scholarly journals Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Pinter-Wollman ◽  
Alan Penn ◽  
Guy Theraulaz ◽  
Stephen M. Fiore
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Collective Cognition ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Interdisciplinary Exchange ◽  
Communication And Coordination ◽  
Unifying Principles

Built structures, such as animal nests or buildings that humans occupy, serve two overarching purposes: shelter and a space where individuals interact. The former has dominated much of the discussion in the literature. But, as the study of collective behaviour expands, it is time to elucidate the role of the built environment in shaping collective outcomes. Collective behaviour in social animals emerges from interactions, and collective cognition in humans emerges from communication and coordination. These collective actions have vast economic implications in human societies and critical fitness consequences in animal systems. Despite the obvious influence of space on interactions, because spatial proximity is necessary for an interaction to occur, spatial constraints are rarely considered in studies of collective behaviour or collective cognition. An interdisciplinary exchange between behavioural ecologists, evolutionary biologists, cognitive scientists, social scientists, architects and engineers can facilitate a productive exchange of ideas, methods and theory that could lead us to uncover unifying principles and novel research approaches and questions in studies of animal and human collective behaviour. This article, along with those in this theme issue aims to formalize and catalyse this interdisciplinary exchange. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

scholarly journals Architecture, space and information in constructions built by humans and social insects: a conceptual review

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Ireland ◽  
Simon Garnier
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Informational Content ◽  
Spatial Constraints ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Interdisciplinary Exchange ◽  
Cross Fertilization

The similarities between the structures built by social insects and by humans have led to a convergence of interests between biologists and architects. This new, de facto interdisciplinary community of scholars needs a common terminology and theoretical framework in which to ground its work. In this conceptually oriented review paper, we review the terms ‘information’, ‘space’ and ‘architecture’ to provide definitions that span biology and architecture. A framework is proposed on which interdisciplinary exchange may be better served, with the view that this will aid better cross-fertilization between disciplines, working in the areas of collective behaviour and analysis of the structures and edifices constructed by non-humans; and to facilitate how this area of study may better contribute to the field of architecture. We then use these definitions to discuss the informational content of constructions built by organisms and the influence these have on behaviour, and vice versa. We review how spatial constraints inform and influence interaction between an organism and its environment, and examine the reciprocity of space and information on construction and the behaviour of humans and social insects. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

scholarly journals Can we identify general architectural principles that impact the collective behaviour of both human and animal systems?

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20180253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Penn ◽  
J. Scott Turner
Keyword(s):  
Niche Construction ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Architectural Principles ◽  
Animal Societies ◽  
Research Architecture

The search for general common principles that unify disciplines is a longstanding challenge for interdisciplinary research. Architecture has always been an interdisciplinary pursuit, combining engineering, art and culture. The rise of biomimetic architecture adds to the interdisciplinary span. We discuss the similarities and differences among human and animal societies in how architecture influences their collective behaviour. We argue that the emergence of a fully biomimetic architecture involves breaking down what we call ‘pernicious dualities’ that have permeated our discourse for decades, artificial divisions between species, between organism and environment, between genotype and phenotype, and in the case of architecture, the supposed duality between the built environment and its builders. We suggest that niche construction theory may serve as a starting point for unifying our thinking across disciplines, taxa and spatial scales. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

scholarly journals The architecture of network collective intelligence : correlations between social network structure, spatial layout and prestige outcomes in an office

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felichism Kabo
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Spatial Layout ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Level I ◽  
The Individual

A social network represents interactions and knowledge that transcend the intelligence of any of its individual members. In this study, I examine the correlations between this network collective intelligence , spatial layout, and prestige or status outcomes at the individual and team levels in an organization. I propose that spatially influenced social cognition shapes which individuals become members of prestigious teams in organizations, and the prestige perception of teams by others in the organization. Prestige is a pathway to social rank, influence and upward mobility for individuals in organizations. For groups, perceived prestige of work teams is related to how team members identify with the group and with their collaborative behaviours. Prestige enhances a team's survivability and its access to resources. At the individual level, I ran two-stage Heckman sample selection models to examine the correlation between social network position and the number of prestigious projects a person is a member of, contingent on the association between physical space and social ties and networks. At the team level, I used linear regressions to examine the relationship among network structure, spatial proximity and the perceived prestige or innovativeness of a project team. In line with my hypotheses, for individuals there is a significant correlation between physical space and social networks, and contingent on that, between social network positions and the number of prestigious projects that a person is a member of. Also in accordance with my hypotheses, for teams there is a significant correlation between network structure and spatial proximity, and perceived prestige. While cross-sectional, the study findings illustrate the importance of considering the spatial domain in examinations of how network collective intelligence is related to organizational outcomes at the individual and team levels. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

scholarly journals A Constitutional Framework for Private Governance

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Engel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Methodological Rigor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
The Face ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Law ◽  
Interdisciplinary Exchange

