BFI Newsletter 20090929

[Bandung Fe Institute]

NEWSLETTER BANDUNG FE INSTITUTE (BFI)
September 29th 009

CONTENTS:
01. Observing the sentiment tensions among politicians
02. Batik is disseminated through the archipelago
03. Articles in Journal of Social Complexity 4 (1)
04. An Indonesian Book on the PHYSICS of BATIK is now available
-----------------------------------------


01. Observing the sentiment tensions among politicians
During the recent Indonesian president election process, the coalition
of parties could be shown as the dominant process beside the
president campaign. The coalition could be regarded as the
emergence of the parties’ preferential coherence based upon
the interest and attributes of each party. The similarity
and difference of parties’ preference and attributes could be
depicted through of party elites’ opinions and attitude
toward flowered political issues. In this paper, we use the Heider’s
balance theory to construct relation network among parties by using
the longitudinal news data of the party elite’s opinion that
published by the media, and then analyze the dynamic of coalition
formation in the Indonesian political system during the election
process. We have shown that the balance of the party’s relational
network move toward the larger balance index relative to the initial
condition. This phenomenon has verified the structural balance
hypothesis especially for the conflict situation such as the
election process. Interestingly, the balance of the system is
fluctuated dynamically through time following certain trajectory. This
dynamics is divided into 3 phases, that is, disorder state, conflict
state, and order state, as well as signed the difference of party
behavior before and after the legislative election. Moreover, we also
analyzed the stability two parties’ relation in particular period in
order to understand specifically the dynamic of the system in triadic
level.

Research regarding to this was conducted by the institute and a paper
reporting some interesting conjectures has been published by BFI
researchers, Ardian Maulana (Dept. Computational Sociology) and Deni
Khanafiah (Dept. Evolutionary Economics) entitled "The Dynamics of
Political Parties’ Coalition in Indonesia: The evaluation of political
party elites’ opinion" as BFI Working Papers Series WP-7-2009. The
paper is publicly available for free access in the institute's
website. Remember that you should register (for free) before
downloading the full text. The paper is downloadable in:
http://www.bandungfe.net/?go=xph&&crp=4abec237


02. Batik is disseminated through the archipelago
A paper observing batikThe paper reports the analysis of phylomemetic
tree onto batik motifs developed uniquely in all corners of living and
in the heart of tradition of Indonesian people. The diversity is
visualized, be it classical traditional motifs and the ones recognized
to be recently innovated, in their proximities. This is the first
important thing we can learn about through the phylomemetic tree,
i.e.: as a visualization of creativity landscapes of Indonesian batik.
The second thing to be learnt is that we could see the clustering of
collective cognitive people respect to different ethnic groups and
community in which the batik motifs were originally developed as well
as innovated and improved dependent on the way people at the region
produce, design, and then appreciate batik. This brings the paper to
the concluding remarks, that batik is the world heritage grown in
Indonesian archipelago.

Research regarding to this was conducted by the institute and a paper
reporting some interesting conjectures has been published by BFI
researchers, Hokky Situngkir (Dept. Computational Sociology) entitled
"The Phylomemetic Tree of Batik" as BFI Working Papers Series
WP-8-2009. The paper is publicly available for free access in the
institute's website. Remember that you should register (for free)
before downloading the full text. The paper is downloadable in:
http://www.bandungfe.net/?go=xph&&crp=4abec273


03. Articles in Journal of Social Complexity 4 (1)
The Journal of Social Complexity has been published with 4 research
papers and a book review. The titles of the manuscripts published in
the current edition are:
a. The UEFA Cup Network
b. Coalitions in Multiparty System
c. Memetics of Ethno-Clustering Analysis
d. Producing Narrative Narratologically
The reviewed book is Joshua Epstein's "Generative Social Science:
Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling" (2007). The hard-copy
of the journal is currently being circulated and distributed.

If you want to subscribe to the Journal of Social Complexity
regularly, you may contact us at: jo...@josc.bandungfe.net.


04. An Indonesian Book on the PHYSICS of BATIK is now available
Batik is one of Indonesian valuable traditional heritage holding great
deal of wisdom which is rooted substantially in its ornamentation and
harmonization, from its making process to the way people appreciate
it. It has been embedded and an unseparable fabric in the social and
cultural living of the people in Indonesia Archipelago.

While Batik is highly related to the traditional elements, physics is
science mostly associated to mathematical formulation and modern
technology. Both seem to be unrelated one another. Yet, researchers in
the institute has shown that physics can also be utlized to reveal the
unseen beauty of the traditional fabric. Even further, from the
research developed, it becomes possible to create new designs by
incorporating computational applications.

This is the main issue brought by the book written by BFI researchers
supervised by physicist, Yohanes Surya. The book is written and
published in Indonesian with popular science style. The book is begun
with an interface between batik and science philosophically written by
the Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X (Ngayogyakarta Royal Highness), as the
cultural leader of Javanese modern Mataram in Jogjakarta, in which
batik mostly is closely attached to.

The book is now available in Gramedia Book Store throughout Indonesia
for Indonesian readers.
URL: http://www.gramedia.com/buku_detail.asp?id=JEOJ4322&kat=3


-----
BFI Administration
Bandung Fe Institute
Jl. Sarimadu 99
Sarijadi Blok 25
Bandung 40164
JAWA BARAT
INDONESIA
ph./fax: +62 22 2011016
http://www.bandungfe.net