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Complexity and Systemic Risk: Hilary Term Seminar Series 2010Author: Oxford University
Many of the systemic risks that we will need to address in the 21st century depend crucially on the often unanticipated consequences of interactions within and between different types of systems. The emerging, interdisciplinary field of complex systems provides a shared language as well as mathematical and computational models that can help us understand the challenges we face in this increasingly interconnected world. In this seminar series, leading researchers will explore the implications of a complex systems approach for systemic risks in ecosystems, financial systems, urban systems, and human societies. Language: en Genres: Education, Science, Social Sciences Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Cooperation, Norms and Conflict: Towards Simulating the Foundations of Society
Friday, 5 March, 2010
In order to understand social systems, it is essential to identify the circumstances under which individuals spontaneously start cooperating or developing shared behaviors, norms, and culture. In this connection, it is important to study the role of social mechanisms such as repeated interactions, group selection, network formation, costly punishment and group pressure, and how they allow us to transform social dilemmas into interactive situations that promote the social system. Furthermore, it is interesting to study the role that social inequality, the protection of private property, or the on-going globalization play for the resulting 'character' of a social system (cooperative or not). It is well-known that social cooperation can suddenly break down, giving rise to poverty or conflict. The decline of high cultures and the outbreak of civil wars or revolutions are well-known examples. The more surprising is that one can develop an integrated game-theoretical description of phenomena as different as the outbreak and breakdown of cooperation, the formation of norms or subcultures, and the occurrence of conflicts. Delivered by Professor Dirk Helbing, Professor of Sociology, in particular of Modeling and Simulation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland.
