From five key questions to a System Sociology theory

This chapter presents some speculations focused on the design of a System Sociology approach. A key feature of that approach consists in the modeling of social and economical systems viewed as living complex systems subject to dynamical evolution. At the technical level, the mathematical techniques proposed to the modeling of social and economic systems make use of the framework of the kinetic theory for active particles, where nonlinear interactions among subjects are modeled according to game-theoretical tools. Applications focus on the interplay between individual competition for wealth distribution that, when coupled with political stances coming from support or opposition to the government, may give rise to strongly self-enhanced effects resulting in the onset of extreme conflicts. The latter may be thought of as describing early stages of massive, unpredictable events known as Black Swans.