Events

Econophysics and Sociophysics

Workshop organized by P. Argyrakis and S. Solomon



Physics Methods in Economic and Social Systems

Henry Ford, the symbol of the success of the assembly line manufacturing and of the mass production wrote exactly 100 years ago: Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. In one line this expresses the top-down character of the economy a century ago. Soon, this attitude spilled to the cultural, social and political attitude of the times: the decisions were taken by one person and then delivered to the masses through carefully designed linear chains of cause-effect links.

The way things happen now-a-days is often very different:  in crucial instances, the peer-to-peer and bottom-up positive feedback loops lead to auto-catalytic effects that amplify apparently fortuitous events to the scale of revolutionizing the entire system. Not only the effects of certain planned events had totally unexpected outcomes (internet, Google, Wikipedia): some of the revolutionary peer-to-peer bottom-up processes were totally unplanned and in fact problematic (viruses, spam, peer-to-peer networks for the free exchange of copyrighted material etc.) culminating (or may be not yet) with the recent financial, credit and economic crisis.

It is clear that somebody wishing to introduce new economic policies / social norms / technological changes nowadays would not face the same type of problems as faced by Ford (or contemporarily by Roosevelt in the political arena, or Bauhaus movement in architecture). One would have to understand prognose and steer the interactions and feedback loops between traders, customers, producers, service providers, corporate clients, distributors, regulators, taxation systems, pollution legislation, NGO´s etc. 

In order to understand and control the evolution of the present mass-phenomena one has to give up the concept of linear causality chains which associate to each effect a cause. One has to think in terms a collective, emergent causality where a complex system of interactions between many autonomous agents can lead to collective phenomena that are completely different from the intentions, scales and scope of the individual components.

In the last decade, the techniques to express, understand and steer such emergent phenomena have been created. Those scientific tools are now ripe to be brought to the use of the society:  banking, business, government, environment, peace keeping and restauration etc.

The present workshop will welcome contributions in all applications of Physics in social and economic systems.

Back to all events

SigmaPhi Round Table
The SigmaPhi Round Table on "Future Challenges and Perspectives of Statistical Physics" will be held at the end of the Opening Ceremony on Monday July 11.
Read more...

FuturICT FET Flagship Featured Session
A special session devoted to the FuturICT FET Flagship is organized on Wednesday July 13 at 14.00, Room A. For further info about FuturICT visit www.futurict.eu .
Read more...

Conference Program
The conference timetable is now available in the section "Program" of the menu
Read more...

Europhysics Conference
The European Physical Society has recognized the SigmaPhi2011 as a Europhysics Conference.
Read more...


EPS-SNP Meeting
During the conference will be held the Meeting of the European Physical Society - Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division
Read more...

Biophysics
Workshop organized by F. Seno
Read more...

Nanophysics
Workshop organized by F. Kusmartsev
Read more...

Econophysics and Sociophysics
Workshop organized by P. Argyrakis and S. Solomon
Read more...

Complex Networks
Workshop organized by G. Caldarelli and A. Scala
Read more...

Mathematical Physics
Workshop organized by P. Damianou and C. Sophocleous
Read more...


European Physical Society
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

Springer Science + Business Media
International Publisher
Read more...

Report on Mathematical Physics
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

Central European Journal of Physics
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

Modern Physics Letters B
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

International Journal of Modern Physics CS
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

International Journal of Modern Physics B
Scientific sponsor
Read more...

Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Department of Physics
Read more...

University of Cyprus
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Read more...

Ecole Normale Superieure, France
Laboratory of Statistical Physics
Read more...

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
GDR Dynamo
Read more...

Cyprus Tourism Organisation
Local sponsor
Read more...

Technical University of Crete, Greece
Department of Science and Department of Mineral Resource Engineering
Read more...

International Conference on Statistical Physics: Larnaca (Cyprus) 11-15 july 2011 - Contact us
Powered by Creazione siti web Torino