of Social Polarization

On this episode of the Argument Ninja podcast I talk about the difficulty of judging how much we really understand about the causes of complex social phenomena—even if we do lots of research and self-study. To help make the case I’m continuing my survey of different theories of the causes of the increase in social polarization that we’re currently experiencing. On this episode I look specifically at the work of two social scientists who have written extensively on this topic: Karen Stenner and Eric Kauffman.

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Podcast

034 – Understanding the Causes of Polarization (Part I): Depolarization Initiatives

On this episode of the Argument Ninja Podcast I’m starting a series of episodes that will explore different models of the causes of social and political polarization, and will introduce some general principles for thinking critically about complex social phenomena like polarization. In this episode (Part 1) I examine the models of polarization and social change that are implicit in the depolarization strategies of three different depolarizing initiatives: Better Angels, AllSides, and OpenMind.

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