Lawyers are the engineers of the social sciences, and their doctors. Neither is good for reputation in interdisciplinary exchange. Social scientists often show contempt for a discipline that seems too close to reality to meet hard methodological standards, and too much concerned by pathologies that are beyond the reach of their methodological tools. As with many prejudices, there is a grain of truth in this one. But not all law is about making decisions and judgements in the face of a reality that is at best partly understood. The legal discipline has its own methodological standards. For the sake of internal clarity, it aims at parsimony. But modelling is not the legal path to methodological rigor. The legal equivalent boils down to one simple question: who asks whom for what? The law splits abstract problems into a series of cases. It reaches parsimony via the selection and sequence of cases. These hypothetical cases are like histological cuts through the social tissue. The legal discipline starts cutting at cases for which existing legal tools seem particularly wellsuited. If these cases are understood, the legal discipline then starts again with the more demanding ones. It is hoped that the sequence of cases leads to an understanding of situations that seemed inaccessible at the outset.

Diffusion, Development, and Democracy, 1800-1999

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Wejnert
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Diffusion Processes ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

While a trend of growth in democratization over the past two centuries has been generally observed, it is the remarkable growth in the democratization of the world over the past 30 years that has truly captured the imagination of social scientists, policymakers, and the general public alike. Two major sets of factors have dominated studies attempting to predict democratization. One set characterizes endogenous or internal features of countries, and may be referred to as socioeconomic development. The other set, less often tested, characterizes exogenous variables that influence democratization via forces at work globally and within the region in which a country resides; this set may be referred to as diffusion processes. This study provides the first systematic comparison of these two sets of variables. When assessed alone, development indicators are robust predictors of democracy, but their predictive power fades with the inclusion of diffusion variables. In particular, diffusion predictors of spatial proximity and networks are robust predictors of democratic growth in both the world and across all regions. The results demonstrate that regional patterns in democratization are evident, and hence world analyses are only the first approximation to understanding democratic growth. Finally, this study introduces an application of Multilevel Regression Models to studies on democratization. Such models fit observed data on world democratization better than the simple regression models used in most previous studies.

scholarly journals Multi-scale analysis and modelling of collective migration in biological systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1807) ◽  
pp. 20190377
Author(s):  
Andreas Deutsch ◽  
Peter Friedl ◽  
Luigi Preziosi ◽  
Guy Theraulaz
Keyword(s):  
Biological Systems ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Coherent Motion ◽  
Collective Cell Migration ◽  
Scale Analysis ◽  
Collective Migration ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Multi Scale Analysis

Collective migration has become a paradigm for emergent behaviour in systems of moving and interacting individual units resulting in coherent motion. In biology, these units are cells or organisms. Collective cell migration is important in embryonic development, where it underlies tissue and organ formation, as well as pathological processes, such as cancer invasion and metastasis. In animal groups, collective movements may enhance individuals' decisions and facilitate navigation through complex environments and access to food resources. Mathematical models can extract unifying principles behind the diverse manifestations of collective migration. In biology, with a few exceptions, collective migration typically occurs at a ‘mesoscopic scale’ where the number of units ranges from only a few dozen to a few thousands, in contrast to the large systems treated by statistical mechanics. Recent developments in multi-scale analysis have allowed linkage of mesoscopic to micro- and macroscopic scales, and for different biological systems. The articles in this theme issue on ‘Multi-scale analysis and modelling of collective migration’ compile a range of mathematical modelling ideas and multi-scale methods for the analysis of collective migration. These approaches (i) uncover new unifying organization principles of collective behaviour, (ii) shed light on the transition from single to collective migration, and (iii) allow us to define similarities and differences of collective behaviour in groups of cells and organisms. As a common theme, self-organized collective migration is the result of ecological and evolutionary constraints both at the cell and organismic levels. Thereby, the rules governing physiological collective behaviours also underlie pathological processes, albeit with different upstream inputs and consequences for the group. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multi-scale analysis and modelling of collective migration in biological systems’.

