A Biased Review of Sociophysics

Various aspects of recent sociophysics research are shortly reviewed: Schelling model as an example for lack of interdisciplinary cooperation, opinion dynamics, combat, and citation statistics as an example for strong interdisciplinarity.Comment: 16 pages for J. Stat. Phys. including 2 figures and numerous reference

Spatial mobility and social outcomes

The research reported in this paper was made possible through the financial support of the Marie Curie programme under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / Career Integration Grant n. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects). The authors also acknowledge the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC RES-074-27-0020).This paper examines the nature and extent of socio-spatial mobility in Great Britain. In contrast with previous studies, we investigate the entire spectrum of moves within and across the hierarchical structure of neighbourhoods. We use data from the British Household Panel Survey to trace moves between neighbourhoods defined using the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. We define upward socio-spatial mobility as moving to neighbourhoods with greater levels of advantage (lower levels of deprivation), and downward socio-spatial mobility as the shift to less advantaged neighbourhoods. As expected, the results show that there are strong associations between origin and destination neighbourhood types. We find that education and income play critical roles in the ability of individuals to make neighbourhood gains when they move. An important finding of the research is the way in which the housing market structurally conditions socio-spatial mobility. In the UK and probably more broadly, the opportunity to move to socially advantaged places is highly stratified by housing tenure.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Leaving home and entering the housing market.

We use a multinomial choice model of owning a home, owning a trailer, or renting to examine the housing-market entry of young adults in the USA after they have left the parental home. We also model the choice between renting independently and sharing with roommates. We show that the likelihood of becoming an independent actor in the housing market is closely related to the size and regional location of the housing market. The young adult's resources are an important influence on housing-market entry. Parents' resources seem to be less important as a factor in housing selection. Whereas trailer ownership is more common among the less well educated, couples, and those leaving home to live in the South or in rural areas, sharing is typical for the younger nest leavers, singles, and those leaving home to live in the cities