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It argues that while complexity-based descriptions can meaningfully align composition with scientific approaches, scholars must also critique the neoliberal politics embedded in complexity discourse. The piece proposes critical analysis of analogical invention, emphasizing how social conditions shape knowledge creation and argument within complex systems.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/analogize-this-the-politics-of-scale-and-the-problem-of-substance-in-complexity-based-composition/599576/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/analogize-this-the-politics-of-scale-and-the-problem-of-substance-in-complexity-based-composition/599576.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"jayni","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What core debate does the article revisit in composition studies?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The article revisits how much composition studies can or should align with the natural sciences, particularly through the lens of complexity theory and ecology.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What argument does the author make about aligning composition with complexity science?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The author concludes that complexity-based descriptions of the writing act do align the discipline with the sciences, but only if scholars can also critique the neoliberal politics often tied to complexity discourse.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What project does the author propose for scholars and teachers of composition?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The author proposes a critical analysis of analogical invention, focusing on the social conditions underlying knowledge creation and argument in complex systems.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599576,1792211299,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859343,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","CF 25: “Analogize This!” by Noah R. Roderick Page 1 of 14  \nComposition Forum 25, Spring 2012 [http://compositionforum.com/issue/25/](http://compositionforum.com/issue/25/)  \nAnalogize This! The Politics of Scale and the Problem of Substance in Complexity-Based Composition  \n [[http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum](http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum)]  \nNoah R. Roderick  \nAbstract: In light of recent enthusiasm in composition studies (and in the social sciences more broadly) for complexity theory and ecology, this article revisits the debate over how much composition studies can or should align itself with the natural sciences. For many in the discipline, the science debate—which was ignited in the 1970s, both by the development of process theory and also by the popularity of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions—was put to rest with the anti-positivist sentiment of the 1980s. The author concludes, however, that complexity-based descriptions ofthe writing act do align the discipline with the sciences. But the author contends that while composition scholars need not reject an alignment with complexity science, they must also be able to critique the neoliberal politics which are often wrapped up in the discourse of complexity. To that end, the author proposes that scholars and teachers of composition take up a project of critical analysis of analogical invention, which addresses the social conditions that underlie the creation and argument of knowledge in a world of complex systems.  \nAny scan of the major rhetoric, composition, or literacy journals over the past ten years or so will show that complexity and ecology are rapidly becoming dominant metaphors in those fields. Given its position as a nexus between technology, communication studies, and the humanities, it is no surprise that many in composition studies, in particular, have eagerly taken up the banners of complexity science and ecocomposition. The epistemic and pedagogical possibilities of opening up scholarship and teaching in composition to complexity science and ecology studies are the subjects of countless dissertations, articles and books. Early overtures include Marilyn Cooper’s article,“The Ecology of Writing” and Margaret A. Syverson’s book, The Wealth of Reality: an Ecology of Composition, which took the crucial step of aligning the epistemology of complexity with the ethics of ecology. More recent works, such as Byron Hawk’sA Counter-History of Composition: Towards Methodologies of Complexity and Sidney Dobrin’s Postcomposition, continue to more fully develop the radical philosophical implications of appropriating the discourse of complexity science. Combining recent insights from the physical sciences with the post-humanist philosophies of, among others, Martin Heidegger, Gilles Deleuze, Mark C. Taylor, and Gregory Ulmer, these more recent arguments for complexity are examining the deep relationship between information technology, rhetoric, and the emergent properties of subjectivity, calling even for a post-subjective rhetoric.  \nIn this essay, I revisit the relationship between science and composition studies, claiming that the question of whether or not it belongs to the sciences or to the humanities was not settled with the decline of the internalist-cognitivist movement associated with 1970s process pedagogy, as Robert Connors argued. I claim that compositionists need to take seriously the potential of complexity science to describe the writing act, not because the past decade has yielded any positive knowledge about, for instance, the writer’s mind, but because the interface between the natural and social sciences has been radically altered. In other words, the interesting questions for when natural scientists and scholars in the humanities and social sciences talk are no longer so much about what the  \n[http://compositionforum.com/issue/25/scale-substance-complexity.php](http://composit","cbCaigkqPbF2Ff5F","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigkqPbF2Ff5F","pdf",69514,14,"English","# Introduction\n## Complexity and ecology in composition studies\n## Revisiting the science versus humanities debate\n## Complex systems as a framework for writing","[{\"question\":\"What core debate does the article revisit in composition studies?\",\"answer\":\"The article revisits how much composition studies can or should align with the natural sciences, particularly through the lens of complexity theory and ecology.\"},{\"question\":\"What argument does the author make about aligning composition with complexity science?\",\"answer\":\"The author concludes that complexity-based descriptions of the writing act do align the discipline with the sciences, but only if scholars can also critique the neoliberal politics often tied to complexity discourse.\"},{\"question\":\"What project does the author propose for scholars and teachers of composition?\",\"answer\":\"The author proposes a critical analysis of analogical invention, focusing on the social conditions underlying knowledge creation and argument in complex systems.\"}]","Analogize This! - The Politics of Scale and the Problem of Substance in Complexity-Based Composition | PDF",1792089044,35]