Is There a Physics of Society? - Agenda

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Is There a Physics of Society? January 10-12, 2008, Santa Fe NM

Organizers: Michelle Girvan (University of Maryland) and Aaron Clauset (Santa Fe Institute)

Agenda: Thursday Friday Saturday

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

7:00pm - 9:00pm Welcome reception (Hotel Santa Fe)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

8:30am Welcome, by Aaron Clauset

8:40 - 9:15 Introductory remarks by Geoffrey West (homepage)

Session One, led by Michael Fisher (homepage)

9:20 - 10:00 Mark Buchanan (abstract, slides, homepage)

Prospects for "social physics"

10:12 - 10:56 D. Eric Smith (abstract, slides, homepage)

Good social science as good physics?

11:03 - 11:17 Break

11:17 - 11:54 Rob Axtell (abstract, slides, homepage)

Interacting Particles vs. Interacting Agents: Where is the Cut-off?

12:05 - 12:45 Discussion

12:45 - 1:40 Lunch

1:40 A few comments by Aaron

Session Two, led by Matthew Salganik (homepage)

1:43 - 2:25 John M. Roberts Jr. (abstract, slides, homepage)

Examining the modern history of interaction between social science and physics

2:35 - 3:18 Lars-Erik Cederman (abstract, slides, homepage)

Toward a non-equilibrium approach to political violence

3:34 - 3:45 Break

3:45 - 4:29 Frank Schweitzer (abstract, slides, homepage)

Enhancing social interaction: preferences, similarities, and trust

4:37 - 5:15 Discussion

7:00pm Dinner (Coyote Cafe)

Friday, January 11, 2008

8:55am - 9:00 Introductory remarks by Michelle

Session Three, led by Cosma Shalizi (homepage)

9:00 - 9:44 Luis Bettencourt (abstract, slides, homepage)

Elements of a coarse-grained quantitative theory of Society: Physics perhaps, but like you’ve never seen it before

9:54 - 10:34 David Gibson (abstract, slides, homepage)

Events and Their Aftermath

10:50 - 11:00 Break

11:00 - 11:41 Matthew Salganik (abstract, slides, homepage)

The puzzling nature of success in cultural markets

12:00 - 12:43 Discussion

12:43 - 1:35 Lunch

Session Four, led by Luis Bettencourt (homepage)

1:35 - 2:20 Dirk Brockmann (abstract, slides, homepage)

New Perspectives on Global Human Traffic: Scaling Laws, Emergent Geographic Communities, Geocaching and Trackable Items

2:24 - 3:00 Michael Gastner (abstract, slides, homepage)

The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks

3:10 - 3:37 Break

3:37 - 4:19 Matthew O. Jackson (abstract, slides, homepage)

An Economic Model of Friendships: Understanding the Roles of Choice and Chance in Social Network Formation

4:31 - 5:10pm Discussion

Saturday, January 12, 2008

8:55am - 9:00 Introductory remarks by Aaron

Session Five, led by Rob Axtell (homepage)

9:00 - 9:41 Dirk Helbing (abstract, slides, homepage)

Modeling and Simulating Social Systems from the Bottom Up

9:52 - 10:32 Mark Handcock (abstract, slides, homepage)

A Longitudinal Model of Network Formation: Heider's theory of Balance vs Simmel's triadic formation

10:41 - 11:00 Break

11:01 - 11:42 Petter Holme (abstract, slides, homepage)

Simple models of teens, diplomats, religious cults and more

11:51 - 12:10 Session discussion

12:10 - 12:36 Discussion of persistent themes

12:36 - 1:37 Lunch

Session Six, led by Larry Bloom (homepage)

1:37 - 2:18 Cosma Shalizi (abstract, slides, homepage)

Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Econophysics?

2:28 - 3:10 Doyne Farmer (abstract, slides, homepage)

Structure and strategy in financial markets: What can we understand without making detailed models of human behavior?

3:20 - 3:34 Break

3:35 - 4:15 Carter Butts (abstract, slides, homepage)

Is There a Viable Social Physics? Yes, No, and In Part

4:25 - 5:00 More discussion of big themes, with Aaron

5:00pm Concluding remarks by Michelle