European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and

European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research www. cost. esf. org Physics of competition and conflicts MP 0801 Start date: 08/2008 End date: 06/2009 Year: 1 Peter Richmond Chair School of Physics Trinity College Dublin & Complex Adaptive Systems Laboratory University College Dublin Ireland COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Action Parties Grant Holder: ? GH Institution: ? GH Representative: ? GH Country: ? COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 2 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Action participants COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 3 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Use of COST instruments YR 1 (6 months) YR 2 No. of MC / WG meetings 2/4 1/6 No. of STSMs 3 10? No. of workshops / conferences 0/0 1/2 No. of joint publications ? ? No. of training schools 0 0 Posters, website GASG (activities) COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 4 YR 3 YR 4 1 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Scientific context and objectives (1/2) • Background: – can ideas of physics be applied to sociological & economic systems? • Typical systems include competition between firms & individuals, mergers & acquisitions, income distributions, growth of cities, house price dynamics, evolutionary dynamics of societies, ecologies, queuing, waiting times & crowd & traffic control & even human emotion • Mirroring this activity is increased awareness of extreme events such as floods, power failures, global warming, terrorism, social unrest, outbreak of war, panics, epidemics, extinction processes & economic volatility. • Brief reminder of Mo. U objectives: – develop application of statistical physics, mathematics & computational physics to problems associated with competition & conflicts such as occur in social, political, economic, financial & historical contexts – demonstrate thinking behind methods of statistical physics to social problems is not only appropriate but also begins to demonstrate that basic principles underpinning social phenomena both exist & can be identified COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 5 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Scientific context and objectives (2/2) • Research directions: • Dynamics of beliefs; opinion dynamics; emergence; cooperative dynamics; technology • How to reach objectives? – working group meetings, joint workshops with key project consortia (e. g. EC project ASSYST, CYBEREMOTION) – short term missions – training schools – Poster session (with prize) built into KO meeting in Rome • stimulate community • help identification of key problems & routes to solution via collaborative research programmes supported by EU, individual Member States, etc • Gear up COST investment COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 6 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Working groups 1 Information & Knowledge Andrea Scharnhorst NL What is available; databases, etc? Knowledge dynamics; evolution of relgion 2 Agents and Games theory Christophe Diessenberg FR human behaviour; cooperation; competition consumer choice; technological forecasting; competition between firms > economic policy 3 Complex networks Stefan Thurner AT friendships; power transmission; WWW; bank networks & payment flows heterogeneity > marketing; internet advertising dynamic and growing networks 4 Evolution and co-evolution Anxo Sanchez ES Cultural evolution and emergence; strategies to cope (imitation; contrariness; evolution of hierarchies language- culture-politics markets; value versus growth 5 Technology & Risk Management Vittorio Rosato IT Robust infrastructures; transport systems; communication networks; crowds Integration of sensors & risk management COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 7 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

(Preliminary) Results vs. Objectives • Working group meetings of both WG 1 & 4 bringing focus onto broad problem areas • Important new networks with historians & anthropologists • Satellite meetings of WG 2 and 5 in key meeting in Zurich helping to develop community • No one single group could bring this interdisciplinary mix together – unique grouping COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 8 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Significant highlights (1/2) • “Networks of Beliefs” A new multidisciplinary network – scientific interchange between physicists, computer scientists, sociologists & historians – Embedded within International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2009 • Followed small planning meeting in Paderborn, Germany • Theme I. : Conversion, Persecution & Percolation – Evolution of Adherents & Religion Spreading, – Invention of a Religious Order Network : The Cistercians – General Model of Church Growth & Decline • Theme II. : Network of Beliefs – Opinion dynamics versus collective beliefs – Rules versus Judgments on Networks, an Interacting game – Geographical dispersal of communication networks • new scientific output can be expected within next few years if links across subjects & personal contacts maintained. COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 9 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Significant highlights (2/2) • Annual meeting Rome May 2009 • Poster session for young researchers • 24 posters (one from each member state associated with action - plus a few) • Three prizes (2 one-bottle and 1 two-bottle) • All papers and most posters to be published in special edition of DYSES • At least one consortium formed who in July submitted research proposal to complexity-net COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 10 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Challenges • Delegation of budget – Remote institution? • Potential lack of flexibility in COST Office with new strategy – Coping with ‘Dietrich Bohoeffer syndrome’ • http: //justus. anglican. org/resources/bio/133. html • http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer • Maintaining creativity and enthusiasm [of participants] in face of new constrained, spiritually impoverished managerial strategy • Coordination versus chair!!! COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme 11 ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract