Analysis of social network dynamics with models from the theory of complex adaptive systems

Abstract

The understanding and modeling of social dynamics in a complex and unpredictable world, emerges as a research target of particular importance. Success in this direction can yield valuable knowledge as to how social phenomena form and evolve in varying socioeconomic contexts comprising economic crises, societal disasters, cultural differences and security threats among others. The study of social dynamics occurring in the aforementioned contexts with the methodological tools originating from the complexity theory, is the research approach we propose in this paper. Furthermore, considering the fact that online social media serve as platforms of individual expression and public dialogue, we anticipate that their study as complex adaptive systems, will significantly contribute to understanding, predicting and monitoring social phenomena taking place on both online and offline social networks. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.