Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics
by Bejan, Adrian; Merkx, Gilbert W.Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2007-07-30
Publisher(s): Springer Verlag
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Summary
Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics brings together for the first time social scientists and engineers who present predictive theory of social organization, as a conglomerate of mating flows that morph in time to flow more easily. The book offers a new way to look at social phenomena as part of natural phenomena, and examines a new domain of application of engineering such as thermodynamic optimization, thermoeconomics and "design as science".
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. xi |
| The Constructal Law in Nature and Society | p. 1 |
| The Constructal Law | p. 1 |
| The Urge to Organize Is an Expression of Selfish Behavior | p. 5 |
| The Distribution of Human Settlements | p. 13 |
| Human Constructions and Flow Fossils in General | p. 17 |
| Animal Movement | p. 22 |
| Flying | p. 24 |
| Running | p. 25 |
| Swimming | p. 26 |
| Patterned Movement and Turbulent Flow Structure | p. 29 |
| Science as a Constructal Flow Architecture | p. 31 |
| References | p. 32 |
| Constructal Models in Social Processes | p. 35 |
| Introduction | p. 35 |
| Natural Versus Social Phenomena: An Important Distinction? | p. 36 |
| Case Studies: Two Social Networks | p. 38 |
| The Argentine Railway Network: 1870-1914 | p. 38 |
| Mexican Migration to the United States, 1980-2006 | p. 45 |
| Conclusions | p. 48 |
| References | p. 50 |
| Tree Flow Networks in Urban Design | p. 51 |
| Introduction | p. 51 |
| How to Distribute Hot Water over an Area | p. 51 |
| Tree Network Generated by Repetitive Pairing | p. 55 |
| Robustness and Complexity | p. 59 |
| Development of Configuration by Adding New Users to Existing Networks | p. 60 |
| Social Determinism and Constructal Theory | p. 68 |
| References | p. 70 |
| Natural Flow Patterns and Structured People Dynamics: A Constructal View | p. 71 |
| Introduction | p. 71 |
| Patterns in Natural Flows: The River Basins Case | p. 71 |
| Scaling Laws of River Basins | p. 72 |
| Patterns of Global Circulations | p. 74 |
| Flows of People | p. 76 |
| Optimal Flow Tree | p. 77 |
| Fossils of Flows of People | p. 79 |
| Conclusions | p. 82 |
| References | p. 82 |
| Constructal Pattern Formation in Nature, Pedestrian Motion, and Epidemics Propagation | p. 85 |
| Introduction | p. 85 |
| Constructal Law and the Generation of Configuration | p. 86 |
| Constructal Pattern Formation in Nature | p. 87 |
| Formation of Dissimilar Patterns Inside Flow Systems | p. 87 |
| The Shapes of Stony Coral Colonies and Plant Roots | p. 89 |
| Constructal Patterns Formation in Pedestrian Motion | p. 92 |
| Pedestrian Dynamics: Observation and Models | p. 92 |
| Diffusion and Channeling in Pedestrian Motion | p. 95 |
| Crowd Density and Pedestrian Flow | p. 98 |
| Optimizing Pedestrian Facilities by Minimizing Residence Time | p. 103 |
| The Optimal Gates Geometry | p. 103 |
| Optimal Architecture for Different Locomotion Velocities | p. 104 |
| The Optimal Queuing Flow | p. 106 |
| Constructal View of Self-organized Pedestrian Movement | p. 108 |
| Population Motion and Spread of Epidemics | p. 109 |
| Modeling the Spreading of an Epidemic | p. 110 |
| Geotemporal Dynamics of Epidemics | p. 112 |
| References | p. 114 |
| The Constructal Nature of the Air Traffic System | p. 119 |
| Introduction | p. 119 |
| The Constructal Law of Maximum Flow Access | p. 120 |
| Foundations of Constructal Theory | p. 120 |
| The Volume-to-Point Flow Problem | p. 122 |
| Relevant Results for Aeronautics | p. 124 |
| Aircraft Design | p. 124 |
| Meteorological Models | p. 126 |
| Application to the Air Traffic System | p. 127 |
| Air traffic flow | p. 127 |
| The Constructal Law and the Generation of Benford Distribution in ATFM | p. 130 |
| Spatial Patterns of Airport Flows | p. 133 |
| Temporal Patterns of Airport Flows | p. 137 |
| Aircraft Fleets | p. 139 |
| Conclusions | p. 142 |
| References | p. 143 |
| Sociological Theory, Constructal Theory, and Globalization | p. 147 |
| Introduction | p. 147 |
| Physics and Engineering in Previous Sociology | p. 148 |
| Theorizing the Global | p. 154 |
| Globalization | p. 155 |
| References | p. 159 |
| Is Animal Learning Optimal? | p. 161 |
| Reinforcement Learning | p. 161 |
| Instinctive Drift: Do Animals "Know" What to Do? | p. 162 |
| Interval Timing: Why Wait? | p. 162 |
| Ratio Schedules | p. 163 |
| Interval Schedules | p. 164 |
| What are the Alternatives to Optimality? | p. 166 |
| References | p. 167 |
| Conflict and Conciliation Dynamics | p. 169 |
| The Natural and the Social Sciences | p. 169 |
| Conflict and Conciliation Dynamics (CCD) | p. 172 |
| CCD Flow Chart Representation of a Conflict and Peace Process | p. 174 |
