PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM: A VIEW FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE THEORY OF SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY

METOD ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 416-442
Author(s):  
Dmitriy Zhukov
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Punctuated Equilibrium ◽  
Computer Experiments ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Pink Noise ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Self Organized Criticality

Punctuated equilibrium is regarded as the state of natural and social systems manifested in occasional intense, quick bursts of activity. Within the framework of the theory of self-organized criticality (SOC), punctuated equilibrium can be formalized as pink noise. SOC theory, having been developed by the end of 1980s, was originally intended to explain natural science phenomena. However, soon after its presentation, it began to spread across the social and humanitarian field of knowledge. Critical state is one on the brink of a bifurcation point. It turns out that some systems can stay in a state of permanent choice for a fairly long time. The author presents the examples of punctuated equilibrium revealed in computer experiments with artificial societies, as well as through empirical observation (particularly, in the dynamics of voting patterns, internet activity, and protest movements in the past and present). The key concepts of SOC theory and tools for pink noise identification are laid out. The sandpile model has been given special attention. Certain papers have been analyzed in which SOC theory was applied to gain some political science knowledge. According to SOC, in certain cases, there is no need to search for some significant extraordinary factor to shed light on explosive social transformations (including revolutions and other bursts of social and political activity). Social transformations can be induced by quite ordinary - and thus undistinguished - properties of systems, micro-level pro- cesses, and local impulses. SOC theory, therefore, refocuses the attention of researchers from the search for direct causes of events to the identification of states of the subject that generates these events.

scholarly journals Self-Organized Criticality on Twitter: Phenomenological Theory and Empirical Investigation Based on Data Analysis Results

Complexity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Dmitriev ◽  
Victor Dmitriev ◽  
Stepan Balybin
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Critical State ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Phenomenological Theory ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Stochastic Sources ◽  
Adiabatic Mode

Recently, there has been an increasing number of empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that spread of avalanches of microposts on social networks, such as Twitter, is associated with some sociopolitical events. Typical examples of such events are political elections and protest movements. Inspired by this phenomenon, we built a phenomenological model that describes Twitter’s self-organization in a critical state. An external manifestation of this condition is the spread of avalanches of microposts on the network. The model is based on a fractional three-parameter self-organization scheme with stochastic sources. It is shown that the adiabatic mode of self-organization in a critical state is determined by the intensive coordinated action of a relatively small number of network users. To identify the critical states of the network and to verify the model, we have proposed a spectrum of three scaling indicators of the observed time series of microposts.

Criticality: How Changes Preserve Stability in Self-Organizing Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1613-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Accard
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
System Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Self Organizing

Self-organizing systems are social systems which are immanently and constantly recreated by agents. In a self-organizing system, agents make changes while preserving stability. If they do not preserve stability, they push the system toward chaos and cannot recreate it. How changes preserve stability is thus a fundamental issue. In current works, changes preserve stability because agents’ ability to make changes is limited by interaction rules and power. However, how agents diffuse the changes throughout the system while preserving its stability has not been addressed in these works. We have addressed this issue by borrowing from a complex system theory neglected thus far in organization theories: self-organized criticality theory. We suggest that self-organizing systems are in critical states: agents have equivalent ability to make changes, and none are able to foresee or control how their changes diffuse throughout the system. Changes, then, diffuse unpredictably – they may diffuse to small or large parts of the system or not at all, and it is this unpredictable diffusion that preserves stability in the system over time. We call our theoretical framework self-organiz ing criticality theory. It presents a new treatment of change and stability and improves the understanding of self-organizing.

scholarly journals RATING OF USERS INVOLVEMENT IN THE RADICAL GROUPS IN SOME SOCIAL NETWORKS

2019 ◽  
pp. 113-122
Author(s):  
N.S. Barabash ◽  
D.S. Zhukov
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Pink Noise ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
High Level ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
Source Of Information

This issue is an enclosure to the theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) for studying of the radical protest groups of people in some social networks. The SOC theory needs for the value of level of the users involvement in Facebook communities which support the protest moves in Hong Kong in 2019. There were studied about 35 Facebook pages. The period of studying 01.03 to 23.03.2019. This article claims that the communities with the high level of users involvement are based on self-organized criticality. This item also explains some SOC theory approaches according to which a method of pink noise identity is one of the SOC attribute. It is necessary to say that some protest communities work in SOC regime. In spite of the seeming polycentric of the protest network the connection of reflection comes to a few number of Facebook pages which are the source of information and intension of the protesters so they can become the event’s drivers.

