Towards Complexity via Network Theory:New Epistemological Lessons

Abstract

This paper sur veys the reciprocal impacts between Social Network Analysis and the new paradigm of complexity and chaos theories, as well as the emergence of scale-free network research in the twenty-first centur y. This study is embedded in the context of a histor y of the most momentous events in network theor y and practice , from Euler to Barabási, used as a star ting point to interrogate some critical epistemological issues from the viewpoint of contemporar y social sciences.