Comptes Rendus
From statistical physics to social sciences / De la physique statistique aux sciences sociales
Towards a statistical mechanics of cities
[Vers une mécanique statistique des villes]
Comptes Rendus. Physique, Volume 20 (2019) no. 4, pp. 308-318.

Les villes sont parmi les systèmes dynamiques les plus complexes des sociétés humaines et de la nature. On s'intéresse de plus en plus à la production d'une théorie quantitative plus complète, capable de décrire bon nombre de caractéristiques maintenant observables en milieu urbain, en particulier celles qui montrent des régularités empiriques dans des villes de tailles, de géographies et de niveaux de développement différents. Le principal défi pour atteindre un tel objectif est notre capacité à construire des cadres qui incluent des comptes rendus réalistes, mais simples, des choix et du comportement stratégique des agents, au-delà des approches actuelles en physique statistique ou en économie. Je propose ici un cadre général qui intègre le comportement des agents avec leur gestion des ressources et de l'information pour saisir les opportunités dans leur environnement. Je montre comment cette approche intègre la théorie de l'échelle urbaine à une mécanique statistique de la croissance (économique) ouverte. Le cadre est général et, avec des modifications et des précisions appropriées, il peut tenir compte de la dynamique statistique d'autres systèmes complexes.

Cities are some of the most complex dynamical systems in human societies and in nature. There is growing interest in producing more comprehensive quantitative theory, capable of describing many of the features now observable in urban environments, especially those that show empirical regularities across cities of different sizes, geographies, and levels of development. The principal challenge of achieving such a goal is our ability to build frameworks that include realistic but simple accounts of agents' choices and strategic behavior, beyond current approaches in statistical physics or economics. Here, I propose a general framework that integrates agents' behavior with their resource and information management towards seizing opportunities in their environment. I show how this approach integrates urban scaling theory with a statistical mechanics of open-ended (economic) growth. The framework is general and, with appropriate modifications and elaborations, can account for the statistical dynamics of other complex systems.

Publié le :
DOI : 10.1016/j.crhy.2019.05.007
Keywords: Information, Multiplicative growth, Networks, Renormalization, Scaling, Urbanization
Mot clés : Information, Croissance multiplicative, Réseaux, Renormalisation, Lois d'échelle, Urbanisation

Luís M.A. Bettencourt 1, 2, 3

1 Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Searle 222, 5735 S. Ellis Avenue, University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, IL, USA
2 Department of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Sociology, Earle 209, 1101 E 57th Street, University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, IL, USA
3 Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Pard Road, Santa Fe, 87501, NM, USA
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Luís M.A. Bettencourt. Towards a statistical mechanics of cities. Comptes Rendus. Physique, Volume 20 (2019) no. 4, pp. 308-318. doi : 10.1016/j.crhy.2019.05.007. https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.1016/j.crhy.2019.05.007/

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