One of the world鈥檚 oldest academic journals just published a special issue dedicated to studying 鈥渃ollective behavior,鈥� which was assembled by an international group of leading researchers in the field.
from 性视界传媒, Associate Professor Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Noa Pinter-Wollman from the University of California at Los Angeles, Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing Alan Penn from University College London, and Research Director Guy Theraulaz from the Universit茅 de Toulouse in France are co-editors of a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
The issue takes a broad and detailed interdisciplinary look at the interactions of human to human, mammal to mammal and insect to insect and how their built environments (from their offices to their nests) influence their behavior.
For humans, collective behavior is critical as they work on more and more complex tasks that require coordinating their varying forms of expertise by communicating and collaborating effectively to get their jobs done.
For example, companies often build 鈥渙pen floor plans鈥� for their employees instead of smaller enclosed offices. Employers hope that these kinds of spaces will increase collaboration and communication because, for example, people can鈥檛 just hide in their offices. But research reported in this special issue shows that open-plan offices actually decrease face-to-face interactions. Another study in the special issue examined how an employee鈥檚 physical location in an organization changes collective behavior. That study found that an employee鈥檚 access to unique information might depend on the hallway paths around their desk (e.g., are they on the shortest path between other co-workers). This, in turn, can influence their status in the organization, or the prestige of the projects they are assigned.
鈥淲orking on this special issue was an exciting challenge and we hope it ignites interest in many others to pursue an聽interdisciplinary study of how the built environment influences collective behavior,鈥� Fiore says. 鈥淲e purposely designed the issue to introduce scholars to a variety of methods and concepts to聽spark ideas for adoption and adaption by others similarly interested in the broad topic of architecture and聽collective behavior.鈥�
Collective behavior is not limited to humans. Biologists have been studying how insect behavior, like ants, is largely driven by the nests they build. These nests are very sophisticated and designed to include chambers that serve as nurseries and gardens.聽 These rooms and their functions are very complex and not well understood by scientists. That鈥檚 why Fiore and colleagues wanted to dedicate a special issue to the topic.
鈥淪ome scientists create physical models of insect nests, while others might write software code to simulate what interactions look like in that nest,鈥� says Fiore. 鈥淪till others put sensors on insects to track how they move in and around their nests, and even how humans move around in their office buildings. Our goal was to bring together the many different researchers to share their ideas with each other and with other scientists.鈥�
The journal鈥檚 special issue was supported by a grant from the National Academies of Sciences 鈥淜eck Futures Initiative.鈥� The initiative aims to 鈥渟timulate new modes of scientific inquiry and break down barriers to interdisciplinary research in funding agencies, academic and other research settings, publication and academia.鈥澛� Fiore hopes that these methods can be used by scholars in other fields to help us better understand how collective behavior across the animal kingdom is influenced by the environments they build.
Fiore is a professor of cognitive sciences with the and the , and the director of the . He joined 性视界传媒 in 1998 and has multiple degrees including a doctorate in cognitive psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.