Advanced self-organisation of social systems

Uitgebreide vaknaam	Advanced self-organisation of social systems
Leerdoelen	At the end of the course, the student is able to: 1) explain social systems in terms of emergence and selforganisation 2) develop his/her own hypotheses in terms of emergence and selforganisation for new systems 3) critically review primary literature from the perspective of selforganisation. 4) independently translate hypotheses in modeling experiments 5) statistically analyze results of these models with appropriate statistical tests and/or graphical representations 6) independently use Netlogo, 7) structure the content logically 8) use concise and correct language 9) present graphs, figures, slides, etcetera that are correct, complete and informative
Omschrijving	Processes of selforganisation occur at all levels of a system. For instance, in a group of individuals they take place at the level of the cognition of the individual, of its behaviour and of the behaviour of the group. Selforganisation implies that cognitively simple rules at the level of the individual (the so-called micro-level) may lead to complex behaviour at a higher level (the macro-level). The emergence of patterns in a computer model often leads to unexpected new insights. Note that, the other way around, by observing the complex behaviour at a higher level, it is impossible to discover the behavioural rules that operate at a lower level. In this course models of selforganisation of the social phenomena will be treated, such as: swarming by fish and birds, with and without attacks by predators; grouping and foraging behaviour by social insects and primates; nest building by insects, task division in insects; social learning and behaviour of fish and corvids; social structure (despotic and egalitarian), and cultural transmission in primates and humans. Individual-based models will be discussed and taught. The practical work closely follows the contents of the daily lectures. Students will use Excel-spreadsheets and the program Netlogo. In the last part of the course, students work on a modeling project of their own or in pairs. They can work out their own ideas or choose from the projects that are offered. The work is to be rounded off with a presentation.
Uren per week
Onderwijsvorm	Hoorcollege (LC), Practisch werk (PRC), Werkcollege (T) (For details see under "remarks"/"opmerkingen")
Toetsvorm	Mondeling tentamen (OR), Opdracht (AST), Presentatie (P) (See REMARKS for more information about the assessment.)
Vaksoort	master
Docent(en)	prof. dr. G.S. van Doorn
Verplichte literatuur	Titel Auteur ISBN Prijs Literature is available via Nestor.
Entreevoorwaarden	This course can be followed as a sequel to the bachelor course “ Selforganization of ecological and social systems”. The course is also meant for students from other fields, e.g. those of artificial intelligence and sociology
Opmerkingen	Capacity: maximal 40 students
Opgenomen in	Opleiding Jaar Periode Type