Driving Forces In Physical, Biological And Socio-economic Phenomena

This page intentionally left blank DRIVING FORCES IN PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC PHENOMENA A Network Science Investigation of Social Bonds and Interactions In recent years network science has become a dynamic and promising discipline; here it is extended to explore social and historical phenomena. While we experience social interactions every day, there is little quantitative knowledge on them. Instead, we are often tempted to resort to fanciful explanations to account for social trends. For example, it has been argued that the decrease in suicide rates in America in the 1990s should be attributed to greater consumption of anti-depressants. However, further examination revealed that US counties where suicides rates have fallen the most are those with a high proportion of Hispanic immigrants, who are known to have low suicide rates. More generally, exogenous and endogenous interactions are often the key to understanding social phenomena and unravelling historical mysteries. This book begins by explaining how it is possible to bridge the gap between physics and sociology by exploring how network theory can apply to both. It then examines the macro- and micro-interactions in societies. The chapters are largely self-contained, allowing readers to easily access and understand the sections of most interest to them. This multidisciplinary book will be fascinating to all physicists who have an interest in the human sciences, and it will provide an alternative perspective to graduate students and researchers in sociology and econophysics. Bertrand M. Roehner is a Professor at the Institute for Theoretical and High Energy Physics at the University of Paris, France. He has written several books on econophysics, including Patterns of Speculation (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Pattern and Repertoire in History (Harvard University Press, 2002). DRIVING FORCES IN PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC PHENOMENA A Network Science Investigation of Social Bonds and Interactions BERTRAND M. ROEHNER University of Paris CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521859103 © B. M. Roehner 2007 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2007 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-511-28526-4 ISBN-10 0-511-28674-0 eBook (NetLibrary) hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-85910-3 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-85910-