"This primer uses straightforward language to give the reader step-by-step instructions for identifying and analyzing fractal patterns and the social process that create them. By making fractals accessible to the social science students, this book has a significant impact on the understanding of human behavior."--pub. desc.
Series Statement
Quantitative applications in the social sciences ; 07-165
Uniform Title
Quantitative applications in the social sciences ; no. 07-165.
Chapter 1. Introduction to Fractal Analysis ; Mandelbrot ; What Are Fractals? ; Fractal Dimension: Quantifying Fractal Properties ; The Formal Definition of Fractals -- Chapter 2. Fractal Analysis of Frequency Distributions ; Power Laws -- Chapter 3. Fractal Patterns Embedded in Two Dimensions ; Estimating the Fractal Dimension of Empirical Data -- Chapter 4. Social Processes That Generate Fractals ; How We Do Our "To Do" Lists: Preferential Priorities ; How We Kill: Attendant Causes, Self-Organized Criticality, and Agent-Based Models ; How We Network: Preferential Attachment ; How We Decide Where to Live: Diffusion Limited Aggregation ; How We Look for Food: Lévy Flights ; How We Live Together: Balancing Cohesive and Disruptive Forces -- Chapter 5. Advanced Topics in Fractal Analysis ; Multiscaling Fractal Patterns ; Patterns Embedded in Three Dimensions ; Self-Affine Fractals ; Fractal Time Series ; Multifractals ; Lacunarity -- Chapter 6. Final Considerations ; Should I Try Fractal Analysis?