Survival under Uncertainty: An Introduction to Probability Models of Social Structure and Evolution

Authors: Volchenkov, Dimitri
First monographical text devoted to this subject matter
Written by a leading researcher in this emerging field
Tutorial and self-contained presentation

This book introduces and studies a number of stochastic models of subsistence, communication, social evolution and political transition that will allow the reader to grasp the role of uncertainty as a fundamental property of our irreversible world. At the same time, it aims to bring about a more interdisciplinary and quantitative approach across very diverse fields of research in the humanities and social sciences.
Through the examples treated in this work – including anthropology, demography, migration, geopolitics, management, and bioecology, among other things – evidence is gathered to show that volatile environments may change the rules of the evolutionary selection and dynamics of any social system, creating a situation of adaptive uncertainty, in particular, whenever the rate of change of the environment exceeds the rate of adaptation.
Last but not least, it is hoped that this book will contribute to the understanding that inherent randomness can also be a great opportunity – for social systems and individuals alike – to help face the challenge of “survival under uncertainty”.

Number of Illustrations and Tables
11 b/w illustrations, 44 illustrations in colour
Topics
Socio- and Econophysics, Population and Evolutionary Models
Social Structure, Social Inequality
Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Societal Aspects of Physics
Complexity

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