scholarly journals Collective movement in ecology: from emerging technologies to conservation and management

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1746) ◽  
pp. 20170004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. H. Westley ◽  
Andrew M. Berdahl ◽  
Colin J. Torney ◽  
Dora Biro
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Animal Movement ◽  
Movement Ecology ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Collective Movement ◽  
Sensing Technology

Recent advances in technology and quantitative methods have led to the emergence of a new field of study that stands to link insights of researchers from two closely related, but often disconnected disciplines: movement ecology and collective animal behaviour. To date, the field of movement ecology has focused on elucidating the internal and external drivers of animal movement and the influence of movement on broader ecological processes. Typically, tracking and/or remote sensing technology is employed to study individual animals in natural conditions. By contrast, the field of collective behaviour has quantified the significant role social interactions play in the decision-making of animals within groups and, to date, has predominantly relied on controlled laboratory-based studies and theoretical models owing to the constraints of studying interacting animals in the field. This themed issue is intended to formalize the burgeoning field of collective movement ecology which integrates research from both movement ecology and collective behaviour. In this introductory paper, we set the stage for the issue by briefly examining the approaches and current status of research in these areas. Next, we outline the structure of the theme issue and describe the obstacles collective movement researchers face, from data acquisition in the field to analysis and problems of scale, and highlight the key contributions of the assembled papers. We finish by presenting research that links individual and broad-scale ecological and evolutionary processes to collective movement, and finally relate these concepts to emerging challenges for the management and conservation of animals on the move in a world that is increasingly impacted by human activity. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Collective movement ecology’.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary career studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana N Khapova ◽  
Michael B Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Psychology ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Psychology And Economics ◽  
Interdisciplinary Inquiry

This is the opening article in a Human Relations special issue on ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary career studies’. After introducing a story of an ‘exceptional — but real’ career, we argue for an urgent shift toward greater interdisciplinary inquiry. We reflect on the story to describe differences in the way each of psychology, sociology, social psychology, and economics views the concept of career. We turn to explore what career researchers, representing each of the above social sciences, might not see on their own. In contrast, we highlight how social scientists can move toward a) appreciating the limitations of our separate approaches, b) introducing more appropriate research methods, c) maintaining a wider cross-disciplinary conversation, and d) better serving the client — the person — in our future research. We continue with a preview of the remaining five articles in this special issue, and propose that these can serve as stimuli for a wider conversation.

scholarly journals Predicting collective behaviour at the Hajj: place, space and the process of cooperation

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hani Alnabulsi ◽  
John Drury ◽  
Anne Templeton
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Crowd Density ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Holy Places

Around 2 million pilgrims attend the annual Hajj to Mecca and the holy places, which are subject to dense crowding. Both architecture and psychology can be part of disaster risk reduction in relation to crowding, since both can affect the nature of collective behaviour—particularly cooperation—among pilgrims. To date, collective behaviour at the Hajj has not been systematically investigated from a psychological perspective. We examined determinants of cooperation in the Grand Mosque and plaza during the pilgrimage. A questionnaire survey of 1194 pilgrims found that the Mosque was perceived by pilgrims as one of the most crowded ritual locations. Being in the plaza (compared with the Mosque) predicted the extent of cooperation, though crowd density did not. Shared social identity with the crowd explained more of the variance than both location and density. We examined some of the process underlying cooperation. The link between shared social identity and giving support to others was stronger in the plaza than in the Mosque, and suggests the role of place and space in modulating processes of cooperation in crowds. These findings have implications for disaster risk reduction and for applications such as computer simulations of crowds in pilgrimage locations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

Human Rights Policy: Basic Human Needs and Economic Implications for LDCs

1981 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco E. Thoumi
Keyword(s):  
Recent Past ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Human Needs ◽  
Per Capita

Economic development—defined by growth of GNP per capita—among the poor countries of the world during the last 25 years has been higher than in almost any other period in mankind's history. Although this growth might have not been as high as that expected by some policy makers, the 1950-1975 period shows an overall improvement over the recent past. In spite of this apparent surge in growth, many policy makers and social scientists have shown disappointment and dismay at some characteristics of the recent increases in GNP (Morawetz, 1977).

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