Networks as a novel tool for studying team ball sports as complex social systems

This paper describes and evaluates the novel utility of network methods for understanding human interpersonal interactions within social neurobiological systems such as sports teams. We show how collective system networks are supported by the sum of interpersonal interactions that emerge from the activity of system agents (such as players in a sports team). To test this idea we trialled the methodology in analyses of intra-team collective behaviours in the team sport of water polo. We observed that the number of interactions between team members resulted in varied intra-team coordination patterns of play, differentiating between successful and unsuccessful performance outcomes. Future research on small-world networks methodologies needs to formalize measures of node connections in analyses of collective behaviours in sports teams, to verify whether a high frequency of interactions is needed between players in order to achieve competitive performance outcomes.

From cognition to action : a psychological investigation of action regulation in complex and uncertain social systems

Cette thèse présente une revue des réflexions récentes et plus traditionnelles provenant de la théorie des systèmes, de la créativité en emploi, des théories d’organisation du travail et de la motivation afin de proposer une perspective psychologique de la régulation des actions des individus au sein d’environnements de travail complexes et incertains. Des composantes de la Théorie de la Régulation de l’Action (Frese & Zapf, 1994) ainsi que de la Théorie de l’Auto-Détermination (Deci & Ryan, 2000) sont mises en relation afin d’évaluer un modèle définissant certains schémas cognitifs clés associés aux tâches individuelles et collectives en emploi. Nous proposons que ces schémas cognitifs, organisés de manière hiérarchique, jouent un rôle central dans la régulation d’une action efficace au sein d’un système social adaptatif. Nos mesures de ces schémas cognitifs sont basées sur des échelles de mesure proposées dans le cadre des recherches sur l’ambiguïté de rôle (eg. Sawyer, 1992; Breaugh & Colihan, 1994) et sont mis en relation avec des mesures de satisfaction des besoins psychologiques (Van den Broeck, Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens & Lens, 2009) et du bien-être psychologique (Goldberg, 1972). Des données provenant de 153 employés à temps plein d’une compagnie de jeu vidéo ont été récoltées à travers deux temps de mesure. Les résultats révèlent que différents types de schémas cognitifs associés aux tâches individuelles et collectives sont liés à la satisfaction de différents types de besoin psychologiques et que ces derniers sont eux-mêmes liés au bien-être psychologique. Les résultats supportent également l’hypothèse d’une organisation hiérarchique des schémas cognitifs sur la base de leur niveau d’abstraction et de leur proximité avec l’exécution concrète de l’action. Ces résultats permettent de fournir une explication initiale au processus par lequel les différents types de schémas cognitifs développés en emplois et influencé par l’environnement de travail sont associés à l’attitude des employés et à leur bien-être psychologique. Les implications pratiques et théoriques pour la motivation, l’apprentissage, l’habilitation, le bien-être psychologique et l’organisation du travail dans les environnements de travail complexes et incertains sont discutés.

W3233 -- Networks and Complexity in Social Systems (Collective Dynamics Group ISERP -- Columbia University) Course Syllabus

The Networks and Complexity in Social Systems course commences with an overview of the nascent field of complex networks, dividing it into three related but distinct strands: Statistical description of large scale networks, viewed as static objects; the dynamic evolution of networks, where now the structure of the network is understood in terms of a growth process; and dynamical processes that take place on fixed networks; that is, "networked dynamical systems". (A fourth area of potential research ties all the previous three strands together under the rubric of co-evolution of networks and dynamics, but very little research has been done in this vein and so it is omitted.) The remainder of the course treats each of the three strands in greater detail, introducing technical knowledge as required, summarizing the research papers that have introduced the principal ideas, and pointing out directions for future development. With regard to networked dynamical systems, the course treats in detail the more specific topic of information propagation in networks, in part because this topic is of great relevance to social science, and in part because it has received the most attention in the literature to date.

