New Forms of Collaboration Between the Social and Natural Sciences Could Become Necessary for Understanding Rapid Collective Transitions in Social Systems
Stefan Thurner
Abstract:Human societies are complex systems and as such have tipping points. They can rapidly transit from one mode of operation to another and thereby change the way they function as a whole. Such transitions appear as financial or economic crises, rapid swings in collective opinion, political regime shifts, or revolutions. In physics collective transitions are known as phase transitions; for example, water exists in states of liquid, ice, and vapor. A few variables determine which state is realized: temperature, pre… Show more
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