networks and network weaving

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Understanding the mechanisms to mitigate opinion polarization in our society is crucial to minimizing social division and ultimately strengthening democracy. Due to the challenge of collecting long-term reliable empirical data, researchers have been mostly focused on a theoretical understanding of the process of opinion depolarization. To this aim, realistic yet simple models prove valuable, especially when multiple topics are discussed at the same time, which may result in entangled opinion dynamics. In this paper, we propose the multidimensional social compass model, based on two competing key ingredients: DeGroot learning, driven by the social influence exerted across multiple topics, and the preference of individuals to maintain their initial opinions. The interplay between these two mechanisms triggers a phase transition from polarization to consensus, determined by a threshold value of social influence. We analytically study the nature of the depolarization transition and its threshold, depending on the number of topics discussed, the possible correlations between initial opinions, the topology of the underlying social networks, and the correlations between the initial opinion distribution and the network's structure. Theoretical predictions are validated by running numerical simulations on both synthetic and real social networks. We rely on several simplifying assumptions to explore different scenarios, such as a mean-field approximation for high dimension or orthogonal initial orientations. We uncover an upper critical dimension (${D}_{c}=5$ topics) for uncorrelated initial opinions, distinguishing between discontinuous and continuous phase transitions. For the simplest $D=2$ case and correlated initial opinions, we found that the depolarization threshold can vanish if the underlying connectivity is heterogeneous, as predicted by perturbation theory. Such an effect is due to the presence of hubs, which promote consensus in the population. We test this hypothesis by designing a rewiring algorithm that increases the structural heterogeneity of the underlying network, showing that the depolarization threshold decreases. Finally, we demonstrate that if hubs share the same initial opinion, the depolarization dynamics is significantly hindered. Our findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms to mitigate polarization in real-world scenarios, suggesting which settings can promote the depolarization process. The presence of very popular individuals on online social networks and the alignment of their opinions, in particular, may play a pivotal role in the multidimensional depolarization dynamics.

In math and computer science, researchers have long understood that some questions are fundamentally unanswerable. Now physicists are exploring how even ordinary physical systems put hard limits on what we can predict, even in principle.

A hub for the Complexity and Network Science community to gather and share resources.

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Network Weaver launched in 2018 as a spark of imagination and desire birthed through the portal of collaborative action. June Holley, the mother of Network Weaver, casually mentioned as I was dusti…

REM enables communities to visually document and assess 'broad or deep changes in group, organization, or community' after 'in-depth interventions or collaborations.' [1]

Join us in Brussels for the Liberating Structures Global Gathering 2025. A 2-day event on June 19-20 for facilitators, changemakers, and curious minds worldwide.

In this RSA Animate, Manuel Lima explores the power of network visualisation to navigate our complex modern world.

Living systems are thermodynamically open but closed in their organization. In other words, even though their material components turn over constantly, a material-independent property persists, which we call organization. Moreover, organization comes from within organisms themselves, which requires us to explain how this self-organization is established and maintained. In this paper we propose a mathematical and conceptual framework to understand the kinds of organized systems that living systems are, aiming to explain how self-organization emerges from more basic elemental processes. Additionally, we map our own notions to existing traditions in theoretical biology and philosophy, aiming to bring the main formal ideas into conceptual congruence.

Powerful Practices to Include and Unleash Everyone! February 25, 2025 (EURO & AMER)

As we find ourselves swimming in uncharted and unsettling times, we know that we need each other and must work together in new and deeply collaborative ways. We are all problem-solving day-to-day and facing many critical decisions related to our own and others’ wellbeing. How can we move beyond crisis mode to strategically and care-fully build networks that sustain us for the long haul?

For millennia, Indigenous cultures have embraced joy-driven artistic practices, intuitively understanding their profound impact on human wellbeing.

Excerpt from Elle Griffin’s Substack The Elysian, here : Mondragon is the largest group of worker cooperatives in the world. With 92 cooperatives in the industrial, financial, retail, and educational sectors, the group earned €11 billion in revenue last year with more than 70,500 workers.

Join us in Asheville, NC, on April 1-2, 2025, where entrepreneurs, investors, and community leaders come together to build a more just and inclusive economy.