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This introductory text is devoted to exposing the underlying nature of price formation in financial markets as a predominantly sociological phenomenon that relates individual decision-making to emergent and co-evolving social and financial structures.   Two different levels of this sociological influence are considered: First, we examine how price formation results from the social dynamics of interacting individuals, where interaction occurs either through the price or by direct communication.  Then the same processes are revisited and examined at the level of larger groups of individuals.     In this book, models of both levels of socio-finance are presented, and it is shown, in particular, how complexity theory provides the conceptual and methodological tools needed to understand and describe such phenomena. Accordingly, readers are first given a broad introduction to the standard economic theory of rational financial markets and will come to understand its shortcomings with the help of concrete examples. Complexity theory is then introduced in order to properly account for behavioral decision-making and match the observed market dynamics. This book is conceived as a primer for newcomers to the field, as well as for practitioners seeking new insights into the field of complexity science applied to socio-economic systems in general, and financial markets and price formation in particular.

Quantitative methods (economics) --- Methodology of economics --- Finance --- Economics --- Financial analysis --- Business management --- Business economics --- financieel management --- bedrijfseconomie --- economie --- financiële analyse

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The overall aim of this book, an outcome of the European FP7 FET Open NESS project, is to contribute to the ongoing effort to put the quantitative social sciences on a proper footing for the 21st century. A key focus is economics, and its implications on policy making, where the still dominant traditional approach increasingly struggles to capture the economic realities we observe in the world today - with vested interests getting too often in the way of real advances. Insights into behavioral economics and modern computing techniques have made possible both the integration of larger information sets and the exploration of disequilibrium behavior. The domain-based chapters of this work illustrate how economic theory is the only branch of social sciences which still holds to its old paradigm of an equilibrium science - an assumption that has already been relaxed in all related fields of research in the light of recent advances in complex and dynamical systems theory and related data mining. The other chapters give various takes on policy and decision making in this context. Written in nontechnical style throughout, with a mix of tutorial and essay-like contributions, this book will benefit all researchers, scientists, professionals and practitioners interested in learning about the 'thinking in complexity' to understand how socio-economic systems really work.

Social sciences (general) --- Sociology --- Quantitative methods (economics) --- Economic schools --- Social sciences --- Operational research. Game theory --- Mathematical statistics --- Applied physical engineering --- Planning (firm) --- Computer science --- Computer architecture. Operating systems --- Information systems --- Artificial intelligence. Robotics. Simulation. Graphics --- Computer. Automation --- economie --- informatica --- mathematische modellen --- sociale wetenschappen --- computerprogramma's --- economisch denken --- speltheorie --- econometrie --- gegevensanalyse --- methodologieën --- operationeel onderzoek --- ingenieurswetenschappen --- gegevensverwerking

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Conflict is inherent in virtually every aspect of human relations, from sport to parliamentary democracy, from fashion in the arts to paradigmatic challenges in the sciences, and from economic activity to intimate relationships.  Yet, it can become among the most serious social problems humans face when it loses its constructive features and becomes protracted over time with no obvious means of resolution.  This book addresses the subject of intractable social conflict from a new vantage point.  Here, these types of conflict represent self-organizing phenomena, emerging quite naturally from the ongoing dynamics in human interaction at any scale—from the interpersonal to the international.  Using the universal language and computational framework of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in combination with recent insights from social psychology, intractable conflict is understood as a system locked in special attractor states that constrain the thoughts and actions of the parties to the conflict.  The emergence and maintenance of attractors for conflict can be described by means of formal models that incorporate the results of computer simulations, experiments, field research, and archival analyses.  Multi-disciplinary research reflecting these approaches provides encouraging support for the dynamical systems perspective.  Importantly, this text presents new views on conflict resolution.  In contrast to traditional approaches that tend to focus on basic, short-lived cause-effect relations, the dynamical perspective emphasizes the temporal patterns and potential for emergence in destructive relations.  Attractor deconstruction entails restoring complexity to a conflict scenario by isolating elements or changing the feedback loops among them.  The creation of a latent attractor trades on the tendency toward multi-stability in dynamical systems and entails the consolidation of incongruent (positive) elements into a coherent structure.  In the bifurcation scenario, factors are identified that can change the number and types of attractors in a conflict scenario.  The implementation of these strategies may hold the key to unlocking intractable conflict, creating the potential for constructive social relations.   .

Philosophy --- Psychology --- Social sciences (general) --- Physics --- Statistical physics --- Applied physical engineering --- Computer science --- psychologie --- theoretische fysica --- filosofie --- informatica --- sociale wetenschappen --- methodologieën --- ingenieurswetenschappen --- fysica