Pierluigi Contucci – författare

A network is a mathematical object consisting of a set of points that are connected to each other in some fashion by lines. It turns out this simple description corresponds to a bewildering array of systems in the real world, ranging from technological ones such as the Internet and World Wide Web, biological networks such as that of connections of the nervous systems, food webs or  protein interactions, infrastructural systems such as networks of roads, airports or the power-grid, to patterns of social and professional relationships such as friendship, sex partners, network of Hollywood actors, co-authorship networks and many more.

Recent years have witnessed a substantial amount of interest within the scientific community in the properties of these networks. The emergence of the internet in particular, coupled with the widespread availability of inexpensive computing resources has facilitated studies ranging from large scale empirical analysis of networks in the real world, to the development of theoretical models and tools to explore the various properties of these systems. The study of networks is broadly interdisciplinary and central developments have occurred in many fields, including mathematics, physics, computer and information sciences, biology and the social sciences.

This book brings together a collection of cutting-edge research in the field from a diverse array of researchers ranging from physicists to social scientists and presents them in a coherent fashion, highlighting the strong interconnections between the different areas. Topics included are social networks and social media, opinion and innovation diffusion, biological and health-related networks, language networks, as well as network theory, community detection, or growth models for Complex Networks.

The book shows a very original organization addressing in a non traditional way, but with a systematic approach, to who has an interest in using mathematics in the social sciences.

The book is divided in four parts: (a) a historical part, written by Vittorio Capecchi which helps us understand the changes in the relationship between mathematics and sociology by analyzing the mathematical models of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, the model of simulation and artificial societies, models of artificial neural network and considering all the changes in scientific paradigms considered; (b) a part coordinated by Pier Luigi Contucci on mathematical models that consider the relationship between the mathematical models that come from physics and linguistics to arrive at the study of society and those which are born within sociology and economics; (c) a part coordinated by Massimo Buscema analyzing models of artificial neural networks; (d) a part coordinated by Bruno D’Amore which considers the relationship between mathematics and art.

The title of the book "Mathematics and Society" was chosen because the mathematical applications exposed in the book allow you to address two major issues: (a) the general theme of technological innovation and quality of life (among the essays are on display mathematical applications to the problems of combating pollution and crime, applications to mathematical problems of immigration, mathematical applications to the problems of medical diagnosis, etc.) (b) the general theme of technical innovation and creativity, for example the art and mathematics section which connects to the theme of creative cities.

The book is very original because it is not addressed only to those who are passionate about mathematical applications in social science but also to those who, in different societies, are: (a) involved in technological innovation to improve the quality of life; (b) involved in the wider distribution of technologicalinnovation in different areas of creativity (as in the project "Creative Cities Network" of UNESCO).