Human-systems reference map¶
Sources are labeled by epistemic role so that memoir, normative argument, formal theory, empirical scholarship, and practitioner frameworks are not treated as interchangeable evidence.
Source criticism¶
A People's History of the United States: Howard Zinn
Counter-history / polemical synthesis | Wave 4 W125
Use: Triangulate a contested claim against primary sources and competing historians.
Caution: Do not treat as neutral consensus; disagreement is allowed and expected.
Access: Library / proprietary
Political concepts¶
The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought: David Miller et al. (eds.)
Reference work | Wave 4 W127
Use: Define authority, liberty, justice, equality, democracy, rights and legitimacy before using them.
Caution: Reference has plural traditions, not one unified doctrine.
Access: Library / proprietary
Race/objectives¶
How to Be an Antiracist: Ibram X. Kendi
Normative argument | Wave 4 W126
Use: Translate normative claims into explicit objective functions, mechanisms and empirical questions.
Caution: Normative premise ≠ empirical causal proof.
Access: Library / proprietary
Sociotechnical design¶
Design Justice: Sasha Costanza-Chock
Participatory design framework / scholarship | Wave 4 W126
Use: Ask who defines the problem, participates, benefits, bears harms and can appeal.
Caution: Pair participation claims with actual domain evidence.
Access: Full open text
Technology/race¶
Race After Technology: Ruha Benjamin
Critical sociotechnical analysis | Wave 4 W126 or track eval
Use: Look for mechanisms that reproduce hierarchy without explicit protected-class variables.
Caution: Pair with quantitative subgroup/causal analysis.
Access: Library / proprietary
Ranking/discrimination¶
Algorithms of Oppression: Safiya Umoja Noble
Critical case analysis | AI/Platform track + W126/W128
Use: Map ranking objective, labels, commercial incentives and exposure harms.
Caution: Historical cases should not be assumed unchanged in current systems.
Access: Library / proprietary
Political incentives¶
The Logic of Political Survival: Bueno de Mesquita, Smith, Siverson, Morrow
Formal political theory | Wave 4 W127
Use: Map selectorate/coalition incentives and public/private goods in deployment governance.
Caution: Strong model with boundary conditions, not a universal law.
Access: Library / proprietary
Commons¶
Governing the Commons: Elinor Ostrom
Empirical institutional theory | Wave 4 W127/W135
Use: Design governance for shared resources beyond state-vs-market binary.
Caution: Local conditions matter; avoid turning design principles into formulas.
Access: Library / proprietary
Exit/voice¶
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Albert O. Hirschman
Institutional model | Wave 4 W127/W135
Use: Design meaningful exit, complaint, appeal and repair channels.
Caution: Exit can be impossible or costly; map power and switching costs.
Access: Library / proprietary
Legibility¶
Seeing Like a State: James C. Scott
Comparative historical argument | W127/W130
Use: List what an optimization/model makes legible and what local knowledge it destroys.
Caution: Pair critique with cases where standardization is beneficial.
Access: Library / proprietary
Strategic interaction¶
The Strategy of Conflict: Thomas C. Schelling
Game theory / strategic theory | W127/W131
Use: Analyze commitment, bargaining, focal points, threats and coordination.
Caution: Formal strategic intuition needs empirical/institutional context.
Access: Library / proprietary
Collective action¶
The Logic of Collective Action: Mancur Olson
Political economy theory | W127/W135
Use: Predict free-riding and concentrated-vs-diffuse incentives.
Caution: Compare with Ostrom and real institutions.
Access: Library / proprietary
Attention/platforms¶
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now: Jaron Lanier
Polemical technology critique | Wave 4 W128
Use: Convert rhetoric into measurable attention/incentive hypotheses.
Caution: Effect sizes require empirical research beyond the book.
Access: Library / proprietary
Platform organization¶
Careless People: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Memoir / insider narrative | Wave 4 W128
Use: Separate witnessed event, interpretation, hearsay, incentives and corroboration.
Caution: Memoir is situated evidence, not total causal history.
Access: Library / proprietary
Violence/bystanders¶
The Roots of Evil: Ervin Staub
Social-psychological theory | Wave 4 W129
Use: Causal-map difficult conditions, identity, ideology, bystanders and escalating harm.
Caution: Pair with comparative history and newer empirical work.
Access: Library / proprietary
Prevention/reconciliation¶
Overcoming Evil: Ervin Staub
Applied social psychology | Wave 4 W129
Use: Turn prevention claims into intervention mechanisms and measurable outcomes.
Caution: Separate moral goal from intervention efficacy.
Access: Library / proprietary
Normalization of deviance¶
The Challenger Launch Decision: Diane Vaughan
Organizational sociology / case study | Wave 4 W129
Use: Model how normal routines can normalize anomalous risk without malicious actors.
Caution: Do not reduce every failure to 'normalization of deviance'.
Access: Library / proprietary
System safety¶
Engineering a Safer World: Nancy Leveson
Systems safety theory/practice | Wave 2 + W129/W133
Use: Model unsafe control, constraints, interaction and organization.
Caution: Open, technical anchor against simplistic root-cause narratives.
Access: Open access
Complex-system accidents¶
Normal Accidents: Charles Perrow
Sociological systems-risk theory | W129 / safety track
Use: Ask when tight coupling and interactive complexity make accident propagation hard to anticipate.
Caution: Compare with Leveson; not every complex system is doomed.
Access: Library / proprietary
Wicked problems¶
Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning: Horst Rittel, Melvin Webber
Planning theory | Wave 4 W130
Use: Identify contested formulations, no definitive stopping rule and one-shot consequences.
Caution: Do not use 'wicked' as excuse to abandon quantitative analysis.
Access: Legal public PDF
Communication¶
Nonviolent Communication: Marshall Rosenberg / CNVC
Practitioner framework | Wave 4 W131
Use: Separate observation, feeling/need and request; test whether it reduces avoidable escalation.
Caution: Useful practice framework, not settled universal psychology.
Access: Free framework page; book proprietary
Negotiation¶
Difficult Conversations: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
Negotiation / practitioner synthesis | Wave 4 W131
Use: Separate What Happened, Feelings and Identity conversations; move toward learning.
Caution: Not a substitute for structural power analysis.
Access: Library / proprietary
Team practice¶
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp
Practitioner framework | Wave 4 W131/W135
Use: Experiment with responsibility, curiosity and candid feedback in team retrospectives.
Caution: Require evidence of improved learning/accountability; do not treat as science.
Access: Free practitioner resources
Scientific change¶
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: Thomas Kuhn
History/philosophy of science | W125/W134
Use: Distinguish normal science, anomalies, paradigm language and retrospective narratives.
Caution: Do not use 'paradigm shift' as prestige language for every novelty.
Access: Library / proprietary
Forecasting/judgment¶
Superforecasting: Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner
Empirical/practitioner synthesis | Throughout; W132/W136
Use: Use explicit probabilities, decomposition, updating and scoring for uncertain forecasts.
Caution: Forecast accuracy is not equivalent to moral or causal judgment.
Access: Library / proprietary