Introduction: Human Dynamics in Perspective

Abstract

Human dynamics evolve with changing environment, technology, and society over time. With the rapid technological advances in the past several decades, there have been major changes in human dynamics in the modern world. This introduction chapter places human dynamics research in perspective by first reviewing the diverse perspectives of studying human dynamics and outlining the challenge of coming up with a universal definition that everyone would agree. Instead of defining the boundary of this evolving field, we identify three major shifts (from physical to virtual space, from historical to real time, and from human to context) that should be considered in human dynamics research. We then provide an overview of each chapter to highlight the major research themes and the main contributions of this book.