| Oslo Agreement Game (1993) | p. 177 |
| Coalition Game | p. 178 |
| Militant Game A | p. 178 |
| Militant Game B | p. 179 |
| Empirical Checks and Discussion | p. 179 |
| Conclusions | p. 181 |
| References | p. 182 |
| Human Aging and Mortality | p. 183 |
| Introduction | p. 183 |
| The Random Walk Model | p. 184 |
| The Fokker-Planck Diffusion Equation | p. 184 |
| The State-Space and Quadratic Mortality Equations | p. 186 |
| Findings from Empirical Applications | p. 188 |
| Extensions of the Random Walk Model | p. 192 |
| Conclusions | p. 194 |
| References | p. 195 |
| Statistical Mechanical Models for Social Systems | p. 197 |
| Summary | p. 197 |
| Introduction | p. 197 |
| Precursors Within Social Network Analysis | p. 198 |
| Notation | p. 199 |
| Generalized Location Systems | p. 200 |
| Modeling Location Systems | p. 201 |
| A Family of Social Potentials | p. 202 |
| Thermodynamic Properties of the Location System Model | p. 206 |
| Simulation | p. 207 |
| The Location System Model as a Constrained Optimization Process | p. 208 |
| Illustrative Applications | p. 209 |
| Job Segregation, Discrimination, and Inequality | p. 209 |
| Settlement Patterns and Residential Segregation | p. 215 |
| Conclusions | p. 221 |
| References | p. 221 |
| Discrete Exponential Family Models for Ethnic Residential Segregation | p. 225 |
| Introduction | p. 225 |
| Potential Determinants of Ethnic Residential Segregation | p. 226 |
| Research Methodology | p. 229 |
| Simulation Results | p. 232 |
| Conclusion | p. 244 |
| References | p. 244 |
| Corporate Interlock | p. 247 |
| Abstract | p. 247 |
| Introduction | p. 247 |
| Corporate Interlocks | p. 249 |
| Data | p. 252 |
| Methodology | p. 252 |
| Analysis | p. 253 |
| Conclusion | p. 261 |
| References | p. 261 |
| Constructal Approach to Company Sustainability | p. 263 |
| Introduction | p. 263 |
| Sustainability and Its Evaluation | p. 264 |
| The Constructal Law of Maximum Flow Access | p. 267 |
| Application to Complex Structures: Design of Platform of Customizable Products | p. 268 |
| The Structural Theory of Thermoeconomics | p. 269 |
| Application to Company Sustainability | p. 272 |
| The Stakeholder Approach | p. 272 |
| The Analytical Tree | p. 274 |
| The Objectives of Research | p. 274 |
| Conclusions | p. 276 |
| References | p. 277 |
| The Inequality Process is an Evoluationary Process | p. 279 |
| Summary | p. 279 |
| Introduction: Competition for Energy, Fuel, Food, and Wealth | p. 279 |
| The Inequality Process (IP) as an Evolutionary Optimizer | p. 281 |
| Mathematical Description of the IP | p. 282 |
| The Gamma PDF Approximation to the IP's Stationary Distribution in the ¿¿ Equivalence Class | p. 284 |
| The Exact Solution | p. 284 |
| An Approximation to the Exact Solution | p. 285 |
| The IP, an Evolutionary Process | p. 287 |
| The Empirical Evidence That Robust Losers Are the More Productive Particles | p. 290 |
| Conclusions | p. 293 |
| References | p. 294 |
| Constructal Theory of Written Language | p. 297 |
| Introduction | p. 297 |
| Written Language | p. 297 |
| What Is a Written Language? | p. 297 |
| How Does Constructal Theory Apply? | p. 298 |
| Origins of Written Language | p. 299 |
| First Pairing Level | p. 300 |
| Creation of First Pairing Level | p. 300 |
| Evolution of First Pairing Level | p. 303 |
| Egyptian | p. 304 |
| Second Pairing Level | p. 307 |
| Creation of Second Pairing Level | p. 307 |
| English | p. 308 |
| Chinese | p. 308 |
| Evolution of Second Pairing Level | p. 312 |
| Chinese | p. 312 |
| Conclusions | p. 313 |
| References | p. 314 |
| Life and Cognition | p. 315 |
| What is Life? | p. 315 |
| Psyche, the "Higher" Cognition | p. 316 |
| From Aristotle's Hylemorphism to the Rationalization of Probabilities | p. 317 |
| The Cognitive Implication | p. 320 |
| Empirism Probabilis and Vis Formandi | p. 321 |
| Nature as Matter, Unique-ness and Kaos | p. 322 |
| The Impossible Emergence of the Emergence | p. 322 |
| Matter as Unique-ness | p. 323 |
| Matter as Kaos | p. 323 |
| Consequences | p. 324 |
| The Intentional and Non-intentional Beings | p. 324 |
| The Descent of Darwin, and Selection in Relation to Ideology | p. 326 |
| Historicity, Instinct, Intelligence, and Consciousness | p. 328 |
| History Versus Historicity, Continuous Versus Discreet | p. 328 |
| The Psyche | p. 329 |
| Nature and Cognitive Computer Science | p. 330 |
| Neural Networks Versus Constructal Architectures | p. 331 |
| Cellular Automata and the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction | p. 334 |
| RD-Computation or Simulation of the Individuation? | p. 335 |
| Constructal Law, in Depth | p. 337 |
| The Geometric Vitalism of the Constructal Theory | p. 337 |
| The Constructal Law Definition | p. 337 |
| A Never-Ending Story | p. 338 |
| References | p. 340 |
| Index | p. 345 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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