Wave Pattern of Multi-Agent Social Actions

Ilan Riss ()

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2023, vol. 36, issue 2, No 2, 185-202

Abstract: Abstract Social actions are studied in different scientific disciplines and considered from different perspectives. Applying systems theory in the study of social actions began together with the inception of the idea of systems thinking and has been widely used since. This study concentrates on the pattern of the development of social actions, which seems to be essential for understanding multiagent social actions. This paper draws on a systemic approach to analyze multiagent actions in different spheres of human activity, such as migration, the diffusion of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the acceptance of new fashion and others; then, it attempts to scrutinize a common pattern of spatiotemporal development common to all of these processes. The study is based on the secondary use of published data. Similarities in the evolution of social actions in various fields were observed, and a common wave-like pattern of their development was detected. All social wave-like social actions include stages of inception, implementation, and termination that are followed by a shift in the actors to other activities. This work draws attention to the fact that any multiagent social action includes acceptance of innovation, and since this process is wave-like, any social action also evolves as a wave-like process. Comparing similar social actions observed at different stages of wave-like evolution can result in mistaken conclusions. Seeing social action as a multiagent process developing in time according to a universal wave-like pattern can facilitate its understanding.

Keywords: Social actions; Wave-like pattern; Joiners’ selectivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11213-022-09607-x

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