Critical complexities: emergent networks and critical paradigms

The concepts of critical theory and complexity merit criticism. Growth of knowledge merits paradigmatic sacrifices. The erosion of orthodox establishments and an on-going re-structuring of research communities make the sciences of management susceptible to the influences of critical social scientists. A change of paradigms ceased to be a threatening emergency so vividly evoked by Kuhn. The new complex world of overlapping research networks is less hierarchic, more mobile, and not easily centralized. In boundary-less correlations all critical research paradigms are subjected to a networking and re-networking at all times. Postmodernist anarchism (¿anything goes¿) is presently giving rise to the theories of organisational learning. The latter express a methodological compromise with respect to the paradigms and a political compromise with respect to the governance structures. The underlying tensions motivate an ongoing search for a sustainable compromise between a critical thrust of research and a managerial need for governance, accountability and control.