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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2009

Charlotte K. Hemelrijk
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Charlotte Hemelrijk
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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Summary

This book contains a collection of studies of social behaviour that are mainly biologically oriented and are carried out from the perspective of emergent effects and of self-organisation. It brings together papers that show emergent aspects of social behaviour through interaction with the environment in the entire range of organisms (from single-celled organisms via slugs, insects, fish and primates to humans). This book treats the broadest range of organisms as regards self-organisation and social behaviour that has been treated so far in one book. It is only followed by the book by Camazine et al. (2001) in which mostly insect societies are emphasised. Most of the papers deal with the direct effect of self-organisation on patterns of social behaviour. We will treat them in increasing order of complexity from slime moulds to humans (Chapters 1–8). A few papers discuss the intricate relationship between evolution and self-organisation (Chapters 9 and 10).

Before treating each of the papers in turn, a few words about self-organisation and emergent effects by interaction with the environment are needed.

Emergent phenomena arise in social systems as a consequence of self-reinforcing effects and of ‘locality’ of interactions, as explained below. Self-reinforcing effects imply that if an event takes place, it increases the likelihood that it will happen again. An example is population growth. The larger a population gets, the more individuals it contains that can bear new offspring.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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References

Axelrod, R. (1997). The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
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Camazine, S., Deneubourg, J.-L., Franks, N. R.et al. (2001). Self-Organisation in Biological Systems. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
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Schelling, T. C. (1969). Models of segregation. Am. Econ. Rev., Papers and Proceedings 59, 488–493Google Scholar
Schelling, T. C. (1971). Dynamic models of segregation. J. Math. Sociol. 1, 143–186CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Charlotte Hemelrijk, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: Self-Organisation and Evolution of Biological and Social Systems
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542275.002
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Charlotte Hemelrijk, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: Self-Organisation and Evolution of Biological and Social Systems
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542275.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Charlotte Hemelrijk, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: Self-Organisation and Evolution of Biological and Social Systems
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542275.002
Available formats
×