By Paul Ormerod What can complex systems and network theory tell us about the riots we have just witnessed? There was clearly a great deal of copying going on, of imitating other people’s behaviour. This was both within a given community and across communities. Social network media did not cause this, they facilitated it. The […]
By Orit Gal Over the last four nights London has been plagued by a new phenomenon daubed as “recreational looting”. Moving like swarms between sporadic high streets, teenage boys and girls rampaged their way into “electric and trainers heaven”. Dispersed police forces could only watch these almost apocalyptic scenes from the sidelines, appearing to lack […]
By Paul Ormerod The British and American recoveries do seem to be stalling. The recovery profile is by no means as strong as is usually the case after recessions, even after pretty major financial crises like that of 2008/09. One of the insights of complex systems is that the impact of any particular factor may […]