WAIS Seminar:Modelling the Web: Examples of modelling language, network evolution and physical-social systems

Speaker(s): Prof. Steffen Staab Organiser: Dr Tim Chown Time: 23/05/2014 10:30-11:30 Location: B53/4025 Abstract The Web is constructed based on our experiences in a multitude of modalities: text, networks, images, physical locations are some examples. Understanding the Web requires from us that we can model these modalities as they appear on the Web. In this talk I will show some examples of how we model text, hyperlink networks and physical-social systems in order to improve our understanding and our use of the Web.

Self-organized sociopolitical interactions as the best way to achieve organized patterns in human social systems: going beyond the top-down control of classical political regimes

La monografía presenta la auto-organización sociopolítica como la mejor manera de lograr patrones organizados en los sistemas sociales humanos, dada su naturaleza compleja y la imposibilidad de las tareas computacionales de los regímenes políticos clásico, debido a que operan con control jerárquico, el cual ha demostrado no ser óptimo en la producción de orden en los sistemas sociales humanos. En la monografía se extrapola la teoría de la auto-organización en los sistemas biológicos a las dinámicas sociopolíticas humanas, buscando maneras óptimas de organizarlas, y se afirma que redes complejas anárquicas son la estructura emergente de la auto-organización sociopolítica.

The sociology of childhood as scientific communication - Observations from a social systems perspective

This article begins by identifying a close relationship between the image of children generated by several sociologists working within the new sociology of childhood perspective and the claims and ambitions of the proponents of children's autonomy rights. The image of the child as a competent, self-controlled human agent are then subjected to observation from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. The new sociology of childhood's constructivist approach is compared and contrasted with Niklas Luhmann's theory of 'operational constructivism'. The article applies tenets of Luhmann's theory, to the emergence of the new childhood sociologist's image of the child as a competent, self-controlled social agent, to the epistemological status of this image and, in particular, to claims that it derives from scientific endeavour. The article proceeds to identify two theoretical developments within sociology - sociology of identity and social agency - which have brought about fundamental changes in what may be considered 'sociological' and so 'scientific' and paved the way for sociological communications about what children,really are'. In conclusion, it argues that the merging of sociology with polemics, ideology, opinion and personal beliefs and, at the level of social systems, between science and politics represents in Luhmann's terms 'dedifferentiation'- a tendency he claims may have serious adverse consequences for modern society. This warning is applied to the scientific status of sociology - its claim to be able to produce 'facts' for society, upon which social systems, such as politics and law, may rely. Like the mass media, sociology may now be capable of producing only information, and not facts, about children.

Autopoiesis vs. social autopoiesis: critical evaluation and implications for understanding firms as autopoietic social systems

The main objective of this study is to revisit the fundamental postulations of autopoietic self-production wrapped within the autopoietic six-point key and to investigate whether or not firms as specific social systems can be treated as autopoietic unities. In order to do so firms have to be defined as simple and composite unities whereupon their boundaries have to be clearly identifiable. The test of social autopoiesis reveals that firms can be viewed as autopoietic social systems that exist in the communicative space with employees' firm-specific communicative sub-domains as their components. Furthermore, it is argued that the social reification of autopoiesis (autokoinopoiesis) in firms is quintessentially interconnected with physical autopoiesis of their employees (autophysiopoiesis). Discontiguous focus on productivity as firms' obvious physical implication may thus be upgraded by a very social nature of ideactivity, firms' only real survival force.

Steering without Circe : attending to reinforcing loops in social systems

Relating system dynamics to the broad systems movement, the key notion is that reinforcing loops deserve no less attention than balancing loops. Three specific propositions follow. First, since reinforcing loops arise in surprising places, investigations of complex systems must consider their possible existence and potential impact. Second, because the strength of reinforcing loops can be misinferred - we include an example from the field of servomechanisms - computer simulation can be essential. Be it project management, corporate growth or inventory oscillation, simulation helps to assess consequences of reinforcing loops and options for interventions. Third, in social systems the consequences of reinforcing loops are not inevitable. Examples concerning globalization illustrate how difficult it might be to challenge such assumptions. However, system dynamics and ideas from contemporary social theory help to show that even the most complex social systems are, in principle, subject to human influence. In conclusion, by employing these ideas, by attending to reinforcing as well as balancing loops, system dynamics work can improve the understanding of social systems and illuminate our choices when attempting to steer them.

