Sociodynamics. A systematic approach to mathematical modelling in the social sciences (Q2707382)

This book presents in detail the method of socio-dynamics together with various models most of which have been set up and analysed in the nineties. The book consist of three parts. The first part considers general system structures and social systems in particular. The first section gives a short description of properties of such system and the second section introduces some considerations potentially leading to explanations of the stratification of reality into layers of subsystems. The third section relates the contributions of more recent interdisciplinary branches and sociodynamics, to the conceptual framework of general system theory. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe second part of the book contains six concrete models applying the modelling procedure of sociodynamics to problems of population dynamics, sociology, economics and regional sciences. The section of models designed according to the construction principles of sociodynamics begins with a model for the migration of interacting populations. The modeling of this sector of social phenomena is relatively easy, but also important. In the applications of the modelling concepts of sociodynamics to problems of sociology the personal variables describing the status, the attitude and the behaviour of persons in their different roles are in the foreground. However, the observed effects are in general not spatial as in population dynamics -- but concern different aspects of mental relations between people and corresponding structure of the society. One of the major problems of sociology, the formation and evolution of social groups, is considered from the formalised standpoint of a mathematical model. The next problem of political sociology, the behaviour of citizens in the vicinity of a phase-transition from a liberal to a totalitarian political system, or vice versa is also envisaged. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIn applications to economics, the question arises what sociodynamics can contribute to formalised theoretical economics and how it relates to the standard neoclassical formalism and more recent developments in economic theory namely evolutionary economics. The following two models, which are constructed according to socidynamic concepts, presents: model quality competition between high-tech firms and model of dynamics of conventional and fashion demand. Instead they will treaty the dynamics of concrete economics subsystems. Nevertheless both subsystems exhibit a nonlinear dynamics transgressing the standard neoclassical modelling. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEUrbanisation is one of the megatrends of the modern world and belongs to the most dramatic social evolutions of recent times. It is one of the central problems of regional science. Urban agglomerations establish the most complex systems created so far by mankind. The reason for this complexity is the existence of many material and abstract organisational structures which are strongly intertwined and interdependent. In view of this complexity it is inevitable to find a window of perception which restricts the scope and space-time-scale of events to be taken into account within the frame of a partial model. Considering the relation between the local and global level of urban structures, the author finds a window of perception for a model of urban dynamics interacting with population evaluation. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe third part of the book provides a self-contained presentation of the mathematical concepts and methods utilised in sociodynamics. Formalisms, which would include brain micro-equations in order to obtain social macrodynamics are not the appropriate starting point for a sufficiently concise formulation of sociodynamics. Instead, the elementary concepts at the bottom of the microlevel should contain probabilistic and deterministic ingredients as well in order to describe the socially relevant decisions and actions of individuals resulting from their rational and emotional dealing with their internal disposition and external conditions. So probabilistic transition rates were introduced that describe the changes of attitudes and actions of individuals in depend on trend parameters and macrovariables. These transition rates seem to meet all the requirements of elementary concepts for sociodynamics: they contain by definition probabilistic and deterministic ingredients; simultaneously they provide the connection between the micro and macro-level of the society. Describing the individual activities in dependence on the macrovariables of the society, the transition rates imply the top down interaction. On the other hand the aggregated co-operative effect of the individual changes of attitudes or actions induced by the transition rates leads to a change of the macrovariables, hence of the macrostate of the society; thus it provides the bottom-up interaction between micro to macro-level. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINETherefore a mathematical formalism is required which makes use of these transition rates in order to describe the global probabilistic evaluation of the society or its sectors on the macrolevel. This universal mathematical formalism for stochastic dynamic systems does indeed exist. In the centre of this formalism stands the master equations describing the evolution with time of the probability distribution over the variables of the stochastically moving members of an ensemble of systems. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIt is the intention of this book to demonstrate the universal capacity of this formalism for a broad spectrum of applications in the social sciences.