Driving Forces in Physical, Biological and Socio-Economic Phenomena: A Network Science Investigation of Social Bonds and Interactions Book

Preface     xi
Bridging the gap between physics and the social sciences     1
Probing bonds     3
The Rutherford experiment     6
Boiling points as test-probes     10
Basic principles of the physics of mixing     12
Immiscible liquids     13
Physical properties of a mixture as a tool for exploring bonds     14
Estimating the correlation length in social phenomena     16
Outline of the book     23
Gauging the links between two twinned communities     24
The battle against noise in physics     26
Improving the signal to noise ratio in the pendulum experiment     29
Noise reduction in the detection of gravitational waves     31
Pattern matching: a simulation     32
The battle against noise in the social sciences     35
The extreme value technique     35
Pattern matching: knowing when and what to observe     38
Reducing noise by adding up several realizations     43
Confidence intervals and statistical significance     50
Upgrading statistical tests     54
Conclusion     60
Equilibrium and metastable states     62
Equilibrium restoring forces     63
Probing the strength of equilibrium restoring forces     66
Metastable states in physics and chemistry     71
Metastability, seeds and forms of post-revolution societies     75
Are the data reliable?     80
The replication process for the Foucault pendulum experiment     81
The replication process for cold nuclear fusion     84
Biased suicide statistics     85
Interactions between Japanese population and occupation forces     90
Conclusions and perspectives     99
Macro-interactions     101
Shaping the Zeitgeist     105
Marketing campaigns: shaping the response of consumers     106
Public relations campaigns: example of cell phones in cars     111
Shaping the Zeitgeist: the promotion of neoliberalism     115
Tangible effects of neoliberal policies     126
A network perspective     131
From Edward Bernays to Isaac Asimov     132
Bonds of vassalage     135
Role of the United States in the First Vietnam War     137
Ways and means     145
Identification of interference through the coincidence method     146
The absentee ownership syndrome     150
Land reform in Japan under General MacArthur     150
How the strength of interpersonal interactions conditions human behavior     151
Effects of absentee ownership in Ireland     155
Effect of segmentation on the effectiveness of a social system     156
Hardship as a side effect of absentee landlordism     158
The absentee landlord paradigm in history     160
Assessing interaction in settler colonies     161
Revolutions seen as a way to end absentee landlordism     165
Present-day manifestations of the absentee ownership syndrome     165
Micro-interactions: a network explanation of suicide     169
Effects of a male-female imbalance     173
Suicide rates of unmarried versus married people     174
Suicide rate in a population with a gender imbalance     176
Designing the experiment     178
Suicide rates as a function of sex ratio in groups of immigrants     182
Cross-sectional analysis     185
Male-female imbalance induced by war     186
Suicide rate in a population with a sex ratio r [not equal] 1     190
Effect of weakened marital bonds on suicide     192
Suicide rate of young widowers     192
Effect of falling marriage rates     195
Effect of a sudden upsurge in marriages     197
Connection between mean age of marriage and suicide rate     198
Longitudinal test     199
Cross-sectional analysis     201
Effect of social isolation on suicide     205
Effect of major historical events on suicide     205
Effect of social isolation on suicide     209
Effect of a rearrangement of social ties     214
Effect on suicide of the social disruption experienced by immigrants     217
Effect of immigration on suicide rates in the country of destination     220
Non-linear mixing relationships     225
Apoptosis     231
Apoptosis versus necrosis     232
Role of apoptosis in the development of multicellular organisms     233
Apoptosis in plants     234
Apoptosis in populations     234
Apoptosis in groups of mammals     237
Apoptosis in human societies     238
Perspectives     241
References     243
Index     252