Flexible and conservative features of social systems in tufted capuchin monkeys: comparing the socioecology of Sapajus libidinosus and Sapajus nigritus

Socioecological models assume that primates adapt their social behavior to ecological conditions, and predict that food availability and distribution, predation risk and risk of infanticide by males affect patterns of social organization, social structure and mating system of primates. However, adaptability and variation of social behavior may be constrained by conservative adaptations and by phylogenetic inertia. The comparative study of closely related species can help to identify the relative contribution of ecological and of genetic determinants to primate social systems. We compared ecological features and social behavior of two species of the genus Sapajus, S. nigritus in Carlos Botelho State Park, an area of Atlantic Forest in Sao Paulo state, and S. libidinosus in Fazenda Boa Vista, a semi-arid habitat in Piaui state, Brazil. S. libidinosus perceived higher predation risk and fed on clumped, high quality, and usurpable resources (fruits) all year round, whereas S. nigritus perceived lower predation risk and relied on evenly distributed, low-quality food sources (leaves) during periods of fruit shortage. As predicted by socioecology models, S. libidinosus females were philopatric and established linear and stable dominance hierarchies, coalitions, and grooming relationships. S. nigritus females competed less often, and could transfer between groups, which might explain the lack of coalitions and grooming bonds among them. Both populations presented similar group size and composition and the same polygynous mating system. The species differed from each other in accordance with differences in the characteristics of their main food sources, as predicted by socioecological models, suggesting that phylogenetic inertia does not constrain social relationships established among female Sapajus. The similarity in mating systems indicates that this element of the social system is not affected by ecological variables and thus, is a more conservative behavioral feature of the genus Sapajus. Am. J. Primatol. 74:315331, 2012. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neural Networks for Modelling of Large Social Systems. Approaches for Mentality, Anticipating and Multivaluedness Accounting

It is consider the new global models for society of neuronet type. The hierarchical structure of society and mentality of individual are considered. The way for incorporating in model anticipatory (prognostic) ability of individual is considered. Some implementations of approach for real task and further research problems are described. Multivaluedness of models and solutions is discussed. Sensory-motor systems analogy also is discussed. New problems for theory and applications of neural networks are described.

Novel investigation methods in Computational Social Dynamics and Complex Systems

In this thesis the evolution of the techno-social systems analysis methods will be reported, through the explanation of the various research experience directly faced. The first case presented is a research based on data mining of a dataset of words association named Human Brain Cloud: validation will be faced and, also through a non-trivial modeling, a better understanding of language properties will be presented. Then, a real complex system experiment will be introduced: the WideNoise experiment in the context of the EveryAware european project. The project and the experiment course will be illustrated and data analysis will be displayed. Then the Experimental Tribe platform for social computation will be introduced . It has been conceived to help researchers in the implementation of web experiments, and aims also to catalyze the cumulative growth of experimental methodologies and the standardization of tools cited above. In the last part, three other research experience which already took place on the Experimental Tribe platform will be discussed in detail, from the design of the experiment to the analysis of the results and, eventually, to the modeling of the systems involved. The experiments are: CityRace, about the measurement of human traffic-facing strategies; laPENSOcosì, aiming to unveil the political opinion structure; AirProbe, implemented again in the EveryAware project framework, which consisted in monitoring air quality opinion shift of a community informed about local air pollution. At the end, the evolution of the technosocial systems investigation methods shall emerge together with the opportunities and the threats offered by this new scientific path.

About Problems of Decision Making in Social and Economic Systems

The reasons of a restricted applicability of the models of decision making in social and economic systems. 3 basic principles of growth of their adequacy are proposed: "localization" of solutions, direct account of influencing of the individual on process of decision making ("subjectivity of objectivity") and reduction of influencing of the individual psychosomatic characteristics of the subject (" objectivity of subjectivity ") are offered. The principles are illustrated on mathematical models of decision making in ecologically- economic and social systems.