Autumn School: Networks –
An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Connectivity
Date: 8th – 11th October 2024
Venue: Doblerstr. 33, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Organized by: Michael Herrmann (Tübinger Forum for Science and Humanities) and Dr. Helena Atteneder (Institute of Media Studies, University of Tübingen)
Human societies constantly change at many levels, from individuals to communities and nation states. Historically and at present societies have become more or less polarised, more or less cooperative, more or less integrated. To understand and perhaps even predict these trends and their consequences, there is a complex interaction between the individual, the social and the structural. Network as a basic principle structuring society, as a metaphor for human interaction, is a relevant subject for various research disciplines, long before Castells developed the "network society" as a relevant label for a certain form of social organisation.
Complex networks – ranging from the Internet to different (online) social networks – influence our lives. From communication networks, social networks, biological systems, neural networks, to technological networks such as the internet: many of these networks are similar in the sense that they share basic properties. It is thus important to understand these real-world networks itselves and the factors which influence its dynamics. Computer-intensive mathematical modelling approaches quantify and infer potential regularities and patterns in order to uncover a correspondence to the real world target system. How can we use networks as a tool for both theoretical and empirical investigations?
Questions we raise:
- What are suitable application areas?
- How can graphs/dynamical systems/agent based models/visualisation methods be used as a tool to understand (unexpected) collective behaviour?
- To what extent influence the formal properties of (computational) networks the emergence of biases (and inequality)?
- What social implications can arise from the application of a commercialised network logic and how can these be critically analysed?
- What are the challenges involved and what are the methodological limitations?
Poster/Presentation sessions for participants
During the Autumn School there will be two 90 min slots for poster/presentation sessions. In addition to the presentations by our invited speakers and intensive workshop sessions, participants will have the opportunity to present their own research here and receive valuable feedback. Participants can present and discuss their current research projects (dissertations, projects, paper drafts, etc.) that should be thematically connected to the overall topic of the Autumn School.
Please indicate in your application whether you wish to present and, if applicable, submit an abstract (max. 300 words, excluding literature). The selection of contributions will be made by the program committee.
Application & Deadlines
The Call for Applications is distributed internationally. We welcome submissions from master students, PhD students and early career researchers from all disciplines. Please submit the following
- Your CV
- A short motivation letter (half to one page)
- An abstract of max. 300 words (exc. literature) in case you want to present in the poster/presentation session
Deadline: July 15th, 2024. Applicants will be notified latest by July 31st, 2024.
There is limited funding for travel expenses. Please contact us to get further information.
If you have any questions, please contact info@tfw.uni-tuebingen.de
Invited Speakers
Fariba Karimi (Computational Social Science) is Professor of Social Data Science at Graz University of Technology and a group leader at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna. She received her PhD degree in Physics from Umea University in 2015 and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences until 2021. Professor Karimi explores, among other things, the emergence of biases and inequalities within networks and algorithms, the visibility of minorities in social networks as well as disparities and under-represented groups in academia.
Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat (Media and Communication Sciences) is Principal Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University (UK) where he teaches in the Media Undergraduate Course and coordinates the MA in Media and Global Communications. After receiving his PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona he was appointed as Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Media Governance, Media Organisations and Media Industries at the University of Vienna from 2011 to 2015. His work is concerned with the politics of Media Technologies and the factors that shape communicative spaces and interactions.
Daniel Kostić (Philosophy) is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Humane AI at Leiden University. He obtained his PhD degree at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2016 to 2018 he held the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. In 2020, he became a Radboud Excellence Initiative Fellow at the Institute for Science in Society at Radboud University in Nijmegen. His work focuses on the nature of topological explanations, particularly within the context of neuroscience.
Melanie Nagel (Political Science) is Senior Researcher at the University of Heidelberg and Visiting Professor at IBEI Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Konstanz with a dissertation on the political polarization in the conflict over Stuttgart 21. In 2023, she completed her habilitation in Political Science with a thesis on Environmental Policy Networks. Her research interests include issues such as climate policy, air pollution regulation, water management and agri-food policy.
Luis Felipe Alvarez Léon (Geography) is Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College. In 2016, he completed his PhD in Geography at the University of California and was presented with the Best Dissertation Award by the AAG Economic Geography Specialty Group (EGSG). From 2016 to 2018, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation and in 2018 he was Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban and Economic Geography at Clark University. His work focuses on the political economy of geospatial data, media, and technologies. He is currently working on the geographies of autonomous vehicles, and the changing political economy of remote sensing.