Kinetic Theory of Flocking: Derivation of Hydrodynamic Equations

It is shown how to explicitly coarse-grain the microscopic dynamics of the Vicsek model for self-propelled agents. The macroscopic transport equations are derived by means of an Enskog-type kinetic theory. Expressions for all transport coefficients at large particle speed are given. The phase transition from a disordered to a flocking state is studied numerically and analytically.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Michael McQuarrie on writing for blogs: "the most utility comes from allowing me to think through a problem that is bugging me and then publish something about the result"

In the wake of Donald Trump's surprise election victory one year ago, LSE Sociology Associate Professor, Michael McQuarrie wrote on the regional nature of Trump's win. His blog article, "Trump and the Revolt of the Rust Belt", which has been viewed over 35,000 times has now formed the basis of a new article in the British Journal of Sociology. Chris ..

With unions in decline, Trump’s path to the presidency is unlikely to be through the Rust Belt.

In this election, Donald Trump has been drawing a great deal of his support from disaffected white working-class voters. Michael McQuarrie writes that Trump’s strategy of courting this group is not surprising; white workers have been slipping away from the Democratic Party for nearly 50 years. Much of this is down to the decline of unions, which in the past had been able to keep white voters anchored to the left. This decline – along with the changing demographics of the Rust Belt- also hurts Trump’s electoral chances; without unions to mobilize them, working class whites are less likely to vote

Sociology has a Trump problem

Sociology has a Trump problem. And a Brexit problem. And a Populism problem. And a white people problem, and a class problem, and a man problem. What does this mean? Confusion is expected because, unfortunately, sociology has these problems in numerous ways. For example, sociology has a real Trump and Brexit problem in the straightforward sense that it is institutionally dependent on higher education and research funding which are directly threatened by Trump’s election and Britain’s secession from the EU. It has a populism problem in the sense that populism’s assertion of popular authority against elites, including elite “experts”, sanctioned to speak by their sheepskin credentials, moves sociologists from being observers of society to an interested position in political struggle and even a political adversary for many of the people we might want to study. It has a white, privileged, male problem because too many elite academics are white privileged males and the effect is that their distinct dispositions and views become normalized while others are reduced curiosities. And that is just to name a few of the dimensions to these problems. But worthy as these are for consideration, these are not the problems that I want to address

Blacks have more political power than ever. but they still face a racialized criminal justice system.

The victories of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s have paved the way for African-American elected officials, judges, police officers, and presidents. But fifty years on, why has this political representation translated into few positive policy outcomes for African Americans? Michael McQuarrie writes that the reasons for this are many: persistent racist sentiment, general biases in the American polity towards business and rural interests, the declining resources available to municipalities, and most importantly, the geographic concentration of African Americans in areas with smaller electoral footprints –compared to statewide offices – such as House districts and mayoralties

On the thermodynamics of classical micro-canonical systems

We study the configurational probability distribution of a mono-atomic gas with a finite number of particles N in the micro-canonical ensemble. We give two arguments why the thermodynamic entropy of the configurational subsystem involves Renyi's entropy function rather than that of Tsallis. The first argument is that the temperature of the configurational subsystem is equal to that of the kinetic subsystem. The second argument is that the instability of the pendulum, which occurs for energies close to the rotation threshold, is correctly reproduced

Trump and the Revolt of the Rust Belt

Much has been made of the inaccuracy of exit polls and voting projections amidst Trump’s shocking win this week. Michael McQuarrie argues, however, that to truly appreciate why Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States we must look beyond distortionary exit polling and come to appreciate the thoroughly regional nature of his victory. Only this can explain Trump’s win, which relied on the Rust Belt’s rejection of Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton – and their resounding endorsement of Trump’s anti-globalist rhetoric