scholarly journals Online Rebellion: Self-Organized Criticality of Contemporary Protest Movements

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402092335
Author(s):  
Dmitry Zhukov ◽  
Konstantin Kunavin ◽  
Sergey Lyamin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Mass Actions ◽  
Protest Activity

The theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) is applicable for explaining powerful surges of protest activity on social media. The objects of study were two protest clusters. The first was a set of Facebook groups that promoted the impeachment of the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The second was a set of groups on the social network Vkontakte that provided support for anti-government rallies in Armenia, referred to as Electric Yerevan. Numerous groups in the examined clusters were functioning in SOC mode during certain periods. Those clusters were able to generate information avalanches—seemingly spontaneous, powerful surges of creation, transmission, and reproduction of information. The facts are presented that supported the assumptions that SOC effects in social networks are associated with mass actions on the streets, including violence. The observations of SOC make it possible to reveal certain periods when the course of a sociopolitical system is least stable.

Industry Trends

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Houran ◽  
Rense Lange ◽  
Keith Kefgen
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Executive Coaching ◽  
Neural Nets ◽  
Noise Distribution ◽  
Pink Noise ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Traditional Organization ◽  
Career Moves ◽  
Industry Trends

We explored the idea that the timing of executives’ career moves was consistent with Bak’s notion of self-organized criticality. Consistent with predictions, time series analysis of job changes for 43 hospitality executives obeyed a power law and revealed a mixture of predictable and unpredictable patterns with a musical nature (pink noise distribution). The data showed better fit for traditional ‘organization men’ versus opportunistic ‘trailblazers.’ These differences in career patterns (rhythms) could be used to reliably distinguish between these two executive-types using neural nets. Potential implications for executive coaching and development are discussed.

scholarly journals APPLICATION OF THE THEORY OF SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY TO THE STUDY OF ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-131
Author(s):  
D.S. Zhukov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Time Series ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pink Noise ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Methodological Problems

The article is devoted to methodological problems associated with the application of the theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) to political processes. The author considers the dynamics of electoral preferences in the elections of US representatives in different states from 1958 to 2016. The purpose of the study is to verify whether the hypothesis of Japanese researchers I. Shimada and T. Koyama can be extended to the United States. The hypothesis is that the detection of pink noise (an attribute of SOC) in the time series of electoral activity can be a good indicator to identify the political and transformational potential of the society. The author shows that voters’ preferences changed in pink noise mode in some states. This gives reason to build assumptions about possible avalanche-like jumps in electoral behavior in the future.

scholarly journals ON MULTIOBJECTIVE EVOLUTION MODEL

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (09) ◽  
pp. 1189-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. AHMED ◽  
M. F. ELETTREBY
Keyword(s):  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Punctuated Equilibrium ◽  
Evolution Model ◽  
Equilibrium Behavior ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Robust Model ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Single Objective

Self-Organized Criticality (SOC) phenomena could have a significant effect on the dynamics of ecosystems. The Bak–Sneppen (BS) model is a simple and robust model of biological evolution that exhibits punctuated equilibrium behavior. Here, we will introduce random version of BS model. We also generalize the single objective BS model to a multiobjective one.

scholarly journals Self-Organized Criticality and Trend Analysis in Time Series of Blackouts for the China Power Grid

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Qun Yu ◽  
Na Cao ◽  
Qilin Liu ◽  
Yuqing Qu ◽  
Yumin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Trend Analysis ◽  
Power Grid ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Power Outage ◽  
Power Failure ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Time Correlations ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Self Organized Criticality

This paper proposes effective evidence on the correlation between trend and self-organized criticality (SOC) of the power outage sequence in China. Taking the data series of blackouts from 1981 to 2014 in the China power grid as the research object, the method of V/S is introduced into the analysis of the power system blackout sequence to demonstrate their prominent long-time correlations. It also verifies the probability distribution of load loss about blackout size in the China power grid has a tail feature, which shows that the time series of blackouts in the China power grid is consistent with SOC. Meanwhile, a kind of mathematical statistics analysis is presented to prove that there is a seasonal trend of blackouts, and the blackout frequency and blackout size have not decreased over time but have an upward trend in the China power grid, thereby indicating that blackout risk may be increasing with time. The last 34 years’ data samples of power failure accidents in the China power grid are used to test the proposed method, and the numerical results show that the proposed self-organized criticality and trend analysis method can pave the way for further exploration of the mechanism of power failure in the China power grid.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document