Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Coordination in Scaling Actor Constellations

The Advantages of Small-World Networks

  • Chapter
Socionics

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3413))

Abstract

The emergence of order in systems with many actors or agents is an interesting problem for sociology as well as for computer science. Starting the from sociological theory of the dyadic “situation of double contingency”, our main focus is on large actor populations and their capability to produce order depending on different actors’ constellations. Based on the theory for dyadic actor constellations we present our model of the actor. We do not want the actors to identify one another, so we do not need to modify this model if we scale up population size next and introduce constellations. Thereby we take regular, random and small–world constellations into account. After describing our measures of order we study emergence of order in different constellations for varying population sizes. By means of simulation experiments we show that systems with small–worlds exhibit highest order on large populations which gently decreases on increasing population sizes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Schimank, U.: Handeln und Strukturen. Juventa, Weinheim (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Esser, H.: Soziologie. Spezielle Grundlagen. Band 3: Soziales Handeln. Campus, Frankfurt/Main, New York (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Hobbes, T.: Leviathan. In: Molesworth, W. (ed.) Collected EnglishWorks of Thomas Hobbes, vol. 3. Taylor and Francis Books Ltd, Aalen (1966) (first edn. 1651)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Smith, A.: The Wealth of Nations. Oxford Pniversity Press (1985) (first edn. 1904)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Durkheim, E.: De la division du travail social. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris (1968) (first edn. 1893)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Parsons, T.: The Structure of Social Action. Free Press, New York (1937)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Parsons, T.: The System of Modern Society. Englewood Cliffs (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Axelrod, R.: The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books, New York (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Simmel, G.: Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main (1992) (first edn. 1908)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Schimank, U.: Theorien gesellschaftlicher Differenzierung. Leske + Budrich, Opladen (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Parsons, T.: Social interaction. In: Sills, D.L. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 7, pp. 429–441. MacMillan, New York (1968)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Parsons, T.: The Social System. Free Press, New York (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Münch, R.: The American Creed in Sociological Theory: Exchange, Negotiated Order, Accommodated Individualism and Contingency. Sociological Theory 4, 41–60 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Luhmann, N.: Soziale Systeme. Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Schimank, U.: Gesellschaftliche Teilsysteme als Akteurfiktionen. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 4, 619–639 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Schimank, U.: Erwartungssicherheit und Zielverfolgung. Sozialität zwischen Prisoner’s Dilemma und Battle of the Sexes. Soziale Welt 2, 182–200 (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Leydesdorff, L.: “Structure” / “Action” Contingencies and the Model of Parallel Processing. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 23, 47–77 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Papendick, S., Wellner, J.: Symbolemergenz und Strukturdifferenzierung. In: Kron, T. (ed.): Luhmann modelliert. Sozionische Ansätze zur Simulation von Kommunikationssystemen. Leske + Budrich, Opladen, pp. 175–208 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Dittrich, P., Kron, T., Banzhaf, W.: On the Scalability of Social Order. Modeling the Problem of Double and Multi Contingency Following Luhmann. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 6 (2003), http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/6/1/3.html

  20. Kron, T., Dittrich, P.: Doppelte Kontingenz nach Luhmann – Ein Simulationsexperiment. In: Kron, T. (ed.): Luhmann modelliert. Ansätze zur Simulation von Kommunikationssystemen. Leske + Buderich, Opladen, Germany, pp. 209 – 251 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Lasarczyk, C.W.G., Kron, T.: Globale Kohärenz in sozialen Systemen. In: Burkhard, H.D., Uthmann, T., Lindemann, G. (eds.) Modellierung und Simulation menschlichen Verhaltens, Berlin. Informatik Berichte, vol. 163, pp. 77–91, Humboldt–Universität zu Berlin (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Shannon, C.E.: A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal 27, 379–423, 623–656 (1948)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Esser, H.: Soziologie. Allgemeine Grundlagen. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Esser, H.: Soziologie. Spezielle Grundlagen. Bd. 1: Situationslogik und Handeln. Campus, Frankfurt/Main, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Barabási, A.L.: Linked. Perseus Books Group, Cambridge (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Buchanan, M.: Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks. W. Norton & Co., New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Watts, D.J.: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. W.W. Norton & Company, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Newmann, M.E.J.: Models of the Small World. Journal of Statistical Physics 101, 819–841 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Milgram, S.: The Small–World Problem. Psychology Today 1, 60–67 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Granovetter, M.: The Strengh of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78, 1360–1380 (1973)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Watts, D.J., Strogatzith, S.H.: Collective Dynamics of ‘Small-World’ Networks. Nature 393, 440–442 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Watts, D.J.: Networks, Dynamics and The Small World Phenomenon. American Journal of Sociology 105, 493–527 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Watts, D.J.: Small-Worlds. The Dynamics of networks between Order and Randomness, Princeton University–Press, Princeton (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Amaral, L.A.N.: Classes of small-world networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 97, 11149–11152 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Erickson, B.: Social Networks: the Value of Variety. Contexts 2, 25–31 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Greshoff, R., Kneer, G.: Struktur und Ereignis in theorievergleichender Perspektive. Westdeutscher, Opladen (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Reckwitz, A.: Struktur. Zur sozialwissenschaftlichen Analyse von Regeln und Regelmäßigkeiten. Westdeutscher, Opladen (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Kron, T., Lasarczyk, C.W.G., Schimank, U.: Zur Bedeutung von Netzwerken für Kommunikationssysteme – Ergebnisse einer Simulationsstudie. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 32 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Mead, G.H.: Geist, Identität und Gesellschaft. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Merton, R.K.: The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action. American Sociological Review 6, 894–904 (1936)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Durkheim, E.: Über soziale Arbeitsteilung. Studie über die Organisation höherer Gesellschaften. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Kron, T.: Moralische Individualität. Leske + Budrich, Opladen (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Münch, R.: Dialektik der Kommunikationsgesellschaft. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/Main (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Giddens, A.: The Constitution of Society. Polity Press, Cambridge (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Lepperhoff, N.: Dreamscape: Simulation der Entstehung von Normen im Naturzustand mittels eines computerbasierten Modells des Rational-Choice-Ansatzes. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 29, 463–486 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Latora, V., Marchiori, M.: Economic small–world behavior in weighted networks. The European Physical Journal B 32, 249–263 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Steels, L.: The spontaneous self-organization of an adaptive language. In: Muggleton, S. (ed.) Machine Intelligence 15 Oxford University Press, Oxford (1996)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science, University of Dortmund,  

    Christian W. G. Lasarczyk

  2. Institute for Sociology, Open University of Hagen,  

    Thomas Kron

Authors
  1. Christian W. G. Lasarczyk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Kron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DFKI GmbH, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Klaus Fischer

  2. Department of Technology Assessment, Hamburg University of Technology, Schwarzenbergstrasse 95, 21071, Hamburg, Germany

    Michael Florian

  3. Department of Technology Assessment, Hamburg University of Technology, Schwarzenbergstr. 95, 21071, Hamburg, Germany

    Thomas Malsch

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Lasarczyk, C.W.G., Kron, T. (2005). Coordination in Scaling Actor Constellations. In: Fischer, K., Florian, M., Malsch, T. (eds) Socionics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3413. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11594116_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11594116_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-30707-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31613-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation