Abstract

The collective behavior of highly complex systems is a remarkable emerging property. In social systems, the sense and meaning acquired by a certain phenomenon for a group of people could also be. In this paper we present the results of a social experiment that explores this through a network-based method for the construction of the meaning and collective interpretation of the crisis phenomenon. Our results suggest not only a clear dichotomy in the meaning of the phenomenon that manifests itself at a social level, but also a complex structure emerging from the interaction between different concept associated with it. At one extreme, the crisis is situated and interpreted as a dangerous conflict, at the other, the crisis is understood and interpreted as a transformation that translates into opportunities. The different meanings of the phenomenon seem to respond to some social attributes such as age and professional training.