Data Analysis for Complex Systems

The analysis of complex systems-from financial markets and voting patterns to ecosystems and food webs-can be daunting for newcomers to the subject, in part because existing methods often require expertise across multiple disciplines. This book shows how a single technique-the partition decoupling method-can serve as a useful first step for modeling and analyzing complex systems data. Accessible to a broad range of backgrounds and widely applicable to complex systems represented as high-dimensional or network data, this powerful methodology draws on core concepts in network modeling and analysis, cluster analysis, and a range of techniques for dimension reduction. The book explains these and other essential concepts and provides several real-world examples to illustrate how a data-driven approach can illuminate complex systems. Provides a comprehensive introduction to modeling and analysis of complex systems with minimal mathematical prerequisites Focuses on a single technique, thereby providing an easy entry point to the subject Explains analytic techniques using actual data from the social sciences Uses only linear algebra to model and analyze large data sets Includes problems and real-world examples An ideal textbook for students and invaluable resource for researchers with a wide range of backgrounds and preparation Proven in the classroom