What Is the Entropy of a Social Organization?
Abstract
We quantify a social organization's potentiality, that is, its ability to attain different configurations. The organization is represented as a network in which nodes correspond to individuals and (multi-)edges to their multiple interactions. Attainable configurations are treated as realizations from a network ensemble. To have the ability to encode interaction preferences, we choose the generalized hypergeometric ensemble of random graphs, which is described by a closed-form probability distribution. From this distribution we calculate Shannon entropy as a measure of potentiality. This allows us to compare different organizations as well as different stages in the development of a given organization. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated using data from three empirical and two synthetic systems.
- Publication:
-
Entropy
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- DOI:
- 10.3390/e21090901
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1905.09772
- Bibcode:
- 2019Entrp..21..901Z
- Keywords:
-
- multi-edge network;
- network ensemble;
- Shannon entropy;
- social organization;
- Physics - Physics and Society;
- Computer Science - Social and Information Networks
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 3 figures, 3 Appendices