PHYSICS AND SOCIAL-SCIENCE - THE APPROACH OF SYNERGETICS

Universally applicable methods originating in statistical physics and synergetics are combined with concepts from social science in order to set up and to apply a model construction concept for the quantitative description of a broad class of collective dynamical phenomena within society. Starting from the decisions of individuals and introducing the concept of dynamical utilities, probabilistic transition rates between attitudes and actions can be constructed. The latter enter the central equation of motion, i.e. the master equation, for the probability distribution over the possible macroconfigurations of society. From the master equation the equations of motion for the expectation values of the macrovariables of society can be derived. These equations are in general nonlinear. Their solutions may include stationary solutions, limit cycles and strange attractors, and with varying trend parameters also phase transitions between different modes of social behaviour can be described. The general model construction approach is subsequently applied to characteristic examples from different social sciences, such as sociology, demography, regional science and economics. These examples refer to collective political opinion formation, to interregional migration of interactive populations, to settlement formation on the micro-, meso- and macroscale, and to nonlinear nonequilibrium economics, including market instabilities.