The Complexity of Social Phenomena and the Construction of Indicators

For many years, indicators have been considered a niche topic in the literature. In recent decades, this issue has become central to the scientific debate and has been discussed in any conference or workshop on the measurement and analysis of socioeconomic phenomena. Indicators are not a specific and exclusive topic of the natural or social sciences, but are used and constructed everywhere, and their functions in contemporary societies are widespread (Maggino et al., 2021). To fully understand the importance of the concept of indicators in social sciences, their connection to the concepts of complex systems and measurement must be analysed and understood. Humanity has always had the need to know and understand reality and the phenomena defining it to achieve goals and satisfy needs and aspirations. Therefore, the need to generate knowledge is a defining feature in our lives. Consequently, the relationship between people and knowledge has always been a crucial topic in the reflection of scholars in every scientific discipline. Knowing reality refers to measuring reality. Measuring reality involves addressing complex systems and phenomena. Measuring complex phenomena involves dealing with indicators. In the following pages, we try to describe these concepts.