Resumen

ESPINA PRIETO², Mayra Paula. Complexity, Transdisciplinarity and Social Research Methodology. Utopìa y Praxis Latinoamericana [online]. 2007, vol.12, n.38, pp.29-43. ISSN 1315-5216.

The text deals with the links between the scientific ideal and the methodological conceptions in research. It argues how the ideal of simplification corresponds with disciplinary methodologies that fix and control reality to keep it in a positive state, identified from an external power; on the contrary, approaches oriented towards an understanding of Complexity correspond with transdisciplinary methodologies, inquire and act about reality from multicriteriality and in an effort to move it towards possible states thorugh self-organized change. It is a counterpoint between social research as an external control device or as an in ternal change agent.

Palabras clave : Simplification approach; complexification approach; social research methodologies; multicriteriality.