Narrow Results

In this work, we study a simple mathematical model to analyze the emergence and control of radicalization phenomena. The population consists of core and sensitive subpopulations, and their ways of life may be at least partially incompatible. In such a case, if a conflict exists, core agents act as inflexible individuals about the issue. On the other hand, the sensitive agents choose between two options: live peacefully with core population, or oppose it. This kind of modeling was recently considered by Galam and Javarone (2016) with constant pairwise couplings. Here, we consider the more general case with time-dependent transition rates, with the aim of study the impact of such time dependence on the critical behavior of the model. The analytical and numerical results show that the nonequilibrium active-absorbing phase transition can be suppressed in some cases, with the destruction of the absorbing phase where the radical agents disappear of the population in the stationary states.

In this work, we study a simple mathematical model to analyze the emergence and control of radicalization phenomena, motivated by the recent far-right extremist events in Brazil, occurred in 8 January 2023. For this purpose, we considered a compartmental SIS-like model that takes into account only the right electors, for simplicity. The model considers radical and moderated right electors, and the transitions between the two compartments are ruled by probabilities, taking into account pairwise social interactions and the important influence of social media through the dissemination of fake news. The role of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court on the control of such violent activities is also considered in a simple way. The analytical and numerical results show that the influence of social media is essential for the spreading and prevalence of radicalism in the population. In the presence of such social media, we show that radicalism can be controlled, but not extincted, by an external influence, that models the acting of the Federal Supreme Court over the violent activities of radicals. If the social media effect is absent, the radicalism can disappear of the population, and this phenomenon is associated with an active-absorbing nonequilibrium phase transition, like the one that occurs in the standard SIS model.

In this work we propose a simple model for the emergence of drug dealers. For this purpose, we built a compartmental model considering four subpopulations, namely susceptibles, passive supporters, drug dealers and arrested drug dealers. The target is to study the influence of the passive supporters on the long-time prevalence of drug dealers. Passive supporters are people who are passively consenting to the drug trafficking cause. First we consider the model on a fully connected network, in such a way that we can write a rate equation for each subpopulation. Our analytical and numerical results show that the emergence of drug dealers is a consequence of the rapid increase in the number of passive supporters. Such increase is associated with a nonequilibrium active-absorbing phase transition. After that, we consider the model on a two-dimensional square lattice, in order to compare the results in the presence of a simple social network with the previous results. The Monte Carlo simulation results suggest a similar behavior in comparison with the fully connected network case, but the location of the critical point of the transition is distinct, due to the neighbors’ correlations introduced by the presence of the lattice.

This paper deals with social conflicts, assumed as important development opportunities rather than as consequences to be avoided. Through the analysis of a frequent set of conflicts related to interventions on the built environment, some recurrent critical factors have been highlighted and discussed, in order to identify the learning potential that lies in conflict management processes. As the built environment is a complex system, the analysis adopted a systemic approach, paying particular attention to relationships and dynamics that develop between actors. The main cause underlying conflicts seems to be the use of an exclusive approach, consequently their management requires the use of inclusive tools, as participation. The development of participatory processes can help to manage conflicts related to interventions on the built environment by improving the effectiveness of communication between the actors, opening decision-making processes to different groups of stakeholder and contributing to better define the problems involving different and complementary knowledge systems. The development of a participatory approach is indeed a learning tool, since communities and groups involved can benefit from an increase in social capital.