Diversity and Community Can Coexist

Authored by Michael Kirley, Yoshihisa Kashima, Alex Stivala, Garry Robins

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12021

Sponsors: Australian Research Council (ARC) Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (AOARD) Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI)

Platforms: C++ Python

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: http://munk.cis.unimelb.edu.au/~stivalaa/community_diversity/

Abstract

We examine the (in)compatibility of diversity and sense of community by means of agent-based models based on the well-known Schelling model of residential segregation and Axelrod model of cultural dissemination. We find that diversity and highly clustered social networks, on the assumptions of social tie formation based on spatial proximity and homophily, are incompatible when agent features are immutable, and this holds even for multiple independent features. We include both mutable and immutable features into a model that integrates Schelling and Axelrod models, and we find that even for multiple independent features, diversity and highly clustered social networks can be incompatible on the assumptions of social tie formation based on spatial proximity and homophily. However, this incompatibility breaks down when cultural diversity can be sufficiently large, at which point diversity and clustering need not be negatively correlated. This implies that segregation based on immutable characteristics such as race can possibly be overcome by sufficient similarity on mutable characteristics based on culture, which are subject to a process of social influence, provided a sufficiently large scope of cultural possibilities exists.

Tags

Segregation networks Coevolution Model cultural dissemination Science Intergroup contact theory