The Bio-Inspired and Social Evolution of Node and Data in a Multilayer Network

Group size in primates is strongly correlated with brain size, but exactly what makes larger groups more ‘socially complex’ than smaller groups is still poorly understood. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) are among our closest living relatives and are excellent model species to investigate patterns of sociality and social complexity in primates, and to inform models of human social evolution. The aim of this paper is to propose new research frameworks, particularly the use of social network analysis, to examine how social structure differs in small, medium and large groups of chimpanzees and gorillas, to explore what makes larger groups more socially complex than smaller groups. Given a fission-fusion system is likely to have characterised hominins, a comparison of the social complexity involved in fission-fusion and more stable social systems is likely to provide important new insights into human social evolution

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Conceptual foundations for the development of J.G.Turner’s general sociological theory: Metatheoretical ideas, basic concepts and analytical scheme

Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing ◽

10.15407/sociology2019.04.040 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 40-60

Author(s):

Volodymyr Reznik

Keyword(s):

Social Evolution ◽

Social Dynamics ◽

Sociological Theory ◽

Social Forces ◽

Analytical Scheme ◽

Initial Stage ◽

The Social ◽

Production Distribution ◽

Basic Concepts ◽

Conceptual Foundations

The article discusses the conceptual foundations of the development of the general sociological theory of J.G.Turner. These foundations are metatheoretical ideas, basic concepts and an analytical scheme. Turner began to develop a general sociological theory with a synthesis of metatheoretical ideas of social forces and social selection. He formulated a synthetic metatheoretical statement: social forces cause selection pressures on individuals and force them to change the patterns of their social organization and create new types of sociocultural formations to survive under these pressures. Turner systematized the basic concepts of his theorizing with the allocation of micro-, meso- and macro-levels of social reality. On this basis, he substantiated a simple conceptual scheme of social dynamics. According to this scheme, the forces of macrosocial dynamics of the population, production, distribution, regulation and reproduction cause social evolution. These forces force individual and corporate actors to structurally adapt their communities in altered circumstances. Such adaptation helps to overcome or avoid the disintegration consequences of these forces. The initial stage of Turner's general theorizing is a kind of audit, modification, modernization and systematization of the conceptual apparatus of sociology. The initial results obtained became the basis for the development of his conception of the dynamics of functional selection in the social world.

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A performative network theory of attitudes

10.31234/osf.io/mh4z8 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Quayle

Keyword(s):

Attitude Change ◽

Network Structure ◽

Network Theory ◽

Social Group ◽

Group Structure ◽

Social Identities ◽

Bipartite Network ◽

Identity Change ◽

Multilayer Network ◽

Dynamic Phenomena

In this paper I propose a network theory of attitudes where attitude agreements and disagreements forge a multilayer network structure that simultaneously binds people into groups (via attitudes) and attitudes into clusters (via people who share them). This theory proposes that people have a range of possible attitudes (like cards in a hand) but these only become meaningful when expressed (like a card played). Attitudes are expressed with sensitivity to their potential audiences and are socially performative: when we express attitudes, or respond to those expressed by others, we tell people who we are, what groups we might belong to and what to think of us. Agreement and disagreement can be modelled as a bipartite network that provides a psychological basis for perceived ingroup similarity and outgroup difference and, more abstractly, group identity. Opinion-based groups and group-related opinions are therefore co-emergent dynamic phenomena. Dynamic fixing occurs when particular attitudes become associated with specific social identities. The theory provides a framework for understanding identity ecosystems in which social group structure and attitudes are co-constituted. The theory describes how attitude change is also identity change. This has broad relevance across disciplines and applications concerned with social influence and attitude change.

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