| This collection of studies examines the dynamics of emergent systems of collective behavior. Each study addresses a basic problem in collective dynamics, focusing on the principles through which social interaction produces emergent behavior. Three different levels of analysis are employed, each of which isolates different aspects of the dynamics of collective behavior. First, a dynamical systems model is used to examine the stability properties of collective behavior, showing how specific kinds of aggregation functions affect long term dynamics. Second, an agent-based approach is used to show how individual actors change their strategies based on changing incentives for participation. This model provides a game theoretic analysis of the same dynamics that are studied in the first model. Finally, the third model studies the pure network diffusion dynamics, using techniques from network analysis and statistical mechanics to analyze the effects of network topology on cascades of collective behavior. Taken together, these treatments provide a coherent and complementary understanding of the dynamics of collective behavior. The conclusion develops a synthesis of these studies that applies their results to the foundational problem of social order. |
