From Micro to Macro via Network Interaction

A NetSci 2023 Satellite on July 10th, 2023

Aggregation is one, if not the fundamental challenges of the social sciences. Whenever the agents on the micro level interact, macro behavior might exhibit emergent properties and is likely irreducible to any ensemble of actions at the micro level. Hereby, a network structure is important in two ways: First, it defines how global determinants impact localized individual conditions; second, the network structure governs how individual actions affect other individuals and thus translate to macro-level outcomes. The pre-analytic vision for this satellite takes the networked nature of social, political, and economic interaction as given and explores how it can shape macro outcomes across very different domains.

Topically, the set of questions is deliberately broad, ranging from the localized perception of inequality and status via networks of citations or patents as means to codify knowledge to the conditions under which team reasons and collective action emerge from agents’ interaction. This stems from our conviction that there are important synergies between research programs centered around networks across disciplines that have yet to be fully exploited.