Sensitive networks - Modelling self-organization and innovation processes in networks

Abstract

This contribution is devoted to the interdisciplinary theory of self-organization processes, paying particular attention to stochastic effects connected with innovations in network systems. On our understanding "self-organization" is the spontaneous formation of structures (Ebeling and Feistel, 1982, 1994; Feistel and Ebeling, 1989). An "innovation", on a general system-theoretical understanding, is the appearance of, for example, a new species, a new mode of behaviour, a new technology, a new product or a new idea (Ebeling and Sonntag, 1986; Bruckner et al., 1989, 1990, 1996; Ebeling et al., 1999). © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.